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It’s nearly midnight. You’re struggling to keep your eyes open, but remember it’s time for scripture study. You open up to your current chapter in 2nd Nephi and remember you are in the Isaiah chapters. After struggling through a few verses about butter and honey and some king named Uzziah, you collapse into a deep, much-needed sleep.

Sound familiar? I have experienced many nights where my scripture study was right along these lines. I’m just emerging from the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi. Let’s just say I was one step short of clapping for joy when I read that he wants to write in plainness for the upcoming chapters.

If you’re like me and find yourself not gaining much from scripture study some days, then maybe it’s time to rethink how you study the scriptures. We are lucky to have plenty of apps, tools, and techniques at our fingertips for deepening our scripture. Start with these tips:

1. Follow along in an institute manual.

If you close your scriptures and think to yourself “I understood about 10% of what I just read,” then the institute manuals are for you. These are available in the Gospel Library app free of charge. After reading a chapter, glance through the institute manual to see which verses in that chapter are highlighted and explained in deeper context.

Making this change has been the biggest improvement in my scripture study. I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone back and highlighted or noted scriptures that I first skimmed over that now had more meaning after studying it in the institute manual. I even went out and purchased an institute manual because I’m more of a paper-and-pencil person when it comes to scripture reading.

2. Commit to reading everyday after a specific task.

Do you put your kids to sleep everyday at 7pm? Maybe you have a bowl of cereal every morning. Whatever task is a certain part of your daily routine, add scripture study right after it.

This is something I learned from my Bishop. His formula is basically: “After I  [insert something you already do every single day], I will [insert scripture reading goal].” Even if your goal is to crack open your scriptures and read one verse, at least you’re doing it at a specific time each day.

To read the full article on Millennial Morms, click here.