Desire to read scriptures

[Jeeshway]

For my whole life, reading has been a despised activity.  I'm almost 20, and being raised in the church I'm not proud to admit that I have never fully read the bible or book of mormon. Every time I start a reading schedule, I follow it for a few days and then I get really annoyed with it and fall short and eventually stop. I understand the importance of scripture study, I just dont know how to combat my engrained desire to not read. If anyone has been in my position before I would love some advice.

[pam]

Have you tried an audio version that you could just follow along with?

[Carborendum]

1 hour ago, Jeeshway said:

For my whole life, reading has been a despised activity.  I'm almost 20, and being raised in the church I'm not proud to admit that I have never fully read the bible or book of mormon. Every time I start a reading schedule, I follow it for a few days and then I get really annoyed with it and fall short and eventually stop. I understand the importance of scripture study, I just dont know how to combat my engrained desire to not read. If anyone has been in my position before I would love some advice.

Yes, most of my life I hated reading.  In fact, I have always been and am still a very slow reader.  Not that I don't have the ability to read.  It is just that my method of reading tends to be a slow one. 

Because of that I tried to avoid reading whenever I could.  I always wanted the section headings, the bullet points, the reader's digest versions, etc. 

But because I knew I was SUPPOSED to read the scriptures, I made an effort to read.  After MANY years, I've just gotten into the habit.  So, for me it was just a brute force method of convincing myself that I had to.  And when we believe we "have to" we tend to do it.

[Traveler]

6 hours ago, Jeeshway said:

For my whole life, reading has been a despised activity.  I'm almost 20, and being raised in the church I'm not proud to admit that I have never fully read the bible or book of mormon. Every time I start a reading schedule, I follow it for a few days and then I get really annoyed with it and fall short and eventually stop. I understand the importance of scripture study, I just dont know how to combat my engrained desire to not read. If anyone has been in my position before I would love some advice.

I am dyslexic and had to learn to read on my own.  Standard methods (especially reading separate words) as taught in school was difficult for me.  

I will make a suggestion that may or may not work for you.  Do a Google search for "Taylor and Tiler Come follow me".  This will give you links to youtube videos.  Hopefully, these will help create some interest for you in the Book of Mormon.

 

The Traveler

 

[priesthoodpower]

My reading comprehension is low. I can read something but I cant tell you what I read just minutes after reading it. Im in the book of Alma right now and that's about all I can tell you about Alma.

One chapter a day since Jan 2020. Whether you are good at reading or not, the blessings of opening the book daily has been a comfort and guidance in my life.

[NeuroTypical]

Before COVID working from home, I download everything to a playlist, would listen to a chapter on my ride into work. 

 

[JohnsonJones]

I read, but I also have the scriptures downloaded in audio.  You can put them on your phone or mp3 player and listen when at work or when doing other things.

media library audiobooks

[Jane_Doe]

In addition to audio books, some other ideas:

-The new videos are good and for me really help visualize things and make the later study easier.

- Rather than a read-this-chapter-than-the-next approach, do a topical study.   Say "I want to learn about ____" and hunt down specific information about that topic, including specific relevant verses but also other quotes, experiences, and thoughts.

[Vort]

33 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

do a topical study

I have heard this advice throughout my life. Many friends have extolled the virtues of topical study. Personally, I have found it occasionally useful, but on the whole not ideal for my own personal scripture study. Here are my thoughts on the matter, in case anyone cares.

Most scriptures are not like the book of Proverbs, a random collection of insightful sayings and folk wisdom. Rather, there is almost always a local ordered temporal structure to what's written. By "local ordered temporal structure", I mean that the scriptural narrative in that book or at least chapter of scripture unfolds like a story, like watching a movie: First A happened, then B, followed by C. If you're reading here and there, back and forth, doing a topical study, these time-ordered sequences can become invisible.

The Book of Mormon is the most obvious example. From Nephi's first chapter to Moroni's farewell, knowing the sequence of things that happen, and not merely the happenings themselves, is vital to understanding the scripture and its message. Sure, it's possible to profit from a topical study of the Book of Mormon. But that book of scripture was meant to be read front to back. It unfolds as a narrative, almost a novel written in the first person by Nephi, Mormon, and others. So while I would not discourage anyone from using topical study as a way to study the Book of Mormon, I would suggest that topical study is better used as an adjunct to study than as the primary method.

It's not just the Book of Mormon; the Bible is often much the same. The entire book of Genesis, indeed most of the first five Biblical "books of Moses", are like this. So are the Old Testament histories (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles). Within the books of the prophets, each book or prophet tends to be temporally ordered, too. In the New Testament, each gospel tends to go from Christ's birth (or even before) chronologically through his calling, his ministry, his atoning sacrifice, his death, and his resurrection. The book of Acts is obviously a time-ordered history. Not so much with the apostles' epistles or the book of Revelation.

Similarly, the Doctrine and Covenants is most easily understood if you know the background of what happened and how things unfolded. The sections are mostly arranged chronologically. But we tend to use the Doctrine and Covenants as a sort of reference manual, so that temporal flow is often overlooked.

So topical study certainly has its place. If you're finding scripture study difficult to start, maybe a good topical study of doctrines of interest is the way to go. But as a general rule, my experience is that front-to-back study is reliably the best way to go.

[Carborendum]

Try reading all the missionary scriptures, one or two a day.

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