How to Build a Daily Scripture Study Habit with Digital Tools

Most of us have experienced the cycle: a powerful sacrament meeting or general conference talk sparks a commitment to daily scripture study, and for a week or two the habit holds. Then life intervenes -- a sick child, a deadline at work, a morning that starts twenty minutes late -- and the streak breaks. The guilt sets in, and the scriptures sit untouched for another month. Breaking that cycle does not require more willpower. It requires a better system.

The simplest entry point is a single verse each morning. Latter-Day Daily's Verse of the Day surfaces one passage with context and cross-references, and reading it takes less than two minutes. That might sound trivial, but there is a principle at work here that Alma understood: "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6). A two-minute habit practiced three hundred and sixty-five days a year accomplishes more than a ninety-minute session attempted once a month. The key is making the barrier to entry so low that you never skip it, even on your worst morning.

Once the daily verse becomes automatic, the Come Follow Me schedule provides the next layer. Because the reading is broken into weekly segments and aligned with what your ward is studying, it creates natural accountability. When you walk into Sunday School having read the assigned chapters, the class discussion reinforces what you studied at home, and what you hear in class deepens the next week's reading. That feedback loop is powerful. Nephi described the word of God as something that, once planted, grows "unto everlasting life" (Alma 32:41, echoing Nephi's earlier imagery in 2 Nephi 31:20). The Come Follow Me rhythm is designed to keep that growth steady.

For those ready to go further, Study Plans let you build a structured reading schedule around a specific goal -- finishing the Book of Mormon in ninety days, reading every messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, or studying every passage on faith. The value of a plan is that it removes the daily decision of what to read. Decision fatigue is real, and it quietly kills habits. When you open the app and your next reading is already waiting, you spend your mental energy on the text itself rather than on choosing where to start. President Nelson's invitation to "feast upon the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 32:3) becomes practical when the feast is already set on the table.

The pattern that works for most people is layered: start with Verse of the Day as a daily anchor, follow the Come Follow Me schedule for weekly depth, and use a Study Plan for whatever longer-term goal you are pursuing. None of these replace the Spirit's role in directing your study, but they create the consistent conditions under which the Spirit can work. As Doctrine and Covenants 88:63 promises, "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you." Showing up daily -- even briefly -- is how you draw near.