My church encourages its members to hold something called Family Home Evening. It's a night set aside each week to have fun as a family while learning principles taught by Christ. Sometimes putting this thing together is frustrating even (especially) with everyone helping. This week Mary conducted the meeting. Jonah really wanted sing Space Unicorn for the opening hymn but was persuaded to choose something from the Children's Songbook. Two-year-old Daniel was too busy playing (biting his sister and throwing books) to give an opening prayer, so I offered it instead. For the lesson, Hannah, who's almost five, decided to sing a song she wrote. It rhymed. It was pretty rad...even though we all had to close our eyes and promise not to peek before she would perform in front of us. I added a sentence about following Hannah's example of finding the courage to develop her talents and decided this totally counts. Then we cracked open the refreshments Beth made. They were not the cupcakes she wanted to bake. It was a busy day. I only had time to help her make this ice cream jello thing which everyone (except me--I love ice cream jello things) pretended to eat while we watched a short TED talk about the amazing life forms being found in the deepest parts of the ocean. I think it was an interesting video, but all I could hear was, "Wow! That's so cool!" "I can't see!" "Shhhhh!" "He's squishing me!" "What's a tube worm?" "This dessert is disgusting!" "You smell bad!" "She spilled her jello on me!" Jonah led us in singing a closing hymn, Jared shut the whole thing down with a prayer, and we dispersed.
Our thirty minute get-together included biting, jostling, and shushing. We closed our eyes for the first half and picked at a slimy treat for the second. This is a pretty typical Family Home Evening for us. So why do my children love this night with their whole hearts?
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