Family Home Evening

According to Wikipedia, Family Home Evening was first introduced in 1915 by Joseph F. Smith for families to set aside one night a week to spend time together. In 1970 Joseph Fielding Smith designated Monday night to be the night set aside for FHE. A good LDS family will attempt to have FHE every Monday night in order to "solidify the bonds of familial love".

While growing up my parents were pretty good about the FHE thing. We usually held ours on Sundays because Dad had city council meetings on Monday nights. Usually we had some singing, some praying, a lesson, and some treats. That's a typical FHE. I don't remember many "special" FHE's but I do have some memories:

• Once we had a lesson when we lived in Soda Springs (I was probably 8 or 9) about treating our siblings with kindness. We were then assigned a secret family member that we had to do an act of kindness for. I was assigned Spencer so right after the lesson I put together a treasure hunt for him. I think he figured out who his "special" assignee was.
• It was always a good day when we got to go outside and do something fun.
• Becky R. was known for having two hour lessons in which every question she asked had to be answered by every person in the room. Which was 9 freaking people in our family.

Becky D. has told me some of her FHE stories growing up. A couple classics:

• Their parents had what was called Family Fun Day in which they got to play with one another and not with friends. It was affectionately called Family Dumb Day.
• One time her Mom announced that they were having "pine floats" for treats after FHE. The buzz was at a fever pitch because they had never had "pine floats" before. After the lesson Becky's mom goes into the kitchen and returns with large glasses of water with toothpicks floating on top. I can almost picture Nelson saying, "Ha, ha".

Family Home Evening was at it's best (or worst) while attending a singles ward at college. Because there were no traditional families in the singles ward we got divided up by apartments to spend our Monday nights together. A Mom and Dad were both called to preside over the "family".

My first year at Ricks College I went to FHE once, maybe twice for the whole year I was there. The girls we were assigned to were sophomores (old maids at Ricks) and because they weren't bikini models, I wasn't interested. I'm sure the feeling was mutual.

My second year I had the privilege of being the Elder's Quorum President. I mention this, not to brag, but to discuss the amazing responsibility one had to help arrange the "families" for FHE. For one of the first times in my life I absolutely and willfully sidestepped Section 121 of the D&C and exercised unrighteous dominion.

I made sure that my apartment (Royal Crest 107) was partnered with Carriage House 201 & 202. One of the unsung beauties of Ricks College was the 2-1 girl/guy ratio (at least in our ward). So we had 12 girls and 6 guys. I liked those odds. Now CH 201 had Relief Society President #1. CH 202 has Relief Society President #2. I was the EQP. It was destiny.

We (Earl and I) thought that we would be setting up shop at CH 201. Earl had a major crush on one of his "sisters" (Hello, Eldorado) and I kind of liked Relief Society President #1. Well RSP #1 has a history that was mentioned on a blog entry about a year ago. She was a MAJOR flirt. So I ended up setting up shop next door at CH 202. Earl joined me after his crush didn't reciprocate, but in true Earl fashion he never gave up on her.

We spend more time at CH 202 than we did our own apartments. I eventually dated and broke up with one of my "sisters" which made our subsequent visits a little awkward. I don't actually remember attending FHE, but I sure remember spending a lot of time there.

So the whole purpose of this post was to replay our FHE from last night. We got the family together and started by singing "Scripture Power". Becky wanted to then sing "Kindness Begins with Me", but Aubree wasn't having it. Kindness didn't begin with her. She refused to sing and was acting like a snot. I started getting "tough" with her so she would sing the stupid song. Nothing like forcing your three year old to sing a song she doesn't want to sing all in the name of a spiritual FHE.

We had a prayer that Aubree whined the whole way through because we asked Sydney to say it and not her. Which ended with me getting "tough" with her again. By this time the Spirit has left the building and we haven't even had our lesson yet.

As an aside, when Aubree won't listen to me I sit up in my chair really fast which tends to get her attention. Becky uses the "1, 2, 3" method which usually gets results about the 2.5 mark. I have tried the same method but I mess it up because I start with "3" and countdown to "1". I keep forgetting I have to start with "1". Doesn't it make more sense to start with "3"? But when I do it, it confuses Aubree and as a result she doesn't do a thing.

Aubree wouldn't sit still during the lesson. Sydney brought me another book to read to her since Becky's lesson was so boring. Finally I was so fed up with Aubree it ended with her getting a spank AND going to timeout. We didn't even bother with a closing prayer. And since I'm not eating sugar I think we had a banana for treats.

So goes a FHE at our house. Someday we'll have the well behaved perfect little children that will sit and answer questions with "Yes, Father" and "Yes, Mother". Until then welcome to Wrestlemania 28.