Our Helping Hands

Our family, especially our seven-year-old, loves family home evening. Not a week goes by that he does not remind us to plan the week’s lesson and activity. Over the years we have had many memorable family home evenings, including one of our favorites—“Helping Hands.”

One Monday night after an opening song and prayer, we talked about many of the wonderful things our hands can do: draw a picture, pet an animal, help with the housework, make cookies, and much more. We discussed ways we could use our hands to serve members of the family. Then we made several tracings of our hands on colored construction paper, cut the tracings out, and decorated them. Soon we each had a small stack of “helping hands” to use throughout the week.

During the next week, whenever we performed an act of service for another family member, we were to leave one of our helping hands near the scene of the service. What a wonderful week we had! Helping hands were found on pillows after a bed had been made, in the dishwasher after dishes were put away, and in the family room after toys had somehow found their way into the toy box.

Our family has become stronger and closer through our family home evenings. We are grateful for the time we can spend together each week preparing to be an eternal family.—Bonnie Hanson Kelly, Salem, Oregon

Photo props and illustrations by David McDonald; photography by John Luke