Family Home Evening Ideas

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

“Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?” page 14: Consider opening by singing “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” (Hymns, no. 19). Read the article together or select your favorite sections beforehand to read. Ask family members what they learned about President Thomas S. Monson. Hand out pencils and paper so everyone can write down his or her testimony of President Monson as the living prophet. Invite family members to strengthen this testimony through sincere prayer. Consider closing by singing “Have I Done Any Good?” (Hymns, no. 223).

“A Call for Indexers Worldwide,” page 34: Read the article beforehand. During family home evening, explain why FamilySearch indexing is an important part of family history work and why there is a need for more indexers. If you have a computer and Internet access at home, log on to indexing.familysearch.org. Set up accounts for family members who haven’t indexed before and spend some time indexing together.

“Follow the Prophet,” page 42: Summarize the article for your family. You may want to read together the last section of the article, “Learning to Listen to the Prophetic Word.” Review the phrases that Elder Bennett says can help us discern the direction prophets give us. Invite family members to listen for these phrases in general conference next month. Consider closing with your testimony of following the prophet.

“Alone but Not Alone,” page 54: Start by asking if family members ever feel alone as they strive to live the Lord’s standards. How do they combat these feelings? Share the story of Juan Cabrera. Consider inviting someone to share how he or she has kept the commandments when others did not and how he or she was blessed for that obedience.

“Decide Right Now,” page 66: After reading the article, answer the questions under “Yes or No?” with your children. Then think of more scenarios that require choosing between right and wrong and ask what they would do in each situation.

Inspired by the Nursery Manual

The family home evening I remember best started with an activity in the nursery manual. Together with our little girls, my husband and I enacted an activity verse. We read: “If you’re very, very tall, Heavenly Father knows and loves you. If you’re very, very small, Heavenly Father knows and loves you. Tall, Small, Tall, Small, Heavenly Father knows and loves us all.” While we read, we made ourselves small or tall and pointed out that whatever our stature, Heavenly Father loves us. (See Behold Your Little Ones [2008], 9.)

The girls and my husband then went to get some fruit tarts, and we ate them together. The girls had so much fun that they wanted to repeat the small-and-tall activity during the week.

The beauty of family home evening is its flexibility. Ours are usually short and simple for our young family, but we try to teach our girls fundamental principles such as love, kindness, and praying together.

Valentina Portolan Simonovich, Italy