born of goodly parents

i have been trying so hard to make sure we read from our come follow me book and have a discussion each night. i know that the responsibility to teach our children about the gospel is now on us and i cannot and will not let the lord down. i was trying to think of something good to teach for our family home evening on monday and the words nephi said in the opening verse of the book of mormon came into my mind, "i nephi, having been born of goodly parents." having wonderful parents of my own, i have always loved those words and know that it is something important that he pointed out. 

so for family home evening tonight - i had joseph read the words aloud from 1st nephi 1:1

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

and then we talked about it. both we and our children were blessed with goodly parents who raised us in the gospel. to believe that god is real and hears our prayers - so that we could one day know for ourselves. we aren't so different from nephi. we have the same thing, both earthly and heavenly parents who are here to do what the hymn "i am a child of god"teaches us:

i am a child of god and he has sent me here

has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear

lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way

teach me all that i must do, to live with him someday.

and like it or not, we have something else the same as nephi. afflictions. because this life just wouldn't be what it is without them. maybe they are nothing like his, but we are certainly feeling some right now! my point was, having goodly parents, means we can turn to them in our times of need. like right now. i know the first person i call when i am upset is my mum! we are right here to talk to them and help when we can - but so is their heavenly father and they can talk to him any time they like too. i hope they will!

i did also find some wonderful advice on how to become goodly parents - so i'll leave it here, i am sure it will come in handy for me at some stage.

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our "afflictions" in this craziness continue...

schools are still open whilst practicing social distancing, we got the message sunday afternoon that dance classes were off... so i guess we just continue to watch and wait.

easy fhe ideas

family home evening is an evening that we as members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints set aside to spend as a family. it's a time when we can instruct during a gospel centred lesson, sing a song, have family scripture study, have family prayer and enjoy a game and treat. in theory. let's be honest, it's hard. and it's especially hard to keep the attention of a 3 year old and an almost 6 year old. so i have been desperately trying to think of easy lessons to keep their attention!

our evening normally goes like this:

opening prayer

opening song

(simple primary song, favourites include i am a child of god, jesus wants me for a sunbeam, give said the little stream, follow the prophet, i love to see the temple...)

good news bad news

(we stole this idea from our friends family. you go through the room, from youngest to oldest and say one good thing that happened during the week and one bad thing. it's pretty hilarious!)

lesson

scripture

(from our kids illustrated version of the standard works)

closing song

family prayer

but i have finally been able to think up some good ideas for easy kid friendly lessons, all based on my gospel library pictures. i have them in a plastic box, but you can order them in a spiral bound flip book online here. a very good investment!

simple lesson 1:

the first vision.

i showed madeline and joseph various pictures of joseph smith and asked who is this? i then showed the picture of him reading the bible and read them james 1:5 and told them about he wondered which church he should join and how he asked his heavenly father after reading that passage. next picture the first vision, where i read the first vision and told them about how he saw heavenly father and jesus christ. it was a great little lesson and i actually managed to keep their attention the whole time. win!

simple lesson 2: 

prophets speak to our heavenly father

this one was even easier! i found pictures of prophets throughout time. eg. adam, noah, samuel, nephi, moroni, joseph smith... and ended with thomas s monson. i asked the kids who each one was, and i was well impressed with madeline who knew all except for one or two and joseph who knew a lot of them too! i asked the kids what all of them have in common and we decided it was that they were all prophets. i then told them that each of them speak to heavenly father and that is how we can hear his voice and know what he wants us to do. i also mentioned general conference and that's why we need to listen carefully while the speakers speak! simple, easy, effective. 

simple lesson 3:

the brother of jared needed to light his boats

we told the story of the brother of jared (found in ether 3) and how he needed to light his boats to sail across the sea. we have a fountain in our backyard full of round river stones, so i had my husband go and find some stones of similar sizes and bring them in. i told the children about how sometimes we will take our problems to our heavenly father and he won't necessarily give us the answer... he'll ask us to work it out for ourselves and come back to him, so we need to always think for ourselves! i took the stones to the door of the loungeroom and had my husband reach around the door to touch them so they would glow and then threw some glow sticks in with them! he then stepped out from behind the door so they could see him, the same as the brother of jared had the faith to see the lord. bonus points for family participation haha.

these are just three easy ideas i've come up with the last few weeks... there has to be hundreds! but fhe with kids will never be easy, just hang in there! ♥

scripture eggs

for family home evening this week, we got to do something a little different that was super fun and easter related... a friend of mums made her a carton of actual "easter eggs" as in they contained easter scriptures and items related to them inside. we had a great time opening them and reading the scriptures together and explaining how the contents related to the scripture. it really helped our kids, small as they may be, to think about what easter is really about.

