Family Home Evening

Within the past couple of weeks, Ryan and I have decided that instead of having FHE with just the 2 of us, we need to start involving Kallie. I was kind of dreading rushing through dinner, keeping her up late, and having to deal with her grumpies the next day. Then, I saw a little FHE video on KBYU.

One lady on the video said her dad spent at least 6 months at a time overseas serving in the armed forces. When the other guys would go out to party and play, her dad would stay in the barracks and use a reel to reel tape machine to record family home evening for his wife and kids. He would welcome them, tell them what the opening song was and then sing it on the reel to reel. After the song, he would ask a specific family member to say a prayer, and then he would give a lesson. I got a lump in my throat listening to her story. I don't think I have ever in my life felt that FHE was so important that I would record something for my kids if I couldn't be there. Knowing that father's commitment to FHE really got me thinking about my commitment to it--and I stopped dreading the incredibly insignificant stresses that we would be dealing with when we started including Kallie.

Last night was the first night that Kallie officially attended FHE. We sat in our bedroom in a little circle, Ryan and I in our camping chairs and Kallie in her little Lightning McQueen folding chair. We had our opening prayer and a song, which Kallie tried to sing, but mostly danced through. And after, I gave a little 5-minute lesson on obeying, (pulled from the LDS Nursery manual). I was actually surprised at how well Kallie did with the lesson. She didn't totally get everything, but she was completely soaking up the attention from mommy and daddy. At the end of the lesson, I bore a very simple testimony of obedience--and toward the end, she looked straight in my eyes and just listened. It was neat for me to see that happen. After the lesson, Ryan led the activity, which was singing, "Do as I'm doing." Then, our little Family Home Evening was over.

Ryan and I felt so good afterward! We loved that it actually worked! And, much to my delight, Kallie went to bed fairly easily when FHE was over. She even slept in a little longer this morning! Now, I don't think I can blame all of that on Family Home Evening, but all of those things combined will make it easier to do it again next week.