FHE, Prayer, and Scripture Study

Family Search's question for October 21st was: What were the faith and religious traditions of your ancestors?

For this post I decided not to go very far back, and I'm going to share the traditions that I grew up with and how they inspired my own. I'm going to talk about Family Home Evening, Family prayer, and Family scripture study.

Family Home Evening

Growing up we either had FHE on Sundays or Mondays depending on how life was going that year. We had a FHE wheel that had our names on it: Mom, Dad, Chelsey, Michael. Outside of the wheel were the following "jobs": Prayer, Song, Lesson, Treats. We turned the wheel one position each week to rotate jobs. The person on prayer chose to say either the opening or closing prayer and called on someone else for the other one. The person on song chose the song and led the music. The person on lesson gave the lesson. And the person on treats chose the treat, but my mom usually ended up making them regardless of who is on treats.

When Gerson and I first started doing FHE in our home we used a FHE jar that I had made in Relief Society. It was easy to pull a topic out that already had scriptures, song, and activity ideas. We took turns each week. When we ran out, we had to start thinking of stuff ourselves. Around that time I felt inspired that the kids should get involved with FHE as well. As if by inspiration my aunt gave us a gift that happened to be a FHE board! It's a black board, so we write in chalk. When it's Benjamin's turn to give the lesson, I help him pick something and practice it. When it's Luna's turn to give the lesson Gerson picks something and has her answer questions about the topic. Family Home Evenings have become a lot more spiritual as we have gotten the kids involved.

Family Prayer

Growing up we said prayer at dinner time and right before bed. My dad called one of us to say prayer each time.

When Gerson and I were getting ready to get married, my stake president recommended that Gerson say prayer on the odd numbered days, and I say prayer on the even numbered days; that way there is no confusion on whose turn it is to say prayer. We stuck to that until about two months ago. At that time I felt inspired that we needed to include Benjamin and Luna in family prayer, they have been learning how to pray in primary and both had asked to say it. So now Gerson calls on someone for prayer at dinner time and bed time. I also felt inspired to start having family morning prayers. Benjamin and Luna serve as our alarm clock, and I say it.

Family Scriptures

Growing up we read different versions of the scriptures depending on my and Michael's age. We started with what I call the "comic book scriptures." They have little box pictures with a few sentences under each to describe what is going on. My brother and I learned how to read with those. Next we read another illustrated version, but there was only one picture per page and more detailed text. Then we moved on to the regular scriptures. Once Michael and I could read, whatever version of the scriptures we were one we divided up the reading equally among my dad, mom, Michael, and I.

Gerson and I didn't start reading scriptures as a family until after Benjamin was born. We got the "comic book scriptures" when Benjamin was around a year old and are still reading those. Since my kids can't read yet, Gerson and I divide the reading up between the two of us. We have each set in English and Spanish. We read the chapter in English one night, and then the same chapter in Spanish the next night. Benjamin and Luna sit next to us and look at the pictures as we read, and we let them make comments and ask questions.

As my kids get older, and more join our family I'm sure we will change up little details. The recent changes we have made have been so good for our family and our spiritual growth.