i would totally recommend making a set if you have small kids, (or even for big kids and adults!) for a lesson during the easter season... so here are the scriptures and contents for you:

1. matthew 26:15 30 silver pieces

2. 3 nephi 11:11-12 & matthew 26:39 sacrament cup

3. matthew 27:24 small chunk of soap

4. mark 14:29-31, 53, 66-72 mini chicken

5. matthew 27:28-29 red fabric

6. alma 11:42 piece of rope

7. john 19:24 dice

8. matthew 27:51-54 rocks

9. john: 19:39 rosemary stem

10. luke 24:1-10 round white pebble

11. john 20:25-26 nails

12. matthew 27:59 & matthew 28:6 white fabric

pinkall christmas fhe

any one who follows along on my blog or knows me in real life, will know that once a month (on the first monday) we have a family home evening night with our friends, the pinker family.

this monday night was a special christmas one and it was a wonderful night. we started off with a roast dinner (side note, the weather here has been ridiculously cold, it was so stormy on the weekend that they even had to cancel the perth city christmas pageant, keep in mind that it is summer here and december is normally so hot it is insane... so a hot meal was wonderful!) and then had our family home evening together...

we sang christmas carols, watched the nativity video, which you can find here if you want to see it, it is the most beautiful one i've seen, so perfectly in line with the scriptural account and just perfect to watch with your family... the kids loved it. we also played a game with a message of letting christ into our lives, wrote a list of what we can give this christmas and then we read the bible story of the birth of christ in luke chapter 2.

it was a perfect christmas evening,

it's the most wonderful time of the year ♥

pink-all family home evening

on the first monday of every month, we have a special family home evening with our family friends, the pinkers. we've been doing it for over a year now and we love it - because it guarantees we see each other at least once a month. for anyone that's reading my little blog that's not a member of our church, you can read more about family home evening here...

they arrived this monday, with a gift for the newest one year old we know... and doug was stoked, a perth wildcats jersey! he loves them... and loves kids in sporting attire, so it was a win/win! plus look how happy he was to be wearing it! we always joke about "birthday week" in our family, although sometimes it ends up being more like birthday month as we catch up with people a little later on.

we love fhe and the pinker family and are so glad to count them as members of our (extended) family!

forgiveness

last night we spoke about forgiveness during family home evening. as i am sure any one else with young children knows, it can be difficult to keep their attention for anything in depth - so we either read a gospel story that follows with a little video, or have a discussion where we talk about something we want madeline to learn. 

her response was priceless... and needs to be documented, something to drag out at the 21st birthday perhaps? "maddie do you know what forgiveness is?" "yes. it's when you don't hit yourself with a planet. i need to go see jesus. when i hit jesus, he said go away from me (she said this really stern and in a loud voice making it even funnier) don't hit people and daddy. that's what the problem is."

we were laughing so hard. what a little nutter. at least fhe is never boring in our house!

the road to bethlehem

on monday night, we went to the seventh day adventist road to to bethlehem for the first time for one of our december family home evenings... one of my friends goes every single year without fail and this time we decided to give it a go with some friends from church - it was amazing! (you can read more about it here - and follow their website ready to go next year!)

basically, the road to bethlehem is exactly what it's called, you book your tickets online (don't worry - it is free, but they have had so much interest the last few years that it's been necessary to allocate tickets to ensure everyone can get through) and show up to your allocated booking time, where you are met at the gate by roman soldiers. you then begin to walk the road to bethlehem - starting with mary being told that she will bear a son, josephs reaction, the three wise men commencing their journey, cesear telling of his desire to "worship" the child, the shepherds being visited by the angels... before entering the bustling marketplace and finally seeing joseph and mary in the stable with their baby and the angels singing their praises.

it was such a wonderful experience and one that really tells of the true meaning of christmas and enables the spirit to be felt strongly by those present. it's basically a live nativity and because of this, the busy, bustling, crazy preparing and present buying that is so easily associated with christmas just fades away.

i think the market place was my favourite part, there were so many children from the church dressed in robes, haggling, shouting, calling and running - it really felt as if one had just jumped back two centuries and fallen into the time of christ. they did such a wonderful job!

the marketplace, with all its bargaining and bustling...

in the final scene prior to exit, mary and joseph are proudly showing off their baby - and what an adorable baby he was! fast asleep and not even stirring even under the bright lights and the choir of angels singing for him. 

and the best bit? we were shuttled to and from the church from a local school carpark, so my pregnant feet didn't even have to walk anywhere haha. i am so totally going every year from now on... what a blessing it was to participate and watch the greatest story ever told.