How to Make Come Follow Me More Meaningful

If you've been studying Come Follow Me for a while, you may know the feeling: somewhere along the way, it quietly turned into a checkbox. You read the week's pages, maybe skim a few verses on Sunday morning, and move on. It's done — but it doesn't always feel like it did anything.

You're not alone, and it's not a sign that something is wrong with you. Any practice repeated week after week can flatten into routine. The good news is that a few small shifts in how you approach Come Follow Me can change it from something you get through into something that genuinely shapes your week. Here's how.

What Come Follow Me Is, Briefly

Come Follow Me is the Church's home-centered, weekly scripture study curriculum. Each week follows a set reading from the scriptures, designed to be studied individually and as a family alongside what's taught at church. It rotates through the standard works over a multi-year cycle, so over time you move through the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.

The program is intentionally simple. Its power isn't in the manual — it's in what you bring to it. Which is exactly why two people can study the same week's lesson and have completely different experiences.

Why It Sometimes Feels Flat

Before the strategies, it helps to name why Come Follow Me can lose its life. Usually it's one of these: you're studying to finish rather than to understand; you're doing it at the last minute with no time to reflect; you're consuming a lot of material but not applying any of it; or you're reading alone in your head with nothing to anchor what you learn. Each of these has a simple remedy — and that's what the rest of this guide is about.

10 Ways to Make Come Follow Me More Meaningful

1. Study earlier in the week, not Sunday morning

The single biggest change you can make is timing. When you read the lesson early in the week — Monday or Tuesday — you give it room to work on you. You notice it echoing in your thoughts during the week. You spot connections to your own life. Cramming it into Sunday morning gives the lesson no time to breathe. Move it earlier and everything else improves.

2. Study with a question

Instead of opening the scriptures to "read the assigned chapters," open them with a real question you're carrying — about your life, a struggle, a relationship, a doubt. Then read looking for anything that speaks to it. Scripture has a way of answering the questions we actually bring to it. Studying with a question turns reading into searching, and searching is where meaning lives.

3. Write as you study

Keep a notebook or journal open beside your scriptures. When a verse catches you, write it down. When a question surfaces, write it down. When you feel something, name it on paper. Writing slows you down just enough to actually absorb what you're reading, and over time you build a personal record of what the scriptures have taught you. This one habit transforms study more than any other.

4. Use the footnotes and cross-references

The footnotes in the scriptures are a doorway most people walk right past. Follow a cross-reference and you'll often find a verse elsewhere that illuminates the one you're reading. This simple act of following the threads turns flat reading into genuine study, and it surfaces connections you'd never find on your own.

5. Apply one thing — don't try to absorb everything

A week's lesson can contain more than anyone could live in a month. Trying to act on all of it leads to acting on none of it. Instead, choose one thing — one principle, one invitation, one change — and carry it through the week. Depth beats breadth every time. One truly applied idea outweighs ten admired ones.

6. Make it a conversation

Studying in your own head is fine, but discussing what you're learning with a spouse, a friend, or your family multiplies it. Ask each other what stood out. Share the question you brought. Talk about how you're trying to apply it. Speaking your thoughts out loud clarifies them, and hearing someone else's opens doors you couldn't see alone.

7. Engage it visually, not just with words

Not everyone connects with pages of text the same way. Engaging the week's themes visually — through sacred art, through images of the events you're studying, or through a creative activity tied to the lesson — can reach parts of you that reading alone doesn't. Some people paint or draw a scene connected to the week's study; others simply spend time with artwork depicting it. Working with your hands or your eyes on the subject, rather than only your reading mind, can make a lesson land in a deeper way. (This is part of why we create faith-centered art at Ponder and Paint — but the principle stands on its own: engaging the gospel through more than words can open it up in unexpected ways.)

8. Teach what you learn

There's an old truth that you don't fully understand something until you teach it. You don't need a calling or a classroom — explaining an insight to your child, your spouse, or a friend forces you to understand it well enough to put it into your own words. Teaching even one idea from the week's lesson cements it in a way that passive reading never will.

9. Slow down — choose depth over coverage

You are not graded on how much ground you cover. It is far better to deeply study a handful of verses than to skim every assigned chapter. Give yourself permission to linger. Sit with one story, one teaching, one moment in the life of the Savior, until it genuinely means something. The goal was never to finish the reading. The goal is to be changed by it.

10. Anchor it to a weekly ritual

Come Follow Me sticks best when it's tied to a consistent rhythm — a specific time, a specific place, a specific way you settle into it each week. Some people pair their study with a quiet Sunday creative practice, painting or sketching something tied to the week's theme while they reflect. Others have a set chair, a set hour, a cup of something warm. The ritual signals to your mind that this is set-apart time, and the consistency is what turns a practice into a habit that lasts.

Building a Weekly Rhythm That Lasts

If all ten feel like a lot, don't try to adopt them at once. Pick two or three and build a simple weekly rhythm around them. A rhythm might look like this: read the lesson early in the week with a journal open and one question in mind, choose one thing to apply, and then on Sunday revisit it — perhaps while doing something quiet and reflective — and talk it over with someone you love. That's it. Simple, repeatable, and far more meaningful than skimming pages on Sunday morning.

The aim isn't to do more. It's to do it with more intention. Come Follow Me was always meant to be less of an assignment and more of an invitation — to come, and to follow Him. A few small shifts are usually all it takes to feel that again.

For Families vs. For Individuals

If you're studying as a family, lean into conversation, teaching, and visual engagement. Children connect powerfully with stories, images, and hands-on activities tied to the lesson. Keep it short, keep it warm, and prioritize one good discussion over covering all the material.

If you're studying on your own, lean into journaling, studying with a question, and depth over coverage. Solo study is where the cross-references, the lingering, and the personal application have the most room to work. Your individual study can be richer and slower than any group setting allows.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I make Come Follow Me more meaningful? Study earlier in the week so the lesson has time to work on you, read with a real question in mind, write in a journal as you study, apply just one thing rather than everything, and discuss it with someone. Choosing depth over coverage — deeply studying a few verses instead of skimming every chapter — makes the biggest difference of all.

Why does Come Follow Me feel like a checkbox? It usually flattens for one of a few reasons: studying to finish rather than to understand, doing it last-minute with no time to reflect, consuming material without applying any of it, or reading alone with nothing to anchor what you learn. Each has a simple remedy — study earlier, study with a question, apply one thing, and make it a conversation.

When is the best time to study Come Follow Me? Earlier in the week — Monday or Tuesday — rather than Sunday morning. Studying early gives the lesson time to settle in your mind and connect to your daily life throughout the week, instead of being rushed and immediately set aside.

How do I study Come Follow Me on my own? Solo study works best with journaling, reading with a personal question in mind, following the scripture footnotes and cross-references, and choosing depth over coverage. Studying alone gives you room to linger on a few verses and apply them personally in a way group study rarely allows.

How can I make Come Follow Me meaningful for my family? Lean into conversation, teaching one another, and engaging the lesson visually through stories, art, or hands-on activities. Keep it short and warm, and prioritize one good discussion over covering all the material — especially with children, who connect most through stories and images.

A Final Thought

Come Follow Me doesn't need to be longer or more complicated to be more meaningful. It needs intention — a question, a quiet moment, a journal, a conversation, one thing you actually carry into your week. The curriculum will always be there, week after week. What you bring to it is what makes it come alive.

This week, try just one of these. See what changes.

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At Ponder and Paint, we make LDS-themed paint-by-number kits — temples and images of the Savior that many people enjoy painting on a quiet Sunday while they reflect on the week's study. If pairing your gospel study with a calm creative practice sounds meaningful, explore our collection.