Cindy:  Hi friends, welcome back to Primarily Scripture! I'm so glad you're here with us, and today I have 9 year old Blake. How are you, Blake?  

Blake: Good.

C: Good. Blake likes to play the piano, he likes to read his scriptures, and he also likes to play video games on his iPad.
In Come Follow Me this week we are in 2nd Nephi chapters 31 through 33, but of course that is a lot for some of us to read. Sometimes we can't get through all of it. 

B: Yeah, 

C: I've got worksheets, free on the website. You can download them and they will give you just a couple of verses that are from the Come Follow Me reading and some study ideas  to help you in your study.  Okay, so you wanna read in  chapter 32 today, Blake?

B:  Yep  

C: Excellent. Now, if you look at the worksheet, down the side, there are four different study ideas. Which one of those do you want to go over today, Blake?  

B: Watch out for Satan. 

C: I love this one!  

Two quick questions for you.   First, true or false? We read scriptures to learn about Jesus.    Yep, that's true. Okay. Second question,   true or false?  We read scriptures to learn about Satan.  ...  Ooh, that one is true too!  Did you know that?  This is one of the secrets to scripture study that we don't talk about a lot. One of the reasons we read our scriptures is so that we can learn about Satan. Why do you think that is?


B: Because we don't, um,   want to get tempted by Satan.   

C: That's right. And if we understand the things that he's going to do, then it'll help us    to watch out for him, right?   It'll help us to fight back. 

B: Mm-hmm.  

C: Awesome. Okay, so why don't we go and read chapter 32, verse 8. Because that's the verse that talks about Satan. Do you want to read that?  

B: Yep.  

C: Awesome. Go ahead.  

B: "And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts;  and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray;  for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray."

C: Excellent! Thank you! Is it easy for you to understand the scriptures as you read? Do you know what that meant? Could you tell us?  

B: Um, no,  

C: It can be hard to understand scripture words sometimes. So that is why  I've got the worksheet. And on the second column, it will give you an explanation of what those scripture words mean. Let's look at it. And it has  some fill in the blanks, too, so let's watch out for those. You want to read along? 

B: Yep. 

 C: And now, my friends, I can tell that you are still trying to figure this out. And it makes me [blank]. What word could go there? 

B: Sad.  

C: Sad. If you look over at the first column, the real words from the scriptures say, "it grieveth me"  and that means sad. And if you aren't sure what that means, if ever you come across a blank that you go, I have no idea what word goes here, then you could just go talk to your mom or dad, find a study buddy, and they can help you figure it out. Okay?  

B: Mm-hmm. 

C:  But you got it. It makes me sad that you don't understand this important thing. Because if you listen, the Holy Ghost will remind you to [blank]. What word goes there?  

B: Pray. 

C: Pray! And that is so very important, and will help you to learn.  But, be careful. Satan will say that you don't need to... 

B: pray.  

C: Pray. Exactly. So, there's Satan right there. Does this teach us something about Satan? 

B: Yeah.  He will tempt you to not pray. 

C: Have you ever felt that? 

C: Nope.  

B: Well that's good, but as you get older Satan is going to work harder and harder and try to get you to not say your prayers. 

C: Let's look at the activity and see what the instructions say on the worksheet. Will you read those instructions to us? 

B: What are some reasons you don't say your prayers?   Make a list on the next page, then write down some ways  you could fight back against Satan  the next time he tells you to use one of these excuses.    For example...   I don't pray because I'm too tired. 

C: Does Satan make you tired? 

B: Um,  Not really. 

C: So how is that something that Satan's gonna use? 

B: Um,  he could tempt you, and make you think that you're tired, and then, you would have to say a shorter prayer. 

C: Satan might know that you're tired, right? 

B: Yeah. 

C: And one of the things that Satan does is he takes things that he already knows, and then he uses it to try to get you to make a bad choice.   He'll say things like,  "don't say your prayers. You're too tired."  

B: But not TOO tired.  

C: Right,  you could always say a little prayer. Even a short one.

B:  Yeah. 

C: Awesome. So, let's get out a piece of paper and write down some reasons that you or I might not pray.  What are some other things that Satan might use? Because he's not going to make you tired, but he might use that. What else could we put on that list? Let's make a list.  

B: A reason is making up excuses. 

C: Yeah, Satan might really want you to just like come up with any reason he can, right?  

B: And then, to fix it,  do not make up excuses. 

C: Yeah, sometimes you just need to tell yourself,  Stop making excuses! And then, it's so much easier, right?  Give yourself that pep talk. Okay, let's write that down.    Okay, can you think of  any other reasons that you might think you shouldn't pray or couldn't pray?  
B: Um,  maybe you wanted to go outside so much that you just didn't pray. 

C: I'm so busy. I have other things that I want to do. 

B: Yeah.

C: Okay, let's put that down.  Too busy.  And you could put any distraction there, right? You want to go outside. You want to go to a friend's house. You want to sleep more. You want to...  anything that you like to do could go there.  

B: Um,  something  that I would probably not do: too busy doing video games. 

C: Hahaha...  

B: I would definitely  say my prayers and then do this.

C: So, your solution is to pray first and then do it? 

B: Yeah. 

C: I love that. Okay, solution is to pray first.  Let's write that down. Why are we writing these ideas down? 

B: Um, because it said to on the other paper. 

C: That's right. It said to. But why did it say to? When I made this worksheet, I thought it would be a good idea to write the ideas down. 

B: Yeah. 

C: How could that help you?  

B: Um,  it could help you remember.  

C: That's right. So when we study our scriptures, if we just read it and think about it for this long, then it's gone. You're not going to remember it. If you take a little bit of time, just a little bit of time to write down your thoughts, you're going to remember it so much better.  Has your mom or dad ever asked you, what did you learn in class at church today?  

B: Yeah. 

C: And have you ever said, "I forget?" 

B: Yeah, I have.  I forget it. I forget fast.  

C: And so using your pencil or pen to write down your thoughts. makes it so that it's so much easier to remember. Even if you forget, you have a way to remember. Go back and read it. It's right there.  It's super helpful to write your thoughts down. 

C: Awesome. So we've come up with a couple of things that Satan might use to tempt us to not pray, and we've come up with some ideas of what we can do to fight back against him.  This is one of my favorite things to do when I read the scriptures because it is so helpful to know what Satan is like.  If you don't know what he's like, you're not going to be able to fight back against him.  And that's exactly why Nephi put it in the scriptures. 

 All right, there are a lot of different ways to study the gospel. You can even watch YouTube videos and listen to podcasts, but that's not studying the scriptures.

So you need to be sure that you pick up the scriptures and read, even if it's just a little bit. My worksheets can help you if you want, but you don't even have to use the worksheets. As long as you are in the scriptures and you are searching: looking for things- today we looked for Satan.  Pondering: think about what you find-  we thought about it and wrote some things down. And then pray about it. You can pray as you're studying, after you're studying, before you're studying. And those three things together, search, ponder, and pray, will help your scripture study to be even better.   Blake, thank you for being here with us today! 

B: You're welcome. 

C: This has been awesome. All right, you guys, I'll see you next time. Go read your scriptures!   Bye!

 B: Bye!

C:  Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time! 

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B: I lost my pencil.  

C: Uh oh. 

B:  I got it.

C: Oh, did you drop something?  

B: I dropped my pencil again. 

C: That's all right. =o)