F.H.E. Fun

We make it a practice in our home to have a weekly Family Home Evening in which we have a welcomer, a song, prayer, lesson, game, then treat. Sometimes it goes a lot better than others and often Nathan and I have no idea what the kids are getting out of it. Despite the fact that they often get out of control and don't appear to be listening, I know that deep down we are really getting into their minds and influencing them for the better, whether they or we know it or not. So, every Monday night we let one of the kids pick the picture (from the gospel art kit) for the lesson, and the other child gets to welcome everyone to the Clark Family Home Evening. Kaylie and Carter both really love being the welcomer and if we don't remember whose turn it is all havoc reeks loose. However, last night went rather smoothly. Kaylie did the welcoming and Carter chose the picture about Jesus standing at the door with no handles and knocking. It turned out really well and Nathan and I team taught the lesson in order to keep the kids interest. I started out by having the kids describe what they saw in the picture and what was weird about the door. They both recognized Christ was knocking on the door right away but it took them a while to notice the missing door handle. Then we discussed why the door was missing a handle and what it meant in our lives. After a few repetitions of this sweet message of how the Saviour longs for us to open the doors of our hearts and let him in, Nate said he heard a knocking. He and the kids walked downstairs to our front door (while I continued to knock on the wall) and then Nate opened the door and pretended to let the Savior in. All in all it was a nice lesson. The children got really excited thinking that Christ was in our house as our guest. We are striving as a family to always have our home be a place where He can reside and where others can feel His love at all times. We often feel very far from that goal. However, the sweet feelings during and after FHE last night stirred in my soul a renewal of testimony that He can be with us all the time if we but let Him. He's standing at the door knocking and it is up to us to let Him in!
Another quick little note about FHE: Carter is not much of a singer and although he loves hearing songs and having others sing to him he rarely participates or sings himself. However, lately he has been singing up a storm, and it is usually just one song: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The kid is pretty tone deaf and changes the words around, but oh how my heart melts to hear his enthusiasm. Today during lunch, Carter randomly started singing "ChooChoo the Little Train is coming down the track now, stop, look, and listen". He knew all the words- which was a miracle in and of itself. The thing that impressed me though was that we hadn't sung that song since we lived in Layton (with my inlaws), which was at least 6 months ago. We used to sing it for Family Home Evening there, and even though he didn't sing it then, his little mind captured the song and is now recalling it months later, with no prompting from anyone. Kids really do absorb things, even they appear to have no attention span at all!