Family Home Evening Helps

Cyber Family Home Evening

Anthony Hart, Utah, USA

Weekly family home evening: that was our goal. My wife and I prayed and read scriptures together each day. But we struggled to hold family home evening on a regular basis. Since we don’t have children, it seemed a little strange to do the same things we usually do together and call it “family home evening.”

Soon after we set our goal, I received a new job offer in a different state. The employer needed me right away and I had to move into temporary housing for a month before my wife could join me. Among other challenges that came was the difficulty in keeping our family home evening goal. We wanted to keep our commitment, but I couldn’t fly back home every Monday night.

The solution turned out to be simple: we would use the Internet. We took turns each week preparing a lesson. Often we would use talks we found on LDS.org. On Monday nights, we would each say a prayer before connecting via an instant-messaging program. We would then access the lesson material in our Web browsers and read it together. We then discussed the material and shared personal insights—all through instant messages we typed to one another. After the lesson, we would pause to allow each other time to say a closing prayer. Then we would play chess, Chinese checkers, or some other game together over the Internet.

Our cyber family home evenings became a good way for us to remain closely connected while we lived in different states. Best of all, we were able to keep our Monday-night commitment.