Family Home Evening – Page 2 – Letters from Home

Easter Journals 2017

How do you teach children to rely on the Savior? How do you help them see a need for a relationship with Jesus Christ? What teaching method will work for ages 10-17? How can I share my testimony in a way they will hear it?

These are a few questions I have been thinking about. I know that these questions can’t be addressed with a one-time effort, but I wanted to make something our family could do each day leading up to Easter to bring us closer to Jesus Christ.

I made an Easter journal for each family member with a scripture to read and a question to answer each day for five days. I printed out questions and art and mounted them in the journals to help inspire writing.

We promised each writing activity would only require 10 minutes. We shortened it to 5 minutes after one day. We read the scriptures aloud and then set a timer for each of us to write in our little journals. I promised I wouldn’t make them share what they wrote and we wouldn’t read what they wrote. We had a short discussion after each journal entry, sharing experiences and ideas. I gave them each a container of Jelly Bellies to eat as they wrote. Richard and I also wrote in journals.

How did it go?

I don’t know what went on in their hearts, but there was a good feeling in our discussions after we wrote.
We couldn’t make it happen every day. We had to double up a few times when we had everyone together, in a good mood, and awake.
They ate a lot of Jelly Bellies.
We had fun talking about many other things once the activity was over each evening.

These were the scriptures I chose, based on our family’s needs. They are Book of Mormon scriptures to compliment the Bible verses we read every Easter.

Alma 7:11-12 …That he may know… how to succor his people
Alma 26:12,16 In his strength I can do all things.
Alma 38:8-9 No other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Jesus Christ…
Moroni 9:25-26 May Christ lift thee up [over difficult circumstances]
Mosiah 16:6-9 He is the light and the life of the world.

Here are a few things we said about Jesus Christ this week in our family:

He is in every genuine smile, true friendship, beautiful scene, and good family relationship; he is in every act of patience, kindness, and generosity.
He knows what it’s like to be “us.”
When he bore our infirmities, this means he took on everything that makes us fall short of perfection.
Repentance is a joyful thing, and easier than carrying guilt.
Repentance is simple, like the children of Israel looking to the brazen serpent to be saved from the snakes.
Repentance is also like Namaan being told to wash in the Jordan 7 times. It is basic and we can be clean.
He helps us do difficult things like learn a language, be a missionary, and take tests.
Because of him, can see our family members again who have passed away.
He is accessible through good music, acts of charity, walking in nature, and taking time to be still.

Happy Easter!

Faith

For Family Home Evening we have been watching a conference talk each week and asking each family member to share thoughts about it when it’s over. I decided to show this talk from the women’s general session last night.

Timothy learned that if our faith isn’t strong, we can work on it.

Mark liked the story of the missionaries who kept knocking on doors in a building until they got to the last one, where they found an important person to President Uchtdorf.

Daniel appreciated the comments about agency…that God will not force someone to believe.

Richard liked the idea that faith involves trust in our Heavenly Father who sees more than we do.

I liked that he said we can trust God’s love for us.

In a time before texting

We were reading the Bible as a family on Monday night and Mark was using my childhood scriptures. He found this note in the pages, written to my friend Thora when I was his age.

This note is one of the earliest surviving documents of the first time I decided to change my name to Angela. Back and forth, Angie and Angela have taken turns my whole life.

It also shows how I had an early interest in animals, which promptly disappeared after I finished a degree in Biology with a Zoology emphasis.

It shows the development of my handwriting style. I think I was imitating someone popular, who was actually very mean.

When Mark found this note he just laughed and handed it to Richard. I cringed and laughed and sent a picture of it to my friend Thora, who still has cute hair, while I still wonder if anyone likes mine. It awakened all sorts of preadolescent demons in my mind.

Be careful what you leave in your scriptures. You never know who will find it.

😉

Flag Day

Flag Day is the inauguration of summer for me. It reminds me that it is time to put out my red, white, and blue plates on the shelves, and fill my containers with flags and flowers. It is a heavy reminder that June is almost half over. (Don’t waste your summer, Angie!) Richard has been gone quite a bit on Scout camp outs and trips to buy four wheelers, so I updated our living room while he was away.

