Family Home Evening

Every January, I get the urge to clean out and throw things away.  One of the treasures I unearthed recently was the 'Family Home Evening' chart that George and I used faithfully for many years with our children.  When we had our 'family home evening', one of us chose and led the opening song.  One conducted the meeting, another had a scripture thought, another a lesson.  We always had a game and then a closing prayer. Each week we rotated assignments.

I hope our children remember that we did our best to be consistent in teaching them and enjoying this time together.

Some nights were definitely better than others.

Family Home Evening has been jokingly referred to as 'the only fight that begins and ends with prayer'.  

To quote one of our church authorities about his family's FHE

"We wondered if our efforts were worthwhile. Now and then during scriptures study there were outbursts such as, "He's touching me!" "Make him stop looking at me!" and "Mom he's breathing my air!"  Family prayers were sometimes interrupted with giggling and poking.  And family home evening lessons were not always calm with three active, noisy boys."

I can definitely relate to his family.  It wasn't always a spiritual and reverent experience but I am glad we tried.

It was in 1915 that the leaders of our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called on parents to gather their children once each week for a “Home Evening.” Families were to take time to pray and sing together, read the scriptures, teach the gospel to one another, and participate in other activities that would build family unity.

In 1970 President Joseph Fielding Smith joined with his counselors in the First Presidency to designate Monday night as the time for family home evening. Since that announcement, the Church has kept Monday evenings free from Church activities so families can have this time together.

Monday nights never worked for our family as someone almost always had soccer practice so we decided to hold our 'family night' on Sundays. 

And we usually did.

These days, I never hear anyone refer to Family Home Evening.  Instead we are encouraged to use the 'Come Follow Me' program of scripture study to teach our families.

I teach 9 year olds in our Primary organization.  I can attest to the fact that the young families in our ward ARE definitely teaching their children from the scriptures.  The kids in my class know details of the stories and how those stories can influence their lives for good.

I have been very impressed.

 

The 'baby' of our family is now 35.

We haven't had a formal 'family home evening' for many years yet I have kept this chart.

I think I have kept it to remind myself that we did try our best to follow the counsel of our church leaders.

We weren't perfect but we made the effort.

I'm grateful that we did.

And if you are curious, on this particular night according to the chart:

 

George, the muscleman, chose the opening song.

Mary, our butterfly, conducted

Matt, the snowboarder, gave a thought from the scriptures

Scott, our hockey fan back then, taught the lesson

Lonoke Jackrabbit, Marilyn picked a game

Johnny, our goal keeper choose the closing song.