1. Opening Prayer
2. Sing "I Am a Child of God" Children's Songbook pg. 2
3. Read Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
4. Read and discuss The Family: A Proclamation to the World:
We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.
The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.
We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.
Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.
We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: Love At Home (FHE Resource Book, Lesson 17)
Family Unity (FHE Resource Book, Lesson 21)
Together Forever (Friend, Feb. 2002)
Young Couple Going to the Temple (Gospel Art Picture Kit)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Family Home Evening Lesson #45: PROPHETS TEACH ME HOW TO STRENGTHEN MY FAMILY
1. Opening Prayer
2. Sing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" Hymns pg. 19
3. Read D&C 1:38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
4. Read and discuss the following from "Maddie's Grumpy Afternoon" in the September 2009 Friend.
Maddie was having fun coloring in her coloring book when she heard Mom calling her to get in the car so they could run errands. Maddie did not like going on errands. She pretended she didn’t hear her mom and kept coloring.
Finally, Mom came to Maddie. “Maddie, I have been calling you and calling you. Everyone is in the car, and we are waiting for you. We need to go to the bank, to the grocery store, and to put gas in the car. Please hurry.”
“I don’t want to come,” Maddie said. “Errands are boring. They take forever!”
“I need you to please obey,” Mom said. “You can bring your crayons and coloring book.”
Maddie growled and grumbled as she picked up her things and stomped after Mom to the car.
“This is not fair!” Maddie whined.
As they drove along, Maddie had a hard time keeping her crayons inside the lines of the picture she was coloring.
“I can’t color in the car,” Maddie said. “Every time you turn it makes me mess up!”
Maddie thought if she was miserable running errands, everyone else should be miserable too. At each stop the family made, Maddie had something to complain about. She complained and complained and complained.
When they finally got home, Maddie ran to her room. She was glad to be home. But she was starting to feel sorry about the way she had behaved. Making everyone else miserable hadn’t made her feel any happier.
She thought about the family home evening lesson Mom had taught the week before. Mom talked about Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel. She asked who had been more obedient, and Maddie said Nephi. When Dad asked her why, Maddie said that Nephi was the one who did what he was asked to do.
Dad explained that Laman and Lemuel had gone with their family into the wilderness and with Nephi to get the brass plates from Laban. But Laman and Lemuel had murmured and complained. They were miserable and tried to make everyone else miserable. But Nephi respected his parents and Heavenly Father. Even when he was asked to do something hard, Nephi obeyed without complaining.
Maddie realized that even though she had gone to the car as she had been asked, and even though she had gone on all of the errands with her family, she had not been like Nephi.
Maddie put down her crayons. She walked into the kitchen and apologized to her family for the way she had acted. Mom hugged Maddie and asked her to help her brother set the table for dinner. Maddie didn’t really want to help, but she said OK and went to the cupboard to get the plates without complaining. Mom smiled at her, and Maddie smiled back. She was feeling better already.
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: Prophets Teach Me to Strengthen my Family (Friend, Oct. 2004)
Family Unity (FHE Resource Book, Lesson 21)
Family Togetherness (Gospel Art Picture Kit)
2. Sing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" Hymns pg. 19
3. Read D&C 1:38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
4. Read and discuss the following from "Maddie's Grumpy Afternoon" in the September 2009 Friend.
Maddie was having fun coloring in her coloring book when she heard Mom calling her to get in the car so they could run errands. Maddie did not like going on errands. She pretended she didn’t hear her mom and kept coloring.
Finally, Mom came to Maddie. “Maddie, I have been calling you and calling you. Everyone is in the car, and we are waiting for you. We need to go to the bank, to the grocery store, and to put gas in the car. Please hurry.”
“I don’t want to come,” Maddie said. “Errands are boring. They take forever!”
“I need you to please obey,” Mom said. “You can bring your crayons and coloring book.”
Maddie growled and grumbled as she picked up her things and stomped after Mom to the car.
“This is not fair!” Maddie whined.
As they drove along, Maddie had a hard time keeping her crayons inside the lines of the picture she was coloring.
“I can’t color in the car,” Maddie said. “Every time you turn it makes me mess up!”
Maddie thought if she was miserable running errands, everyone else should be miserable too. At each stop the family made, Maddie had something to complain about. She complained and complained and complained.
When they finally got home, Maddie ran to her room. She was glad to be home. But she was starting to feel sorry about the way she had behaved. Making everyone else miserable hadn’t made her feel any happier.
She thought about the family home evening lesson Mom had taught the week before. Mom talked about Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel. She asked who had been more obedient, and Maddie said Nephi. When Dad asked her why, Maddie said that Nephi was the one who did what he was asked to do.
Dad explained that Laman and Lemuel had gone with their family into the wilderness and with Nephi to get the brass plates from Laban. But Laman and Lemuel had murmured and complained. They were miserable and tried to make everyone else miserable. But Nephi respected his parents and Heavenly Father. Even when he was asked to do something hard, Nephi obeyed without complaining.
Maddie realized that even though she had gone to the car as she had been asked, and even though she had gone on all of the errands with her family, she had not been like Nephi.
Maddie put down her crayons. She walked into the kitchen and apologized to her family for the way she had acted. Mom hugged Maddie and asked her to help her brother set the table for dinner. Maddie didn’t really want to help, but she said OK and went to the cupboard to get the plates without complaining. Mom smiled at her, and Maddie smiled back. She was feeling better already.