Summer reading for me always includes a biography. I can’t believe this has been out for twelve years and no one told me how good it is. I am also working through a book to help me with Isaiah, which isn’t nearly as good. No offense, Isaiah. Sincerely, a modern reader.

There are many summer projects. For Family Home Evening on Monday, we read Luke 2:52, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Each of us made summer goals in the same four areas: wisdom, stature, in favor with God, and in favor with man.

I need these goals. Summer is my least productive time of year. My grandmother says it’s our Scandinavian genes that make it so difficult to do anything when it’s hot. I fight every day to stay active during the summer, even if it just means I am redecorating shelves, hemming new curtains, or taking notes on a book. When the day is over and I have contributed to the house and made some notes from my studies, I can call it a good day.

History was made.

I won a game. I actually won a game for the first time in my life. Maybe I don’t hate games, after all. (Inner voice: Let’s not be hasty, Angela.)

Mark’s baseball game got rained out last night so we had a game night for family home evening instead. We said we’d only play for an hour, but we all wanted to keep playing beyond that, ignoring electronic devices and bedtime.

Since Paige moved away, family home evening has been a little disjointed. It’s been harder. She is the one in the family to remind us about traditions. Our lessons have been of lower quality. Many nights this year we have just read and talked about scriptures without extra preparation.Even if we don’t have planned activities, if we’re in the scriptures, I call it a win.

A favorite lesson lately came from the New Era from last May and June. There were questions to interview parents, such as what was it like growing up? What was your worst date?….etc.

There are a lot of family home evenings to plan over the 30 years we have to raise our children. We’ve got 8 more years, but around 20 are gone. Did we do enough? Probably not. But we keep trying.

The Tradition Lives On

Richard came home from work last night and said that he thought we should do the Easter egg lesson for Family Home Evening. I had worried that the 15-year-old tradition was too juvenile so we didn’t do it for Easter this year. I am glad we went back and fixed that.

Our Easter lesson isn’t unique. I am sure it’s a popular idea. It is a collection of 12 plastic Easter eggs which I have numbered, each holding a scripture reference and small object related to Christ’s sufferings, death, and resurrection. The final egg is empty to represent the tomb. Inside the eggs are just simple things, such as a tiny cup, a length of rope, a nail, different fabrics, a sponge, a stone, a small angel, etc. Each year we take turns opening these eggs and talk about these objects and the events of Jesus’ last days. Some years we open one egg each day leading up to Easter. Other years, we have opened them all at once. The conversation has matured as the kids have grown. I think the scriptures are the key to inviting the Spirit, and we don’t read long passages. The objects are the key to keeping the younger children’s attention, but handling them does something powerful for adults. Richard was right. We shouldn’t give up this tradition, and as he taught in FHE, we should celebrate Easter all the time.

We sang, “Jesus Has Risen” from the Primary songbook about an octave and a half lower than the music is written. As the deep voices of the boys filled the room, I smiled. It wasn’t long ago that we were singing that song straight from the book, their sweet voices melting my heart. Do you want to hear what they sounded like 7 years ago? Go here. The suits! The little boys! The pale pink Easter dress! I’m dying.

This morning I packed away the lesson in our Easter decorations box, ready to be used in 2017. I may expand the lesson next year, but if I don’t, I won’t use it as an excuse not to do it. Simple traditions are sometimes the best.

A penny, a screwdriver, and some keys

This is one of the trees in our backyard. It is every shade of lovely.

Timothy taught our Family Home Evening lesson on Monday night. He shared an activity they did in Sunday School.

He handed out objects, such as a comb, flashlight, screwdriver, a penny, and some keys and asked us to make a parable with one of the objects and find a scripture to go with our parable.

Daniel’s parable of the shiny penny: When a penny is minted, it is shiny and has value in the country where it is legal tender. Over time we see that pennies get dirty. If we go to places other than the United States, the penny has no value other than as a piece of metal. We are like the penny, born innocent and shiny. We can remain shiny through repentance. As we go through life, people can see our value because we shine, even if they are unfamiliar with us, like foreign place that doesn’t recognize pennies as money, but can see worth in the metal. We can be a good influence on others as they see that we have something of value to share.

