We were going for the awkward look, in case you were worried. Sparky is pouting in the corner because he isn’t allowed on the furniture downstairs.
Family home evening last night was a game night. Mark was in charge. He came out carrying a tower of games from which we could choose. Monopoly was among the choices, bless his heart. We played Quirkle with too many people, so it was a long wait between turns. To entertain the restless people, I read stories aloud from my memoir-in-progress, one story each about the children and one about the dog. We laughed and reminisced and then Timothy served the cheesecake.
Daniel taught our family home evening lesson last night to fulfill a missionary challenge for seminary. He taught us why we need the Book of Mormon. He had us look up scriptures from the various prophets of the Book of Mormon and we made a list of what we learned. Here is our list.
The Book of Mormon was written:
To persuade people to believe in Christ
To express the things of a prophet’s soul for his children
For a wise purpose
And it was kept and preserved over time
For our day
For a future people
To call us to come unto Christ
For the descendants of the Lamanites, the Jews, and the Gentiles
To join with the Bible and the records of the 10 tribes to convince the world of truth
And by it and other records will the world be judged
To help us grow closer to God as we obey its precepts…
Daniel shared this quote by Ezra Taft Benson,
…The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation.
And Moroni’s promise (Moroni 10:4-5) to all who study and ask in faith if the book is true,
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know thetruth of all things.
Then we ate doughnuts. Awesome, quick, drama-free family home evening. Hooray.
At church on Sunday the Young Women teacher set out an outline for a family home evening lesson on the table. It had the activities from her Sunday lesson and a great quote for the young women to share with their families. Only one girl took a copy. And I did, too. I know the value of a ready-made FHE lesson. Timothy was thankful for it when he drew a blank about what he wanted to teach our family last night.
It was a good lesson. We read scriptures about the restoration of the priesthood. Richard and I talked about the big and small blessings in our lives that have come because the priesthood was restored.
We can be together forever.
We can have power in our lives.
We are blessed by he organization of the church.
We have a prophet and apostles on the earth to guide us.
And much, much more.
The blessings of the priesthood are like a blanket that covers and surrounds us all the time.
It is a humbling thing to be taught by Timothy and to hear his testimony.
We enjoyed some strawberry shortcake and then got back to homework and activities. It’s a busy time.
Daniel taught Family Home Evening last night. He pulled out a puzzle with one of following labels written on each piece.
baptism
scriptures
belief in Jesus Christ
priesthood
sacrament
apostles
We assembled the puzzle. Daniel taught how Jesus Christ established His Church on the earth, but after the death of the apostles, pieces of the gospel and Church were missing. He removed the puzzle pieces labeled, “priesthood,” “apostles,” and “sacrament.” He said many things were lost, and the puzzle was just an illustration. The Church fell into apostasy.
He handed out scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and asked each family member to identify something that was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. With each scripture, we were able to return a puzzle piece to its rightful place.
He showed us this video that has the words of one of the living apostles.
Daniel shared his testimony that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. His testimony was the best part of the lesson.
Timothy showed us his latest Lego design, bringing back the old tradition of “Show and Tell” during Family Home Evening.
Family Home Evening, April 13, 2015
Conducting: Timothy
Song (Hymn #22 We Listen to a Prophet’s Voice): Richard
Prayer: Mark
Lesson: Paige
Treats (brownies): Daniel
Helper: Angie
Paige’s lesson was about remembering the messages of General Conference. She told us that one or two days a week during the last several months she has been reading a General Conference talk for her scripture study and that it has blessed her life. She shared the following scripture:
And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say unto you, they shall not be moved out of their place. -D&C 124:45
What does it mean to “not be moved out of their place?” she asked. Daniel brought up the talk given by Elder Pearson about Lehi’s vision. The righteous stayed by the tree of life. They didn’t leave it. If we follow the prophets, he said, this is what it means to stay by the tree.
Paige shared this quote:
“We have the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants; but all these books, without the living oracles and a constant stream of revelation from the Lord, would not lead any people into the Celestial Kingdom of God. Of course, these records are all of infinite value. They cannot be too highly prized, nor can they be too closely studied. But in and of themselves, with all the light that they give, they are insufficient to guide the children of men and to lead them into the presence of God. To be thus led requires a living Priesthood and constant revelation from God to the people according to the circumstances in which they may be placed” (President George Q. Cannon 1827–1901), First Counselor in the First Presidency, Gospel Truth: Discourses and Writings of George Q. Cannon, comp. Jerreld L. Newquist (1987), 252.
