Understand the Reading

Brother Jan Newman in the most recent general conference spoke about teaching like the Savior taught. He said this, “The scriptures indicate that the Savior’s ministry in ancient America was so impactful and widespread that ‘the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.’ How can our teaching have a similar effect on those we love?” Certainly that is something that we need in our home! There is often contention amount our children, and I have learned that simply telling them to change their behavior does little to improve it. For them and for all of us, to truly change our actions and the way we see others we need to have our hearts changed by the word of God. The Savior’s example, love, and teachings were so impactful that the Nephites were filled themselves with love one for another, and as we face problems of behavior in our homes surely the best solution involves teaching more earnestly the principles of the gospel as He taught. As Mormon put it, “the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them” (Alma 31:5). Our most powerful weapon to improve the actions of others is the preaching of the word.

                In the same conference address Brother Newman also counseled us to remember that “conversion must come from within.” As much as we might want to somehow force those we love to believe in the principles of the gospel and be converted to the Lord, we cannot. He continued, “A parent’s responsibility is similar in many ways. Children inherit many things from their parents, but a testimony is not one of them. We can’t give our children a testimony any more than we can make a seed grow. But we can provide a nourishing environment, with good soil, free of thorns that would ‘choke the word.’ We can strive to create the ideal conditions so that our children—and others we love—can find place for the seed, ‘[hear] the word, and [understand] it’ and discover for themselves ‘that the seed is good.’” He told of an experience he had had playing golf at a magnificent location and how he was unable to adequately convey the experience to others. He the suggested, “So it is with the word of God. We can teach it, we can preach it, we can explain it. We can talk about it, we can describe it, we can even testify of it. But until a person feels the sacred word of God distill upon his or her soul like the dews from heaven through the power of the Spirit, it will be like looking at a postcard or someone else’s vacation photos. You have to go there yourself. Conversion is a personal journey—a journey of gathering.” Our efforts as parents must be focused on providing the types of opportunities to experience the word of God that will allow them to feel the Spirit and become converted.

One of the best descriptions of how to do this is found in the account of the people of Israel after their return to Jerusalem as Ezra and other priests sought to help them learn the words of the Lord: “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8). I love that they read the words of the Lord “distinctly” and made sure that the people did “understand the reading.” The primary goal of our time in the scriptures as a family or in our own shoud not be to cover some number of verses but to help our children understand the words of the Lord. The account of Philip and the Ethiopian teaches a similar lesson. When the missionary found the Ethiopian reading the scriptures, he asked, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” His response was this: “How can I, except some man should guide me?” I have been encouraging my son to read in the Doctrine and Covenants at night and usually when I ask him about it he’ll say, “I don’t understand a thing!” I need to be more like Phililp who, when the Ethiopian didn’t understand, did “sit with him” and “opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:30-35). As we focus on trying to “follow the example of the Master and teach like Him” we can provide the best opportunity for our children and others to understand the principles of the gospstel and be converted unto the Lord.