FHE Monday #8

Yesterday I spontaneously remembered to do FHE, which is great because GB is getting older and we really need to be better about doing it. He doesn't really participate in the lesson, but we at least try to do songs and a scripture with him.

We started off by singing "I Am a Child of God", and then prayed. Husband Man said he had an impromptu lesson, so while he got it together I sat down with GB's Book of Mormon board book and we read the story about Nephi building the boat. He barely sat still while I read the condensed version in the book, but then I sang the corresponding verse of "Nephi's Courage" to him, and he grinned and waved his arms in the air. When I finished he made his little "sing a song" noise, (kind of a... whine? "ooh"? but not really? hard to describe) and so I sang the third verse too. Then he played in his play hut while Husband Man and I did the lesson.

We've been reading in Preach My Gospel for companion study, and so Husband Man turned to the Attribute Activity in chapter 6 (page 126). We each had a piece of paper, and we wrote down all the numbers (1-57). The activity is divided up into different sections based on Christlike Attributes (faith, hope, knowledge, etc) and Husband Man said to pick two sections. Then we filled in the responses for each question using the response key. It was a fun but difficult activity! For a few questions I thought, "Oh, I'm all right! Whew!" For a few other questions I felt awful, because being honest with yourself is always awful. On top of it all there were a few other aspects that I hadn't even considered!

But despite it all (or rather, despite the guilt that comes with knowing you are imperfect), the activity really opened my eyes. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all of the advice you hear from talks, all the ways you should or can improve, all the steps to take to becoming a stronger disciple of Christ. When I want to sit down and figure out how to start, I can't decide where to start. This activity broke it down into sections, and from there we started with just one. It doesn't matter which one. You rate how you're doing, and then pick one you feel you could do better. It gave a direction for us to go.

If you want to do it, you can read the chapter in Preach My Gospel about Christlike Attributes and then look over the Attribute Activity. The directions are straightforward. You can do the whole thing at once, but I would recommend doing one or two sections at a time. Try not to feel overwhelmed with how good or bad you might feel you are doing, but instead be prayerful in your heart and be honest with yourself. The Lord knows your weaknesses, and wants to help you improve. Satan wants you to feel disheartened and give up. You are a good person! 

After we had finished the activity we sang some silly Primary songs with GB. My favorite is "Popcorn Popping" because he can kind of do most of the actions and it is SO funny to watch him. Then we sang "I Love to See the Temple" as the closing song, and ended with a prayer. I am so happy that we had Family Home Evening this week, because I always feel better about everything when we do! I can tell it strengthens our home for the challenges that we will face this week, whatever they may be.