Do you feel like the time you spend with your entire family is hectic, noisy and disorganized? When you have a large family or young children, or both, you may struggle to create the special spiritual moments that you want your children to experience. You may have a difficult time connecting to everyone in the room since they are all at different stages of development.
If you have younger children you may want to adjust certain practices so that you can reach them more effectively. You may want to read the scriptures to your children from the scripture reader. If you feel that family scripture study time should be from the scriptures, then take the time to read them the stories you are studying from the scripture reader. Doing this will help them to understand what is going and will connect the scriptures to those stories.
If you have older children you may want to spend time additional time talking about what the scriptures are teaching. This discussion may go over some of the younger children’s ability to understand, but it is important to continue to discuss the scriptures. If the younger children’s attention begins to wander, that is okay.
Additionally you may want to hold your family home evenings and scripture study time in a quiet relatively clean and distraction free. This will help you to eliminate distractions and noises. Additionally you should set the tone by calmly inviting your children to join you. If you yell for everyone to come, it sets the wrong mood to have the spirit with you.
You should also strive to develop opportunities to have your children to form friendships and have fun together. This will help them to get along better. It is important to teach your children to support each other and to stand together in times of difficulty. Praying together as a family is a great way to encourage this.
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