Once there was a young man who was very popular. As a high school student, he was crazy busy between school, activities, Church, dating, and working. His family did family home evening weekly and family scripture study before school. It was so hard for him to get there, much less look lively! He’d sit with his head down, looking for all the world as if he weren’t paying attention. His parents had to wonder if they were wasting their time trying to share the gospel, their testimonies, and the love they had for the Lord. Was anything getting through to him?
Years later, after he’d served a mission, married in the temple, started his family, and become a seminary teacher – one of my favorite teachers, actually – he shared how he never learned anything new at church or at the MTC because he’d heard it all from his parents during family time. He told all of us students that he sure looked like he wasn’t paying attention, but he actually was! And he learned a whole lot!
Later he became an institute teacher at UVU, a religion teacher at BYU, and a popular speaker at BYU Education Week. As a teenager in his classes, he had great influence on my developing testimony, and I still keep in touch with him. I am one of many people whose testimonies have been nourished and strengthened by him. I’m grateful to his parents for persevering with their family traditions despite a lack of enthusiasm on his part.
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His story reminds me of Elder Nattress’ conference talk last year titled “No Greater Joy than to Know that They Know”. He said:
Is there any greater gift that we can impart to our children than a memory burned deep into their hearts that we know that our Redeemer lives? Do they know that we know? And more important, have they come to know for themselves that He lives?
Isn’t that what family time is all about – to come closer to each other and to the Lord? Is there any greater gift?
As parents, we never really know what the consequences will be of our attempts to teach the gospel and bring our children to the Lord. But one thing’s for sure: our actions and efforts bear testimony to our kids every day of what is most important to us. Every time we hold family scripture time, we testify by our actions of the importance of the Lord and the scriptures in our lives. When we do family home evening, we testify of inspired leaders and the importance of our families.
There’s so much potential with family home evening and scripture time. Potential for fun, bonding, and spiritual growth. It really can be so practical and easy to fit in, too.
If you haven’t gotten FHEasy yet, please sign up for the free lesson in the sidebar and check it out to see if it would be supportive for you and your family. If you already have FHEasy, please spread the word about it to your friends and family via social media or word of mouth. You could bless the lives of many people you know and love.
If you choose to share, please write me a note about how you’ve shared FHEasy and I will send you a pdf called “FHEasy Food and Treats” as a thank you. It’s a list of all the FHEasy lessons along with correlating food and/or treat ideas.
To you and yours …
Happy Home Evenings!
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