Today in Church, while discussing the Scriptures, someone commented that he uses the book Preach My Gospel as a guide for topical scripture study with his family.

When I was young my family at times diligently held family scripture study. We always read linearly, start to finish, each page following the previous, each person taking a turn reading a verse or two in order. Russell M. Nelson, in his October 2000 General Conference talk Living by Scriptural Guidance, describes this method of scripture study, saying: “One way is to read a book of scripture from the first page to the last. This method gives good overall perspective.” He continues, however, by recommending a different approach to scripture study: “But other approaches also have merit. Attention to a particular topic or a specific theme, supplemented by use of cross-referencing footnotes and study guides, can help to switch on the light of doctrinal understanding.” (Russell M. Nelson, “Living by Scriptural Guidance,” Ensign, Nov 2000, 16–18)

Now, this is nothing new to me. I read scripture electronically as often as I do from paper books just because of how easy it is to follow footnotes or read all the scriptures associated with an entry in the Topical Guide. But for some reason I had never thought to apply this to Family Scripture Study. When it takes a week to get through a single chapter the thread of the story is often lost. While all scripture is important, some verses have a higher impact-to-word ratio than others. Especially when reading with children, there is no sin in skipping some of the “in between” verses and just covering “the good ones”. This could make the study more interesting, cohesive, and relevant for children. And so I wanted to write it down.