Family Home Evenings

As LDS people, we practice Family Home Evening. Now for those of you non-LDS people, it is basically being with your family at home in the evening. The church standard is every Monday night, we set aside for a definate family dinner, and then a lesson and (if you have kids) an activity. For just that evening there is no TV watching, no computer playing, no video games or friends over. This is a time set aside to be with your family (in our case its just my husband and I) and talk about your day, be together and learn. Family members take turns presenting lessons on specific topics or chapters out of the church Family Home Evening book.

Even though it is just the two of us, we have both found that it sets the mood for the week. We try to keep in mind that lesson and try to apply it to our lives throughout the week.

For instance, one topic I had chosen was the covenants of Abraham in Genesis. The reason I chose that one was because in our Sunday School classes, we had been breifly skimming over it, and we didnt know enough about Abraham to even understand the lesson. So I decided to do some Bible study research and present it as a topic for FHE. Not only did it clue us in to being able to understand our Sunday School lessons, but throughout the week when reading the Book of Mormon, it illuminated points that we would not have necessarily seen or even understood.

Even if you are not LDS, I would encourage this once a week practice to anyone. If you have kids, make it interesting by maybe taking them ice skating and relate how the world we live in is like ice and it is easy to slip up, but the stronger your legs are in Christ, the more balance he brings to your life and the more upright you will stay until you can perform perfectly under Christ. It is a good way to get the family together if anything, especially in these days when all kids are glued to something electronic. If you don't even have a scriptual lesson prepared, even just being with your family is just as important.