If you are a parent, what’s your favorite way to help your children understand the scriptures?

After the New Testament

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~by Melanie

I love to listen to men sing. This Sunday, I heard the best men’s choir ever. I was ironing my son’s white shirt and my husband was helping our boys, ages 4 and 7, get dressed for church. The three of them were singing “How Firm a Foundation” which is a Hymn that the children learned in Primary last year.

“How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said,

Who unto the Savior, who unto the Savior,

Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.”

(LDS Hymn #85)

It was sweet to listen to my husband teach my children through song the things that he and I both know: that if we have faith, we can turn to our Savior for refuge when times are tough. And times will be tough. I can’t even imagine the challenges and evils that will face our children as they grow into teenagers and adults. My husband and I hope that as they are young, we will be able to give them a “firm foundation” in the gospel.

We hope to send them out into the world with the knowledge that they are children of our Heavenly Father, who loves them and that even when times are hard or we make mistakes, He wants us to come to Him in prayer and He will comfort us. It is a huge responsibility that we have as parents and so we teach them often. We hold Family Home Evening, daily family scripture study and prayer. But just as important are those unplanned times, when they have questions or when we feel prompted by the spirit to share our testimonies with them about the gospel.

And sometimes the teaching simply comes when we’re getting ready for the church and a song pops into our heads.

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Family Home Evening is a night when your family stays home together and has a little meeting. We do it on Sundays or Mondays.

We have a chart that tells each member of the family what their job of FHE is. The chart does not need to be fancy. See ours below.

One person conducts. Tonight it was Macey. She said, “Welcome to Family Home Evening” and then told us what everyone would be doing for their FHE job.

Logan was in charge of leading the song.

Dave was in charge of the lesson.

The children were in charge of listening to the lesson. Because I have little kids, I keep the lessons short and sweet. Just a little Bible story or something like that. It is hard for them to sit still for too long. See the pictures below.

Tonight we talked about Daniel and the Lion’s Den.

Sometimes the kids have random comments and questions. Those are my favorite parts because they often lead to gospel discussions and teaching moments. So, I don’t go crazy on preparing a lesson….. something good comes from whatever I do.

After the lesson, we moved to the kids’ favorite part.

The games!

Our FHE game portion of the night typically includes one of the following games:

Duck, Duck Goose
Mother May I
Red Light, Green Light
Hide-and-Go-Seek
London Bridge
Ring around the Rosy

Tonight we played Duck, Duck Goose

Lexi helped with the treat and put sprinkles on everyone’s ice cream.

Then we ate it.

And that was the end of our FHE!

I know it makes a difference in our family, so I love having Family Home Evening. I think it makes us more unified as a family, and gives us the opportunity to discuss important “life” topics.

Now please share what you do for FHE with your family!

*This post and all pictures were used by permission from the author.

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It was October when we moved into an old red brick house in Salt Lake City. We were renting while my husband finished graduate school, and we counted ourselves fortunate to live in such an established neighborhood that was blessed with the first trees in the valley. Because they’ve been here so long, the trees lining our street are giant beauties: tall, full, stately, stretching up and out and meeting high overhead.

The trees were particularly striking that month as they put on their autumn finery and morphed from one level of glory to the next in an extraordinary display of color. And then one day, as if at an unseen signal, the leaves took the leap as one. Brick houses stood like islands on lakes of orange and gold. My children pressed their noses to the window and watched leaves drift through the air like multi-colored snowflakes.

My oldest daughter, Adah, eagerly asked if we could make a leaf pile and jump in it. Her excitement reminded me of my first experience jumping in a leaf pile. I was a freshman at Utah State University in beautiful Logan, Utah. Having grown up in various desert locales, I had never known a real, leaf-turning autumn. So when I passed the quad one day between classes and saw the leaves piled into great mounds, I felt like a child again. Giddy with excitement, I took a running start, leapt high into the air, and dove onto a leaf pile. I landed –whump! — stomach first. Sprawled on the ground with my breath knocked out of me, I felt extremely foolish as passersby stopped and stared.

I hadn’t had the experience necessary to know that a pile of leaves wouldn’t support my weight.

As I stood at the window with my four children I thought, I bet it’s easier for kids, with their lighter bodies. They probably don¹t hit the ground as hard as I did. I told the kids to get their shoes on because we were going to go leaf-pile-jumping. But before we could tie a single lace, the lawn service came, courtesy of our out-of-state landlord. We watched in dismay as five competent men zipped around the yard before we could make a single pile and drove off with bags full of leavesŠour leaves. I felt robbed of my autumn experience.

I looked next door and noticed that our neighbor’s lawn was completely buried in fallen leaves. I hadn¹t met her yet, but I knew she was elderly. And then I had a brilliant idea.

“Don’t worry,” I told the kids. “Tomorrow we’ll go next door and rake up the neighbor’s leaves for her. You can jump in the piles and then we’ll bag them so she won’t have to.”

Autumn fun and a service project rolled into one. What could be better? I imagined an enjoyable afternoon project that would take maybe an hour at the most. Again I lacked the experience to know what I had gotten myself into.

After school the next day I put jackets and gloves on the kids and we went next door with rakes and bags. The first order of business was to make a pile for them to jump in. They were smarter than I had been and jumped onto their knees. It was fun for a few minutes, and then it was time to get to work.

