Aug 13, 2011

Together We Read

Like many families, we try to get together for a few minutes each evening to read from the scriptures and hold a family prayer. This can get a little crazy some nights with all the different schedules. Tonight was one of those nights. You all know it was Curly’s birthday. By the time we finished his party, it was nearly 10:00. I had to enter my Tupperware order before midnight because some of the specials were ending (and I can’t pass up a good deal!), so I shooed everyone downstairs to watch a movie. I got my order done with 4 minutes to spare and then I waited patiently for the movie to end.


At 12:25, my sweetie came upstairs. Behind him was a procession of big kids carrying sleeping little kids to their beds. When they were all settled, those of us who were still somewhat functioning gathered around the kitchen table. I opened the Holy Bible to Leviticus 13. The Drama Queen asked for the number of verses and when the Dog Walker told her there were 59, she suggested that maybe we could just read half a chapter because everyone was so tired. Since I had the book, I had no intentions of short-cutting, so I simply began to read.


For those of you who are not familiar with Leviticus, it appears to be a handbook for the priests. This particular chapter tells the priests how to decide if someone is a leper. I’m not sure who started with the giggles, maybe it was my reading, or maybe it was the Dog Walker, but by the time we were finished, we were laughing so hard the tears were flowing all around. After 38 verses of horrible descriptions of leprosy, it describes a “freckle.” The Drama Queen and Prima Donna doubled over with fits of laughter. The Dog Walker was so amused that he spit on me! That just made it ten times worse!


Verse 40 states, “And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald;” (talk about obvious).  And in 41, “And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald:” At this point we all looked at my sweetie (who just happens to be ‘forehead bald’).


Then in verse 45 “the leper must put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.” My girls did an excellent job portraying this for us in a visual way just in case we missed it during the reading.


Teach thought maybe we were being just a little too light-hearted about the scriptures, but I believe studying together should be a time for us to learn and enjoy each others’ company. Maybe if we start at 9:00 PM it won’t be as funny as it was at 1:00 AM. And maybe instead of a horrible boil, it will just be a freckle.




13 comments:

Jaclyn M said...

Loved this post. I think it is great you can make scripture reading fun. With my kids we only read about 4 verses at a time, but my oldest is only 6. They lose interest quickly especially with the big words.

Angela & Albert Fontenot said...

So cute! I think its wonderful that your children will look back on your family scripture time with such fond memories...joy is a very good thing to associate with scripture!
Your blog is awesome...I'm enjoying reading about your family!
Angela Fontenot

Grumpy Grateful Mom said...

That's so funny! Scripture time is usually crazy at our house. Definitely not reverent! 10pm might actually work better for us. My kids would be so tired that they would be running around or fighting. :)

Emmy said...

You are much more dedicated the. Us- if it's late we just read a verse :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome!!!! I love this. Wow, they will never forget it when they hear the words leoprosy.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Sant Family said...

Love it! Some of our biggest laugh fests have happened during scriptures or family prayer - like when my 5 year was thankful for gravity.

Arkansas Patti said...

Surely they will never forget that lesson.
Families that laugh and pray together, stay together.

LeAnn said...

I suppose your children will long remembe this moment with the scriptures. LOL! I admire you greatly for still going ahead and reading the scriptures at that late hour.
Just keep on enjoying the moments!

Angel said...

xoxoxoxo

Marci said...

I saw your comment on my blog, and wanted you to know that whatever you did to fix the pictures worked! The text isn't covered anymore!

Marci

Elena said...

I learnt from you that scripture reading can be fun. I have 2 girls, I am a single mom and I needed this.

Amanda said...

that is great! we can't wait to start this with our family... it's a bit hard to just sit and open the bible with a 1 year old so we sing most of our scriptures for the time being and it's working! great post!!!

Stacey said...

I think that family scripture study days like that will help them the scriptures all the more :)