Scripture Scripture, Who has the Scripture?
By C.S. Bezas

It’s another week and time for another Scripture Mastery activity. What to do?

Seminary teaching can be a delight, yet it also can be a challenge to continuously find fresh approaches for Scripture Mastery applications. Here’s one game you might try once the kids have many of their Scripture Mastery verses memorized.

Before Class

• Trace your left and right feet onto a series of black construction papers. Cut them out. You will need one footprint for every Scripture Mastery you want to review.
• Draw, then cut out, a large outline of a golden key.
• Write on the classroom chalkboard a series of targeted key words flung across the board in a winding path.
• Cover each key word with a black footprint (make sure to alternate “left” and “right” feet cutouts to give the illusion of a path).
• Trace around each footprint with chalk (or a dry erase marker, depending on the board).
• Tape the golden key cutout at the final end of the series of black footprints.

During Class

Announce to the class that you’re going to play a game called, "Scripture, Scripture, Who has the Scripture?" Explain that someone has hidden essential clues to eternal life and the students are the detectives. Their job is to find those clues.

Rather than playing this in teams, have them play as a class as a whole. I’ve learned from sad experience that sometimes “team against team” can result in negativity and sore feelings. It is far better to have the class as a whole working toward a common goal.

Call a student volunteer up to the front of the classroom to remove the first black footprint. The student then reads the keywords he or she uncovered. The rest of the class races to find the matching scripture verse in their scriptures. When everybody has found it, they've graduated to the first level of detective sleuths! And they’ve now earned 100 Brigham Bucks as a class (or whatever point system you might use. Some teachers use these kinds of points for an end of the year auction or party).

Then to earn an extra 100 Brigham Bucks, the class recites the scripture from memory. The students can't look at their scriptures while reciting, but the student “sleuth” can (the one who just uncovered an “eternal life” clue). The student “sleuth” reads the scripture loudly as the classes recites the scripture from memory. Having the student “sleuth” lead out in this way will help ensure accuracy as the scripture is recited by the class.

That particular student “sleuth” sits down and another student comes up to remove the second footprint. He or she reads the keywords under the next footprint and the class scrambles to find that scripture, just as in the first round. Once the entire class has found the scripture (the first 30 seconds they work on their own; after that, then students can and should help each other), the class as a whole graduates to the second level of “sleuth” and they've now earned another 100 Bucks!

To finish that level off, the class recites the second “clue”/scripture from memory while the new student “sleuth” leads them along, reading aloud from his or her scriptures. They have now earned another 100 Bucks. And so each round goes, with the class increasing in "sleuthing levels" and 200 Brigham Bucks per level, until they finally arrive as a whole at the golden key (either cut out of golden paper or an actual key taped to the end of the path).

Make sure to congratulate the class on a job well done. To finish up, bear your testimony as to the beauty of eternal life and that as they walk step-by-step following these scriptural teachings, they, too, can receive the key to God's kingdom, inheriting all that the Lord has in store for them!

Scripture mastery verses are incredible nuggets of truth. The more our youth are familiar with them, the more these scriptural nuggets can bless their lives.

Watch for C.S. Bezas’ new book Powerful Tips for Powerful Teachers: Helping Youth Find Their Spiritual Wings at LDS bookstores or click here.