so simple

Last August I set a goal...scratch that...I wanted something more from life, so we made a minor, but important change in how our family does things. Let's see...how do I write this with out sounding trite or just plain odd? Okay, here's the thing. I want what everyone else wants. And, I want it bad. I want a great family, close knit, long term. I want my children to grow up happy, secure, and irresistibly sure of life. Soooo....how do you do that? Certainly, there's no right way, but here's one small, simple thing that I think just might make a big impact on this great and mighty aspiration. Family Home Evening. There, I said it. Sound trite? I hope not because I think we've only missed one week since August, and my testimony of this principle is getting stronger with each week and the only reason why I'm writing about this is because tonight I felt the strength in doing. I'm kinda close to tears at this point because we are giving guides and if we follow them, good things happen. Try having FHE if you don't already. Put it to the test. Make it work for you and yours. I can't tell you how incredibly simple FHE is at our house. We try to make it fun and powerpacked (not a big ordeal). We welcome everyone, we sing, we pray, we have a lesson of sorts that usually involves very simple props (I use that picture packet from the Distribution Center tons) and a point relevant to what our family needs at the time like once we read a kid's book about manners and then talked about please and thank you. We sometimes write briefly in our journals. One particularly difficult Monday I turned on various types of music, pulled out everything noisy and we rocked out. Thrown in there was a scripture from D&C about songs of our heart. Another particularly difficult Monday when I wanted to just skip it, we plopped some already made brownies that my waist did not need in my house anymore on some paper plates, had a little talk about sharing with a neighbors, and went for a walk to pass out brownies. Something amazing has happened with such a simple routine: I've found other efforts being magnified. I genuinely feel peace and meaningful purpose. Granted, it's certainly a combination of factors, but I can't minimize the importance of this one.

Tonight I pulled out 5 or 6 prints related to Easter---Christ's burial, the tomb, the resurrection, etc. I told the story very simply. And retold it and retold it. A certain three year old was thinking hard. In her prayer tonight she something a little indiscernible about being able to live again together.
We have a few left over tidbits we created from our time spent as primary teachers such as a silly cut out sun we use when singing "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" and is basically an open circle with little rays attached so you can see your face through the center then we take turns putting it in front of our face while singing. Silly. But, hilarious to the 8 month old in our house. Good times.
I really hope this doesn't come across as huffy, but I just felt so strongly to share.