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: Prophets Teach Me to Strengthen my Family (Friend, Oct. 2004)
Family Unity (FHE Resource Book, Lesson 21)
Family Togetherness (Gospel Art Picture Kit)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Family Home Evening Lesson #44: STANDING FOR SOMETHING--FORGIVENESS & MERCY
1. Opening Prayer
2. Sing "Help Me, Dear Father" Children's Songbook pg. 99
3. Read D&C 64:10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
4. Read and discuss the following from Gordon B. Hinckley:
A spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those who may have wronged us is of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us has need of this spirit. The whole world has need of it. The Lord taught it. He exemplified it as none other has exemplified it.
In the time of his agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before him, those who had brought him to this terrible crucifixion, he cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)
None of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy. The Lord has declared in words of revelation: “My disciples, in days of old, sought occasion against one another and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.
“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
“And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.” (D&C 64:8–11.)
I know of no more beautiful story in all literature than that found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. It is the story of a repentant son and a forgiving father. It is the story of a son who wasted his inheritance in riotous living, rejecting his father’s counsel, spurning those who loved him. When he had spent all, he was hungry and friendless, and “when he came to himself” (Luke 15:17), he turned back to his father, who, on seeing him afar off, “ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
I ask you to read that story. Every parent ought to read it again and again. It is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow His example?
His Beloved Son, our Redeemer, reaches out to us in forgiveness and mercy, but in so doing he commands repentance. A true and magnanimous spirit of forgiveness will become an expression of that required repentance. Said the Lord—and I quote from a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph:
“Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit . …
“Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.” (D&C 19:15–18, 23.)
Such is the commandment, and such is the promise of him who, in his great exemplary prayer, pleaded, “Father, … forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matt. 6:9, 12.)
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: The Prodigal Son (Gospel Art Picture Kit)
Forgiving (FHE Resource Book)
2. Sing "Help Me, Dear Father" Children's Songbook pg. 99
3. Read D&C 64:10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
4. Read and discuss the following from Gordon B. Hinckley:
A spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those who may have wronged us is of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us has need of this spirit. The whole world has need of it. The Lord taught it. He exemplified it as none other has exemplified it.
In the time of his agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before him, those who had brought him to this terrible crucifixion, he cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)
None of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy. The Lord has declared in words of revelation: “My disciples, in days of old, sought occasion against one another and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.
“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
“And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.” (D&C 64:8–11.)
I know of no more beautiful story in all literature than that found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. It is the story of a repentant son and a forgiving father. It is the story of a son who wasted his inheritance in riotous living, rejecting his father’s counsel, spurning those who loved him. When he had spent all, he was hungry and friendless, and “when he came to himself” (Luke 15:17), he turned back to his father, who, on seeing him afar off, “ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
I ask you to read that story. Every parent ought to read it again and again. It is large enough to encompass every household, and enough larger than that to encompass all mankind, for are we not all prodigal sons and daughters who need to repent and partake of the forgiving mercy of our Heavenly Father and then follow His example?
His Beloved Son, our Redeemer, reaches out to us in forgiveness and mercy, but in so doing he commands repentance. A true and magnanimous spirit of forgiveness will become an expression of that required repentance. Said the Lord—and I quote from a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph:
“Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit . …
“Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.” (D&C 19:15–18, 23.)
Such is the commandment, and such is the promise of him who, in his great exemplary prayer, pleaded, “Father, … forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matt. 6:9, 12.)
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: The Prodigal Son (Gospel Art Picture Kit)
Forgiving (FHE Resource Book)
Monday, October 5, 2009
Family Home Evening Lesson #43: STANDING FOR SOMETHING--LEARNING
1. Opening Prayer
2. Sing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" Children's Songbook pg. 177
3. Read D&C 109:7-8 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith; Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.
4. Read and discuss the following from Gordon B. Hinckley:
You are moving into the most competitive age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency in your chosen field.
You belong to a church that teaches the importance of education. You have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and your hands. The Lord has said, “Teach ye diligently … of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—that ye may be prepared in all things” (D&C 88:78–80).
Mind you, these are not my words. These are the words of the Lord who loves you. He wants you to train your minds and hands to become an influence for good as you go forward with your lives. And as you do so and as you perform honorably and with excellence, you will bring honor to the Church, for you will be regarded as a man or woman of integrity and ability and conscientious workmanship.
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: A Prophet's Counsel and Prayer for Youth (Ensign, Jan. 2001)
With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding (Ensign, Aug. 1988)
Education (For the Strength of Youth)
New Era, April 2009
2. Sing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" Children's Songbook pg. 177
3. Read D&C 109:7-8 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith; Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.
4. Read and discuss the following from Gordon B. Hinckley:
You are moving into the most competitive age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency in your chosen field.
You belong to a church that teaches the importance of education. You have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and your hands. The Lord has said, “Teach ye diligently … of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—that ye may be prepared in all things” (D&C 88:78–80).
Mind you, these are not my words. These are the words of the Lord who loves you. He wants you to train your minds and hands to become an influence for good as you go forward with your lives. And as you do so and as you perform honorably and with excellence, you will bring honor to the Church, for you will be regarded as a man or woman of integrity and ability and conscientious workmanship.
5. Closing Prayer
Additional Resources: A Prophet's Counsel and Prayer for Youth (Ensign, Jan. 2001)
With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding (Ensign, Aug. 1988)
Education (For the Strength of Youth)
New Era, April 2009
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