Family Home Evening Ideas

This issue contains articles and activities that could be used for family home evening. The following are some examples.

“Inviting Success,” page 24: Choose one of the stories from the article and read it aloud during family home evening. Ask family members to discuss what led to the successful missionary opportunity. You could then go over the 10 suggestions for sharing the gospel listed on page 27 and invite family members to set a goal to try one of the suggestions by a certain date. You could end by watching a favorite Mormon Messages or Bible video and asking family members to prayerfully consider a friend or acquaintance with whom they could share it.

“Maintaining an Eternal Perspective,” page 56: Consider reading to your family Elder Renlund’s statement, “Anciently, prophets used tangible objects to serve as reminders of God’s goodness to help the people maintain a long-term perspective.” Ask family members to describe any such objects they can think of from the scriptures. You could share an example from the article, such as the stone the prophet Samuel called Ebenezer (“the stone of help”). Invite family members to identify objects existing today that can help them maintain an eternal perspective (ideas might include the temple, a family photograph, or a journal). Discuss the ways in which the tangible objects of the sacrament (bread and water) help us to remember the eternal perspective.

Ideas from Personal Interviews

Over the years, personal interviews with our children on fast Sundays have been a natural setting to generate topics for family home evening. As a result of ideas coming from these interviews, our family has studied together the standards in For the Strength of Youth, the nine principles for successful families as outlined in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” and with the help of a Presidents of the Church institute manual, the life and teachings of each of the latter-day prophets. These lessons have greatly enriched and strengthened our family.

Brady Nixon, Utah, USA