The other day, it was Jeff's turn to do the lesson for family night. He had us break up into 2 groups and go find different things around the house. Our group had to find a dark cloud, a house, a twisty path, and a tree. The other group had to find some fruit, muddy water, a pole, and some people.
Here is a picture of the final outcome of the lesson. A house with people who were laughing and pointing at those who were holding tightly to the iron rod. There was a plant at the end with fruit that was representing the Tree of Life and partaking of Eternal Life.
Now, just a side note that gives me a little bit of hope of what we are doing may be worth it in the end, this past General Conference, Elder Bednar shared this in his talk and Jeff and I felt like it is exactly what we needed to hear.
"As our sons were growing up, our family did what you have done and what you now do. We had regular family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Now, I am sure what I am about to describe has never occurred in your home, but it did in ours. Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as "He's touching me!" "Make him stop looking at me!" "Mom, he's breathing my air!" Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.
Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent".
How true this is in our household. We had to laugh when we heard it the first time, but the more I read it, the more I can chuckle and rest at ease that someday, just maybe someday, all of these early morning scripture study sessions, Family Home Evenings, Family Prayer, and Temple outings that seem to be a miserable failure of everyones time and energy, just might instill in my kids a little bit of something good. So, in the end, this family night we just had may not be remembered, but hopefully the consistency of it all will ring clear in their hearts and they will be better off because of some of our sacrifices.
