To be honest, we are really awful about doing FHE. We've been married for two years and I can count on one hand the number of times we've had it. We've heard the counsel, I've felt the impressions that it's so important- one of the biggest ones being, if you can't do it when there's two of you then how will you do it in the future when you have kids and even more responsibilities?- but we've just been plain lazy.
A while ago, while at DI, I found this cute little booklet put out in 2002 called "Family Home Evening for Newlyweds" and it has a TON of cute and fun ideas. There are different topics, some for just the couple, some that would work for groups, some for holidays; some that cost a little money or not money, or little preparation or no preparation... it's really cool!
So last night I decided that it was now or never with FHE, and I grabbed the booklet. I got as far as page nine before I'd found a couple ideas that I wanted to do. Husband Man decided on one, and it was called "Alphabet Soup" (they have super cheesy names, btw):
The idea was very simple- You take a piece of paper and write out the alphabet down one side, and then you think of words to describe your spouse. The book's examples were silly, like "Always smiling" for A and we wanted actual descriptions that began with A like "Awesome" or "Annoying" or whatever. (Disclaimer: I didn't call Husband Man "annoying".) Some of mine for Husband Man were "Book-a-holic" and "Logical" and a few silly things like "Yow Maximus" (that's a name he came up with that he wants to bestow up on one of our future children. Don't worry, I said N-O).
The activity doesn't seem like it would take that long, but we tried to be really creative and so it actually took quite a while! And since I finished first I chose a scripture, Genesis 2:24, that I thought could go along with the activity. When we were both done I read the scripture, and then we sat together and took turns reading them- "I put ____ for A, what did you have?" and so on down the alphabet.
It was super fun because it got my brain thinking, and it made me respect and appreciate my husband even more as I tried to think up a ton different and creative ways to describe him and tell him how I appreciate him- in only a word or two.
Don't worry, you can do it! We were really bad about FHE until after Austin was old enough to get what we were doing. Having kids made it even more of a priority. As newlyweds, if you keep it up, it's like a spiritual date night!
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