A few weeks ago I was asked to teach a 45 minute class at our Stake Women's Conference about the essentials of "Family Home Evening". We all know that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are counseled to gather their families every monday evening to teach our children essential things. What a blessing in our families life to have this blessed tradition.
Years ago I read this little story below from our prophet at the time, President Gordon B. Hinckley... and something he said changed how our family held Family Home Evening every week, can you guess the change???
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"In 1915 Joseph F. Smith (the Prophet) asked the people of the church to have Family Home Evening. My father said we would do so, that we would warm up the parlor where Mother's grand piano stood and do what the President of the Church had asked.
We were miserable performers as children... In the beginning we would laugh and make cute remarks about one another's performance, but our parents persisted. We sang together. We prayed together. We listened quietly while Mother read Bible and Book of Mormon Stories. Father told us stories from his memory.
Out of those simple little meetings, held in the parlor of our old home, came something indescribable and wonderful. Our love for our parents was strengthened. Our love for brothers and sisters was enhanced. Our love for the Lord was increased. An appreciation for simple goodness grew in our hearts. These wonderful things came about because our parents followed the counsel of the {Prophet} President of the Church."
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We had already taught lessons, sang songs and had fun family activities... but I loved how performing for each other was a part of his families tradition.
Now in our family each week, sharing talents is part of our tradition. I invite my children to do a special musical number every week (they share the songs they are already learning in their guitar and piano lessons)... but I also save school work they've done well on, crafts/pictures they've made, or we spotlight them and share their accomplishments in sports, scouts, etc. They love being recognized in front of their siblings and told how proud we are of them for their big and little accomplishments. I love this part of our Family Home Evenings now... and I think it helps my kids to be proud of each other.
What is something your family has loved doing in Family Home Evening???
3 comments:
what a wonderful idea, that I am SO going to try for our next FHE....I must say that our family home evenings are QUITE caotic!! I am not sure I have a favorite part about it right now lol..it usually consists of screaming little ones that we cannot get to sit down or stop screaming for a minute....before we start our lesson we do a family business type of thing, where we talk about concerns, dislikes or things that have happened in the prior week...I am going to have to check back to your blog post and see if anyone else has any good ideas for us to try and make our FHE's a little less crazy! :)
That turtle is amazing. And I love the figures on the log.
I love that idea. You're such a good mom! And it's really good for them to stop and recognize what their siblings are doing and encourage them. That once a week moment is really special because of how BUSY life gets. It's not that your kids wouldn't care about each other and encourage them otherwise, but I'll bet in the hustle and bustle one of the little children would be bound to feel forgotten at one point or another, so it's BEAUTIFUL that you save things throughout the week to share the skills their developing. FHE is perfect for that.
At our family nights, Mitch is the MAN. He will do things to help us "experience" the scripture story. Like one time we had Liahona popcorn balls, and he made a tent in the living room (a blanket over the dining room table). We had our lesson INSIDE the tent, and when the kids came out, they found their Liahona balls, just like Lehi.
He does other things, too, that are creative. Like we made golden plates out of yellow frosting and grahams, and then wrote in ancient Hebrew with black frosting before we ate our grahams after the lesson.
FHE is just a great time for memories all around.
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