fhe 1/23

Family night at our place is pretty basic. 

This week I seriously thought of a lesson two minutes after asking, "Time for family night?"
I keep thinking I'm going to get tons of ideas/lessons all planned, printed out and ready to go for moments like this, but I haven't done that.

I've been thinking of The Family: A proclamation to the world a lot lately so that's exactly what we did.
Of course, with a 3-year-old and 1-year-old we are not going to read it word-for-word and discuss it thoroughly. 

Instead, I shared the first paragraph:

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children . . .

and a part of one near the end:

  . . . Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

 In talking about these, I was able to testify of truths I know to my children. I am grateful for opportunities to do this so casually without having to start out with "I know..." and to keep it from getting too formal. When truths are shared, they can feel it and gain simple testimonies as well. 

I've read a talk recently that talks about the importance of this as well. I can't remember who/what the talk is called right now, but when I do, I'll link to it.

I really emphasized prayer and wholesome recreational activities because I think those are two things we do well that Avie could really recognize.
Afterward, we had our own bit of wholesome recreational activity with a family dance party.
(I'm sure we are so loud sometimes to our neighbors!)

Spencer caught the kids completely off guard when he pulled out the silly string in the middle of dancing!

 

Then Avie decided she wanted to get me!

It was just a really fun night.

It would be very easy to not do family nights (and sometimes we do let that happen!) and go on day-to-day how we always do. But I am grateful for inspired Church leaders who counsel us to make this a priority and to do it regularly.

I think it's such a neat thing to have everyone in the family take a break or cancel other commitments one evening a week, completely focused on building relationships with one another (even if that isn't what's blatantly happening). It is happening, and it's making a difference.

And I will be reminding myself of this post in 10-15 years when our kids are kicking and screaming about having to be at family night rather than what they would choose... :)