* *The Kirkwood Castle*: August 2010

We had a really fun FHE tonight and I thought I would share. We made playdough at the beginning of family home evening and each child got assigned one thing to add to the pot. One put in a cup of flour, one added the bowl with 1/4 cup salt and 2 teaspoons of cream of tarter. One added one cup of water that contained 1 tablespoon of oil and Koolaid to it's color. We made two colors, so Brandon and I each had a pot to stir, over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until it turned into a lumpy ball. As we were stirring, we took the opportunity to talk about how this playdough was like Heavenly Father's church. The kids tried to guess why they were alike. Evan thought it was because it smelled good! So I explained that we each had a specific part in making the playdough so that it works. We couldn't all have the water or it would just be wet. We couldn't all have the flour or it would just be dry. We had exactly the right stuff and put it together in just the right way. Then we took the playdough off of the stove to let it cool, pretty quickly, and then showed them how it was all together, but still pretty lumpy. We had to knead it and work it in order for it to be smooth. I explained to them how this is like the church, because Heavenly Father has given us all talents to help make His church work smoothly. Some of us are creative, some of us are friendly, some of us are natural leader, some of us are doers. Just having those talents is not enough, though. We must mix them with the talents that others have and use them. We set the playdough aside and went into the living room for Riley's portion of the evening. He had come up with the idea of talking about talents. Here is his talk:

"WE NEED THEE EVERY HOUR

Did you know we wouldn’t be very talented if we didn’t believe in God? Well we wouldn’t. All of our talent comes from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father has given talents to each of his children.

Here is a story I read that talks about this:

Wendy watched her sister Shelley draw a beautiful picture of the mountains behind their home. Wendy was discouraged because she couldn’t draw as well as Shelley did. Shelley played the piano too and was smart in school. Wendy thought about all the things that Shelley could do well. She wondered why she couldn’t do those things well also. One day Wendy’s teacher asked her to give a talk in Primary. She worked hard on it and gave a good talk. The bishop heard Wendy’s talk and told her how much he enjoyed her talk. He told Wendy that she was very talented.

A warm feeling came over Wendy. The bishop’s words helped Wendy discover something important about herself. Wendy soon discovered that she had other talents too. She made friends easily, and other children always wanted to be with her. She loved to read and write. When she went to church, she was reverent and listened to her teacher. Wendy had never thought that these were talents because they were not like Shelley’s talents. Now Wendy realized that she did have talents, but her talents were different from her sister’s.

I bare my testimony that Heavenly Father has given us all our talents. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

After Riley gave his talk, we went around and told what we thought our talents were . Then we each told what we thought someone else was talented at. We talked about how we could use these talents to serve Heavenly Father and how we needed Him all of the time to help strengthen our testimonies about our talents and to help us use them. We ended our FHE by singing 'We need Thee every hour'. After the prayer, they got to play with the dough that was ready for them.

I have to say, this was one of the most fun FHE's we've done in the past few months. Hearing all the kids tell me one thing that they think I'm talented at was neat. Hearing them compliment each other and talk about how they could do things to help at church just made me feel good inside. It feels kind of formal, but I want to bare my testimony that Heavenly Father has given us all special talents. They are for His work and His purposes, not just ours, and we need to pray to find out where our talents can best be used. It's not always were we imagine them to be needed, but we need to be open to the path that He has us on, because it will only lead to blessings. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

* The Kirkwood Castle

Monday, August 16, 2010

Family Home Evening

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The wait is over...