If your family prayer and scripture study is anything like my family’s was when I was growing up, it’s probably a bit dysfunctional. My sisters and I would giggle, tease each other, and doze off as my parents dutifully tried to read the scriptures with us each evening.
Apparently, Elder David A. Bednar’s family wasn’t too different from mine.
In a recent interview, he recalls an incident that happened when his sons were young. One of them was asked to say the family prayer but wouldn’t take off his football helmet.
“This present was the greatest thing he’d ever received,” Elder Bednar explains. “He ate with it on.”
Instead of beginning the prayer, Elder Bednar’s son started “barking [football] signals.”
“It was one of the funniest things that ever happened in our family,” Elder Bednar says. “We all just laughed like crazy.”
The Apostle explains that after they finished laughing, he and his wife encouraged their sons to gain their composure so they could have a meaningful prayer together.
What Really Makes a Difference
Elder Bednar understands that many parents have a certain vision for how family prayer and scripture study should look.
“They want to have a Come, Follow Me discussion or some kind of a lesson,” he says. “And they want it to be formalized, and they want it to be … everything that you think it’s supposed to be. I don’t remember that we ever had one of those.”
Elder Bednar assures parents that their imperfect efforts to teach their children the gospel do make a difference, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
“I absolutely believe that no one lesson, no one session of scripture reading and study, no one family prayer is going to make that much of a difference,” he says. “It’s the consistency of doing it. That’s where the difference is made.”
Watch a clip from the interview with Elder Bednar in the player below.
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