"And it came to pass!"

About a year or so ago, Nathan and I decided to get the Living Scripture movies. They cost way too much, but I really felt like we needed to do something to better keep the Sabbath day holy. So now every Sunday the boys pick out their favorite scripture movies or movies done by the Church, to set the tone before we go to church. They have their favorites. Daniel loves Daniel in the Lions Den of course, also Elijah, Nephi, Jesus in America, and King Solomon. Liam also likes Elijah. Since his middle name is Joseph, he often picks Joseph in Egypt. He also like the parable about the lost sheep. Caleb seems to like most of them, but he actually picks the Christmas movie Joy to the World most of the time (the nativity with the Motabs plus the part that covers the signs of Christ's birth in America). Every time baby Jesus is shown Caleb says, "Oh, baby Jesus, so sweet."

I've always read scripture stories with my boys during breakfast, but I waited to require 'real' scripture reading, because I was worried that Daniel would decide that he didn't like the scriptures or reading. (I'm such a worry wart sometimes!) But just recently I decided it was time for the real thing. We still read scripture stories at breakfast, but now we take turns reading verses from the Book of Mormon at night. Almost immediately I noticed a big difference in Daniel's reading skills--I guess the Lord was blessing us for just trying. We don't read a lot. Usually just 10-12 verses. Daniel usually reads 2, then Liam and Caleb each get their turn. Since they don't read yet, they repeat the words that we tell them. Just a few weeks into this new routine, Caleb climbed up on my lap for his turn and announced, before I told him what it said, "Came to pass..." This kid already has some scripture memorized! Not bad for a 2-year-old! Now every time he starts his turn, he precursers it with, "came to pass". Often times that is exactly what it reads. Hopefully, this routine will stay with these boys forever.

With this exposure, I am amazed at how many scripture stories my boys know. The other night in family home evening we mentioned King Saul and Liam said, "Heavenly Father changed Saul's name to Paul". Now, I know that is a different Saul, but I'm pretty sure if you'd asked me who either Saul was when I was 4 or much older, that I wouldn't have had a clue. These boys amaze me. While watching the Elijah movie, Daniel told me that he'd been telling his school friends Nicolos and Nathan about Heavenly Father and Jesus because he wants them to know about the gospel. Obviously, the Lord sent these boys to me to teach me. Hopefully I'm not holding them back.