Hooked on Home Evening

When my husband and I were newly married, our bishop called us into his office. “You are a family,” he said. “If the two of you begin now to hold regular family home evenings, when the children arrive, you will have developed a habit that will continue forever.”

So each Monday night my husband and I held home evening. Sometimes we taught each other a lesson from the manual; other times we discussed scriptures we had been reading. We also set or evaluated our progress toward goals or expressed our love for each other and our excitement about our marriage. One evening we tape-recorded the story of how we had met and fallen in love, hoping to play it someday for our children.

Eight years have passed since then, and we’ve rarely missed a home evening. As we gather our four children together each Monday, we are grateful to that wise bishop who helped us develop a valuable habit.—Carolyn C. Williams, Sacramento, California

Illustrated by Lynn Rogers