A Message for the Family

I feel so blessed to be in such a good ward. The women in our Relief Society are so amazing and inspire me to be better each day of my life. Last night we had our quarterly enrichment. It was all focused on the family. Our Relief Society leaders went into some of the homes of families in the ward and asked them questions about prayer, scripture, family home evening and how they do things in there home and then put together a forty minute video. There was such a variety of wisdom and advice. I left feeling so enriched and blessed to be part of such a good ward. I'll share some of my favorite answers to the questions that were asked on the video.
One of the questions asked was, what was one of your most memorable Family Home evenings? An elderly couple said that they would always choose things that were simple to keep there children's attention. The wife said, "One Monday I decided to not make any beds that day and for Family Home evening we taught our children to make a bed properly not just throw the blanket up and over the mattress. " I thought that this was so simple and so important to teach our children.
Another question that was asked to a family with very young children was, How do you involve all of the children in your Family Home Evenings? They responded by saying," Our son has a drum set and we let him bring it out with some other instruments and let him the twin babies make a lot of noise while we sing the opening song." She said that it keeps everyone interested and I thought it was such a good idea for families with young children because it is sometimes overwhelming trying to keep the kids involved.
The last question I'll share that was asked was, How do you find the time in your busy schedule to Pray? The families answer was that this was hard for them when there daughter had to be off to school really early, the dad had to be to work and the mom was busy making breakfast for the other kids to remember to pray as a family. They said that they came up with the one minute warning rule. The one minute warning was, One minute before one of them had to be out the door it was there responsibility to yell One Minute Warning so that they had time to get together and pray as a family before someone was out the door. It is so easy to get caught up in the craziness of life and forget not only pray, but to pray together as a family. I think that this families one minute warning is the perfect solution to a busy schedule.

The rest of the enrichment night came with a hand out with a message from our Stake Presidency, that said the following: " We call upon the parents to devote there best efforts to the teaching and rearing of there children in gospel principles that will keep them close to the church....We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction and wholesome family activities." Elder Ballard has also said, " What matters most is what lasts the longest, and our families are for eternity." Lets strengthen our families by doing the following:

1) Have weekly Family Home evening

2) Have Daily Family and Personal Prayer

3) Have Daily Family and Personal Scripture Study

4) Reduce Debt

5) Have Family Dinner at least four nights a week.

We promise that if we heed the council of our leaders and do these things, our families will be fortified and strengthened. To top it off we had yummy Chocolate and Cheese Fondue.
I hope that you enjoyed our enrichment as much as I did and that it will inspire you to to better like it did me.