A House of God

Section 8

Family Prayer, Family Scripture Study, Family Home Evening

In order to have a consistent time for family prayer, family scripture study and family home evening, my husband and I had to work hard at it together. We have an ideal that we strive for that “father” is the leader of the family’s spiritual activities. What I found with my husband is that if he has a plan, he can preside over any kind of family activity and does very well. If he doesn’t have a plan, it takes him too long to collect his thoughts and the children too quickly lose interest and begin to misbehave. The stress begins to escalate, the spirit withdraws, the meeting deteriorates, and no one looks forward to the next family meeting. To remedy this, we made an easy to follow plan for my husband to follow. We have a plan for each step of the plan. We have a plan for the family prayer. We have a plan for the family scripture mastery. We have a plan for the song. We have a plan for the activities. We have a plan with visual aids for Family Scripture Study. We have a plan how to assign responsibilities to each member of the family. We have a plan for earning allowance and a plan for the disbursing of allowance. And best of all, this plan will be repeated year after year and never have to be planned again! With a plan, a family can accomplish great things. Everyone knows what is expected of them and everyone has an important part to play. Without a plan, family prayer, family scripture study and family home evening can easily get pushed out of the schedule. When there was no time to put together a plan, the moment passes and with it the opportunity for special family bonding moments. Many days are like that. Right up to the last minute there is no time to plan the lesson, plan the activity, plan the treat, etc. It’s the planning that makes it all come to pass. It’s the planning that makes it an overwhelming task. To have these things all planned out with no preparation time required would provide families with an environment of peace and confidence as parents carry out these important family moments. Much like the recipes in section 2 that are already planned and prepared so that all that is required from you is to “just add water and stir” to provide the highest quality nutrition to your loved ones, the plan for family prayer, family scripture study and family home evening is the same. It is already prepared with the highest spiritual nutrition so that all you add is the water—the spirit that will bring it alive. Just open your notebook to section 8 and begin presiding over a wonderful and blessed family experience. In a crisis, times will be demanding—even more than they are now. If we are going to be the kind of family that continues to provide these crucial spiritual experiences in our own home during a crisis, we have to start now and “practice” holding family home evening, family scripture study and family prayer no matter what pressing thing may come up. We provide the plan—you provide the spirit. When we are obedient to these simple principles of holding spiritual meetings with our family in our own homes we are promised many blessings. As temptations and evil escalate, so must our spiritual warfare to fight the good fight and to protect our family members. The greatest protection we can provide them is their own suit of the Full Armor of God that comes when families pray and study the word of God together and establish a House of God.

Teré Foster

Founder of 3DHealth.net