Day 8: Family Home Evening

In 1915, President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency instructed parents to begin holding a regular “Home Evening.” This was to be a time for parents to teach their families the principles of the gospel. The First Presidency wrote: “If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them” (in James R. Clark, comp.,Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [1965–75], 4:339).

Family home evening fun at the spinning park.

Monday night, every week, is family night at our house.  This simple practice is one of the things that keeps our family and our home centered on Christ and His gospel.  It isn't just that we spend time together, we are also learning together.

Every member of our family contributes to family night.  We have a simple board where we rotate assignments.  Every person does every assignment, big or small.  

Conductor: This person conducts the meeting part of family night.  They welcome and announce who is doing what.  Last night McKay was the conductor.  He usually uses a funny announcer voice when he conducts.

Song: This person picks the song we will sing.  Last night Peter picked, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."  One of my personal favorites.

Opening Prayer:  This person prays at the beginning of the family meeting part of family night.

Scripture: This person shares a scripture they like or they share what they have been learning in the scriptures they've read lately.  Last night was Emma's turn.  She does the same thing every time.  She tells her favorite scripture story, Jonah and the whale.  Some of the kids groan when she tells it, but it is cute to hear her little voice telling us the familiar story.

Lesson:  This person teaches a gospel based lesson.  When little ones have this assignment Harold and I help them.  Camilla, Sarah and Joshua can teach the lesson themselves.  Most of our lessons are very simple and short.  Last night Sarah was in charge of the lesson and she started off with a question, "How do the scriptures bring us to Christ?"  We had a sweet discussion about the scriptures and how they help us in our lives, how they help us follow the Savior.  Sarah didn't prepare an elaborate lesson for us, but she instigated a discussion that strengthened our faith and brought us closer to each other.

Closing prayer: Camilla closed up our meeting and our day with kneeling family prayer.

Activity: This is one of the favorite parts of family home evening for the kids.  They love playing with us.  We play board and card games, hide and seek, even ring around the rosy.  We go to the park, play basketball, kick ball or soft ball in the yard.  Sometimes we play tag games or clapping games.  Our activities on family night our usually simple and fairly short.

Treat: This is the other favorite part of family night.  Each week someone gets to choose the treat we will have.  Last night it was pear and raspberry cobbler.  Oh my, super yummy!  

Although unassigned, family business and a VIP are included in family night.  I try to keep family business short.  It's usually the assigning of meal helpers and coordinating schedules if we didn't do it on Sunday.  

The VIP is our very important person for the week.  We sing the VIP song to that person and then each one of us shares something we love about them.  Last night Peter was the VIP.  As we started to sing he snuggled under Harold's arm and waited to hear what everyone would say.

Family home evening has been a blessing in our family.  We started doing it when Joshua was very young.  In some ways it was harder when we had little children.  We had to keep things really short and Harold and I took care of the whole thing.  There have been crazy family home evenings where Harold and I looked at each other over the heads of our noisy children and just shook our heads.  There have been times when we wondered if it was making any difference and wondered why were we doing it.  But now when I hear the sweet testimonies our children share when they finish their lessons, it is all worth it.

Family home evening is a habit now.  I don't think the kids would let us not have it.  It does take some effort, especially from me.  I'm the one who reminds people of their assignments.  I remind them to prepare lessons, think of an activity and make a treat - usually I'm making the treat they picked.  But, every effort has been worth it.  It is important for the gospel of Christ to be taught in our homes.  I can't leave it to the church or anyone else.  Family home evening keeps us grounded in the gospel.  It is one of the "essential weight bearing beams in the construction of a Christ-centered home."  It brings us closer to Christ.