My children, ranging in age from four months to 7 years old, were not extremely helpful. Five year-old David was the closest to being helpful, pushing leaves into (and over and under) bags and hauling the bags to the
sidewalk. Jacob cried and I had to stop raking to nurse him. Adah kept wandering back inside to watch PBS. And Sarah, being a typical toddler, screamed if I accepted a bag tie from anyone but her.

I raked until my shoulders ached. I bagged until my strength flagged. I could not believe the extent of the project I had taken on. The picturesque lake of leaves grew to enormous proportions in my mind, rivaling the Pacific Ocean in its vastness. I wanted to quit several times, but the thought of that unknown elderly woman inside the house gave me the strength to persevere.

Four hours later I stopped and surveyed my work. I had filled twenty huge leaf bags, and there was one last pile on the lawn. Jacob was asleep under piles of blankets in the middle of the lawn and the girls had given up and gone inside long ago. It was cold and nearly dark and it was time to make dinner. I was so tempted to leave that last pile there.

Just then my neighbor Gwen from across the street walked over and asked me if I had met the lady whose yard I was raking.

No, not yet, I told her. She took me by the arm (a tired arm) and knocked on the door of my unknown neighbor. A little, stooped, white-haired lady opened the door and peered out uncertainly.

Gwen said, “Betty, this is your new neighbor Julie. I thought you should know that she’s been out here all afternoon with her kids raking up your leaves for you.”

I squirmed in embarrassment and wished I wasn’t there. I didn’t want the attention. After all, aren’t we supposed to give our alms in secret?

“Oh, really?” she asked in a feeble voice. “I heard children but I thought they were just playing in the leaves.”

Gwen said, “No, they’ve been raking them for you. Isn’t that nice?”

Betty squinted at me with her faded blue eyes. “Well, thank you,” she said. “My lawn guy will be very happy.”

Oh.

I felt like I¹d had the breath knocked out of me. I pasted a smile on my face and said, “I didn’t realize you had a lawn guy. Well, then….”

I suddenly felt very foolish. It seemed like all of my work was for nothing, and I wanted to just go home and never rake another leaf again. Let the lawn guy take care of that last pile of leaves–my work here obviously wasn’t needed, and maybe not even appreciated.

But then Gwen put her arm around my shoulders and said, “Well, she’s done a great job showing her children how to serve. And isn’t that the most important thing?”

Betty smiled and nodded and I said good-bye. Gwen walked back across the street and I stared at that last pile of leaves, trying to decide if it represented an insult or an opportunity. With Gwen’s words echoing in my
mind, I made a quick decision and called out, “Hey, Davey! Come help me with this last pile.”

“Sure, mom!” he replied, skipping over with a bag in hand, still eager to help at the end of this long project.

As we pushed leaves into a bag I asked him, “So, how do you feel about helping our neighbor?”

“Great!” His blue eyes glowed with happiness, his cheeks dimpling with his deep smile. “She’s going to be so happy!”

I couldn’t help but smile right back at him. Working alongside my son in the dusky twilight, I thought about his joy in serving someone he didn’t know. That’s when I realized that it didn’t matter if it was the lawn guy or the elderly lady that we made happy that day. Gwen was right. It was the experience that mattered.

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This will only be available for a couple more weeks, so watch it while you can! It’s a great spiritual feast and also a wonderful exploration of some very important themes, including faith, womanhood, missionary work and preparation, modesty and chastity, equal partnership in marriage….

UPDATE: You can get part of Elizabeth Ricks’ talk as well as Barbara Thompson’s talk (both on the topic “Lay Hold Upon Every Good Gift”). Sister Thompson will have you laughing as she talks about her anti-gifts and then will inspire you as she turns to the scriptures, particularly Romans 12. The trick is to go to Thursday, May 15 on the Move Media player and slide the playback marker to about 53 minutes into the broadcast. It’s better than nothing, no?

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Talk titles (where available) and featured speakers include the following:

Awake, Arise, and Come unto Him by Sheri Dew

“Lay Hold upon Every Good Gift” by Elizabeth Ricks and Barbara Thompson (second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency)

Sacred Relationships and Self-Reliance by Ana Maria Coburn and Silvia H. Allred (first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency)

“Temple Worship Is an Avenue to Exaltation in God’s Kingdom” by Marilyn S. Bateman and Elder Merrill J. Bateman (matron and president of the Provo Utah Temple)

Strengthening Thy Stakes: Standing Strong and Immovable in Faith by Julie B. Beck (general president of the Relief Society)

“My Body Is the Temple My Father Gave to Me”: Teaching Children Virtue and Chastity by Ann Farnsworth and Cheryl C. Lant (General President of the Primary)

A Partnership of Equals: “Neither Is the Man without the Woman, Neither the Woman without the Man” by Lolly Osguthorpe and Russell Osguthorpe (who is an Area Authority Seventy for the area including Brigham Young University (for more information on Area Authority Seventies, see this talk))

Closing Session by President Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Speakers include President Thomas S. Monson, who was the concluding speaker, Julie B. Beck (General Relief Society President), Sheri Dew, Cheryl Lant (General Primary President), Marilyn S. Bateman and Elder Merrill Bateman (now matron and presidehnot, Barbara Thompson and Silvia Allred (counselors in the Relief Society General Presidency), Lolly Osguthorpe and her husband,

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