FHE: 6th Article of Faith

I reminded them of what the articles of faith are, and then we watched this video and talked about it.  The kids wanted to watch it again while we ate treats :)

FHE: Marriage & Family

The vision was to take a picnic dinner to the temple and talk about the importance of temple marriage.  The reality was pizza on a blanket with the kids running back and forth to take bites and look at the fountain while we tried to sneak in quick questions about the temple.  After the food was gone, we cleaned up and took a walk around the temple, smelling the flowers, and trying out all the drinking fountains.

Despite it not being my vision, it was actually really fun and my almost 5-year-old son, afterward, asked if we could eat at the temple every week! We probably won't, but we will for sure do it again. :)

FHE: George Albert Smith

We used the back cover of the August friend for our topic this week.  It was super rushed because Jay took the kids mini golfing and got back late, causing late dinner AND I was taking dinner to a family, which also cut into FHE time...  Note to self, maybe don't choose Mondays for that in the future? 

The kids were pretty hyper and not very attentive.  We didn't do any fun activity or treat, just read some quick tidbits...  I also sang the Latter-Day Prophet song and showed a picture of each of the past ones (from the Friend back covers...) as I sang it.  It felt like nothing got through, but after I sang that song, my son asked me, "Mom, which one was the one who wrote in his journal all the time?"  Maybe he does listen sometimes?

Here's a link to more info about George Albert Smith.

No FHE...

We had a family over for dinner- a new family in my husband's department, so we didn't have a formal lesson....

FHE: Pause for Prayer

We've been having issues with our kids not pausing during the prayer, whether it be coloring during the sacrament prayer or sneaking bites during the quick dinner prayer, so I thought I would just point out that this isn't reverent and we talked about what is reverent: fold arms, close mouth, close eyes, bow head, open ears.  I made up a "game" called "Pause for Prayer" so that we could practice.  We would pretend to be in certain situations (Okay, we're all in church coloring.  Oh look!  They're about to bless the sacrament! Pause for prayer!  ... Amen!  Okay, we can color again.  Now we're all sitting at the table, about ready for dinner... Now we're getting ready for bed...)

They did a good job AND i've been using that catch phrase "Pause for Prayer" before all our prayers and they seem to be responding!!  Score!

Scripture Spotlight- Alma 24:30

This scripture kind of scares me... It makes me fear for friends and family who have fallen away, and it makes me weary of sharing the gospel with others...  At the same time, it makes sense- like children who cannot sin because they do not know any better, one who has never heard of the gospel is not culpable in the same way as one who has.

"And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than thought they had never known these things."

Scripture Spotlight - Alma 22:18

I just love this verse, for some reason.  I admire King Lamoni's faith and humility and I love the idea of trading sins for knowing God.  It seems like an obvious trade...

"O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day."