Parents can do
much to strengthen their families, communities, and nations by holding more
effective family home evenings. Parents
are accountable to God for teaching and rearing their children properly; they
have the responsibility to lead their families in gospel learning and to make
sure their children know the scriptures and counsel of modern prophets and
apostles. Effective family home evenings
help parents fulfill this great responsibility.
Since the early 1900s prophets
and apostles have counseled families to learn and have fun together at least
once each week. Many families throughout
the world hold weekly family home evenings.
In fact, Monday evenings were set aside by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints for family home evening.
There are no Church meetings or temple sessions scheduled on Monday
evenings to allow Church leaders and members to be with their families.
In a recent presentation at BYU
Campus Education Week, Darren E. Schmidt, a seminary instructor in the Church Educational System, shared some of his
ideas for enhancing family home evening and scripture study.
Brother Schmidt knows that
rearing a family is hard work and takes much time. That is just one of the reasons why he
believes parents must make family home evening as effective as possible through
lessons, songs, and prayer. He believes
that “time together as a family is critical to building testimonies and
strengthening relationships.” He
believes this can be accomplished by “focusing on simple, practical elements”
to “enhance their time together.”
Brother Schmidt shared eight suggestions
for parents to consider doing. (1) Be
consistent in holding family home evening.
Teaching and training children is a process, not a product.
(2) Work together with your
spouse and be united in your efforts – one spouse could be in charge of
discipline while the other makes things happen.
(3) Make family home evening
inspired and purposeful. “By the family being prepared the Spirit is able to
teach. In those moments the Lord will
often inspire parents to teach something that their child may have questions
about or have a desire to learn more about.
It is as parents are purposeful in their preparations, the Lord will be
able to prepare the hearts of the learners.
(4) Plan far enough in advance to
the children and to help them prepare their assignments.
(5) Be a shepherd, not a
sheepherder. “A shepherd knows his
sheep, and the sheep know him. They can
hear the voice of the shepherd and are reliant on him. They come when they hear him call…. A simple five- or ten-minutes warning before
family home evening … helps children to finish what they are doing” and come
prepared to participate. “A five-minute
warning shows you are respectful of their time.
It is less forceful and creates an atmosphere with the Spirit.”
(6) Be sure every person has a
role to play in the meeting. Each family
member should have an assignment of some kind for family home evening. Each person should have some form of the
scriptures to hold and read during scripture study. Family home evening is a good time and place
for families to set or update family goals.
(7) Educate yourselves. Parents have many resources available to them
for teaching their children. The Church
websites such as lds.org have many materials available to help.
(8) Use the scriptures
consistently. “Just as important as it
is to hold family home evening, it is important to spend time in the scriptures
and focusing on Christ. Fun and games
are good for families, but teaching children while they are young how to have a
relationship with their Heavenly Father is the most important duty as a
parent. As parents make a point to study
together from the scriptures, they are able to teach and testify as they learn
together.”
These eight ideas are good
suggestions to aid parents in holding effective family home evenings with their
children. As parents improve their
family home evenings, they will strengthen their families, communities, and nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment