Scriptures & FHE

I need to do a better job at writing on this blog to document things we are doing & learning as a family.

We are constantly working to do a better job at having regular weekly family home evening. Often we have our lesson during dinner when everyone is sitting and busy eating because there is less running around and sheer craziness. I don't know why, but Monday evening always seems to surprise me and I never seem to take enough time to plan a lesson.

We've started focusing on single scripture verses or single articles of faith so that we keep the lesson short and simple... and there isn't any huge prep needed. This week we focused on Mosiah 4:30.

Earlier in the day we made a ghost for an alphabet game, so during FHE we used it as the "good ghost" to help us as we talked about good deeds, thoughts, words, and keeping the commandments.

The kids brainstormed good thoughts, deeds, words, and ways we could keep the commandments... and we wrote them down and fed them to our hungry ghost. It was such a silly & fun lesson. They wanted to feed the ghost again and again. After we fed the ghost, we tossed balls through it's mouth too.

Then we added Mosiah 4:30 to our scripture stash. These are the scriptures we keep in Andrew's room to read at bedtime. He picks one to read every night. I have been amazed at how quickly he has learned the words and memorized a few of the scriptures. We are focusing on the Book of Mormon Scripture Mastery scriptures right now. I love getting to memorize them together.

I still remember when I was learning to read as a kid that we would get a chance to read from the scriptures and I thought it was so cool (and hard) and I really felt like my reading was blessed as I read the scriptures.

When I lived in Spain one of the main ways that I learned new Spanish vocabulary words was through reading the scriptures. Each day I would pick a new Article of Faith to memorize in Spanish and then I would also just read at night. I definitely felt like my language skills were blessed as I studied the scriptures. 

I know that scripture reading is really important and I don't make enough time for it for myself personally or for our family. General Conference this past weekend really reminded me how important it is for me to be more diligent with doing the simple things like reading my scriptures, saying meaningful prayers, and have weekly family home evening.