Help Your Students Own Their Scripture Study

As we are starting this year, one of the things I hope our students take with them when they leave seminary is a personal habit of studying the scriptures.

Not because we made them do it. Not because they needed to check a box. But because somewhere along the way they discovered for themselves that being in the scriptures brings them closer to Jesus Christ.

That is really the spirit behind the emphasis on personal scripture study goals.

Students are encouraged to set and monitor their own scripture study goal. The Church intentionally leaves room for that goal to be personal. It might be reading Come, Follow Me, studying the Book of Mormon, reading for a certain amount of time, or something else that is meaningful to that student.

I really like that approach.

Our job isn't to set the goal for them. Our job is to help them succeed with the goal they choose.

That means this probably can't be a conversation we have once at the beginning of the year and then forget about.

It needs our constant, gentle attention.

Every so often we can simply ask:

• “How is your scripture study going?”

• “What is working for you?”

• “Is there anything you want to change about your goal?”

• “What are you noticing as you've spent more time in the scriptures?”

Those don't need to become accountability interviews. In fact, the Church's guidance makes clear that these personal goals aren't something students report to us or that we track in WISE.

Instead, think of yourself as a coach and encourager.

President Henry B. Eyring said that helping students in this way “will require more personal, individual attention from teachers.” He then added something I love: “their personal ministries are as important as their classroom instruction.”  (President Henry B. Eyring quoted by Chad H Webb, “Messengers of the Good News”).

That is worth thinking about.

Sometimes our greatest teaching might happen in the two-minute conversation before class when we ask a student how their scripture study is going. Or, when we notice someone struggling and help them adjust a goal rather than give up on it.

And we don't need every student doing the same thing.

Some students may be ready for a pretty ambitious goal. Another student's victory may simply be opening the scriptures several times during the week. We can have high expectations while still meeting students where they are.

The important thing is that they own it.

Elder David A. Bednar has taught that good intentions and simply hoping to find time for scripture study aren't enough. Having a specific time and, when possible, a specific place can make scripture study much more effective.

That might be one of the best things we can do as teachers—help students move from:

“I should read my scriptures more”

to

“Here is what I am going to try.”

Then we keep encouraging them. We ask about it. We celebrate progress. We help them adjust when life gets in the way. And then we keep pointing them back to the reason we're doing all of this in the first place:

We want our students to hear the Lord's voice in the scriptures and come to know Jesus Christ for themselves.

That's a habit worth helping them develop.