Mark’s parable of the screwdriver: Once a man tried to build a house without the help of a screwdriver or electric drill. He tried and tried to make the screws go in the walls with his hands, but he couldn’t build a house without help. The screwdriver is like the gospel and Heavenly Father’s help. We can build the house only with his help.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. -Ether 12:27

Timothy’s parable of the keys: Once a family set out for a trip to the Magic Kingdom. They loaded their car, got in, and sat there, unable to move because they had forgotten their keys. Keys are like faith. We can’t move forward in life without it. Faith is an action. We must do something with it to move forward. We don’t see the destination when we begin, but we trust that the Celestial Kingdom is there and it is our goal. With faith, we move toward that goal.

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. -Alma 32:21

Frontier living

We’re living frontier-style with our bed in the living room while we paint our master bedroom. It’s like Little House on the Prairie here as I awake to find the kids pouring cereal in the kitchen, just feet away from me. Our new foam mattress arrived this week in a very compact box. As we pulled away the plastic, it grew to normal size in half a minute.The mattress on the living room floor is so much nicer than our old mattress that we have made up the bed and go to sleep to the sound of the dishwasher each night.

I took pictures of the “still” times that our family enjoyed this week. Mostly, though, it was all go. The evenings after we finished our activities were precious. One night we pulled out Scrabble. Other nights we walked. For Family Home Evening, we played a version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire that Richard and I made with Book of Mormon trivia questions. One night we entertained my mom and my brother Matt’s family.

I feel like I am coming out of a Relief Society trance. It’s all I have been able to think about or do for the past five weeks. But now that I “know” the visiting teaching routes and I am getting into a schedule of visits and meetings, I can manage my time better. And wow, do I need to do that. I forgot to write Mark’s talk for Primary. I forgot that summer is ending. The boys start school next week. Paige moves out the week after that. What?

We went to the book store and Paige and Daniel didn’t spend much time in the fluffy literature section. I found them camped out in the college prep section. It’s like I saw their childhoods flutter away at that moment. I shook my head and walked back to the children’s section where I could reminisce about the days when we read picture books together. Then I bought myself a coloring book.

Today I’m remembering that it’s the 3rd anniversary of the day I drove the kids to Utah, saying goodbye to our home and friends in Arizona. I miss a few things about Arizona, but I have never regretted moving here. The house projects move at a snail’s pace between errands, but we are getting it done.

Bell Canyon Reservoir

Daniel was in charge of the family home evening lesson last night and he decided to take us on a hike. We have this great trail 5 minutes from our house that leads to a reservoir and waterfall. It was so green and the hillside was covered in flowers. The boys threw about 2,000 rocks in the lake and we enjoyed the views of the valley from the trail. I loved it.

Looking back and looking forward

1-c-rocks-sma — Sorting rocks on the bridge at the Weber by Paige

Last night we planned to take down the Boy Scout flags that were up in our neighborhood for Memorial Day, but another family did it for us! We were thankful because Timothy was busy finishing his student body officer campaign video.

We gathered for a quick family home evening lesson and I asked the family to make a list of the top ten events of the school year.

Timothy became a trombone player.
Daniel served as a class officer.
Paige was accepted to three colleges and was offered scholarships, but we are most excited that she will be going to BYU.
Paige and Daniel played keyboards in the musical, Les Miserables.
Mark read the Harry Potter series twice.
Paige will graduate from Jordan High next week.
Richard and I celebrated 20 years of marriage.
We participated in the musical, From Cumorah’s Hill.
Mark was home schooled and worked hard in Cub Scouts.
The kids memorized pieces to perform for ensemble and solo piano federation events.

We set some summer goals after remembering all the work that has gone into the school year. We don’t want our summer to be wasted. I asked each family member to make two goals: a daily goal and a Sunday goal to work on this summer.

I read some quotes by Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy:

There is no room for average or complacent disciples. Average is the enemy of excellence, and average commitment will prevent you from enduring to the end.

Let me be clear: to “hang in there” is not a principle of the gospel. Enduring to the end means constantly coming unto Christ and being perfected in him.

I look forward to school getting out and having some new areas of focus.