Paige asked us to share our favorite messages from General Conference last week. Mark immediately told us the story from Elder Holland’s talk, full of details, about the two brothers who went rock climbing in Southern Utah, one brother saving the other from a fall. As the rest of us shared, Mark rolled on the floor and moaned. I thought he was just bored, but then he said, “The brownies are getting stone cold!” So, midway through sharing our notes on General Conference, Daniel served brownies to the group. Thankfully, they were still warm.
Years ago, a good friend gave us a family home evening journal. Inside were pages to fill in the minutes of our family gatherings each Monday. There was space to list who conducted, which songs were sung, the lesson topic, and family business, but most fun was the place for family news. I go back to our family home evening journals from those early years and smile at the things we listed as accomplishments of the week.
We gave up the practice of keeping a family home evening journal, and the blog seemed to fill in for the “family news” part of our record. However, I have missed the record of what we did together each Monday evening. I’m going to try to give a small recap of what we do for our Monday family home evenings each Tuesday on the blog.
We went to dinner last night with a Christmas gift card. We enjoyed this family time. When we got home, I was in charge of the lesson. I showed this video and then we studied and discussed prayer, referring to the Bible Dictionary:
As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7-11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest blessings.
Daniel shared that prayer should be a real communication between child and the Father. He said that we need to avoid saying the same things without thinking (vain repetition) and pray often so we develop a relationship. Paige shared that we are children of God and that the video depicts how everything we have is a gift from Him. Richard shared that Heavenly Father doesn’t ask us to pray for his ego, but because everything He asks us to do is for our benefit. I told the kids that prayer is a little bit like playing catch. There are two participants. We show we are ready for answers (or a pitch) by turning to God and preparing ourselves for what he sends to us. If we don’t pray (turn toward the pitch), we aren’t prepared for answers and we aren’t in tune with what Heavenly Father wants for us.
Sometimes I am guilty of giving my best to my students instead of my children. I am learning that I can give my best to both. When it is my turn to give a family home evening lesson, I share what I am learning in my personal study or preparations for lessons at church. This month I made some extra copies of the Plan of Salvation kits that I made for a young women lesson. Last night the kids cut them out and added them to their missionary/future family collections. We also prepared some for a missionary care package.
My mom told me that she would make Plan of Salvation visual aids with the missionaries all the time. She suggested that we include transparent “spirit bodies” which enter at birth, are separated at death, and reunited with the colorful physical bodies at the resurrection. I have to admit that this little detail is my favorite part of these laminated kits. Most of these elements come from The Friend Magazine, January 2008. If you want a copy I would be happy to send them to you. You can use my laminator if you’re close by, too.
One night for Family Home Evening last month, Tim taught a lesson about choosing to be kind and a good neighbor. He pulled out his carefully curated Lego characters and some pieces for two teams to create some situations where (Lego) people were being kind.
It is kind to help in a rescue.It is kind to take time to play.It is kind to help someone load their trailer. It is kind to put out a fire inadvertently caused by a flame-spewing segway.
The beauty of this lesson was the good time we all had together. We laughed and cheered for one another. We needed that.
Mark taught our Family Home Evening lesson this week about the Armor of God. He gave each person a piece of armor and asked us to look up the scripture in Ephesians and explain how each piece of armor represented something spiritual we can do to be protected from evil. We placed the armor on a disproportionate picture of a little man. We called him Pippin.
The next morning I found our visual aid thus arrayed:
I’ve had to trust that our armor, however hastily or incompletely placed, will be enough this week because I can’t do any more than I’m doing. I have felt lifted physically and mentally even though I’ve fallen asleep every time I’ve tried to read the scriptures this week. I’ve felt like I’ve been carried. The grace of God is amazing like that. We turn to our Father in Heaven in our weakness, and that act of turning (however incomplete or imperfect) puts us in a position to receive great blessings.
We decorated cookies as part of our Family Home Evening activities. I taught the kids how to use royal icing for outlining and a thin royal icing for flood icing. Everyone had a good time making designs.
We hold a Show-and-Tell activity each week before our Family Home Evening lesson. Daniel showed us some rocks he bought at the gem show. These glow under a black light:
Radioactive? Probably.
We almost didn’t have a lesson because the black light was so very fun.
