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Teaching our Children to Define Themselves by their Testimony
By Rebecca | April 6, 2008
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke about the importance of a personal testimony of Jesus Christ in General Conference on Saturday. He said:
Our children should also hear us bear our testimonies frequently. We should also strengthen our children by encouraging them to define themselves by their growing testimonies, not just by their recognitions in scholarship, sports, or other school activities.
One way that we do this in our little family is to have a weekly Testimony meeting in our home. It is a regular part of our Family Home Evening each Monday evening. To fully explain how this works, I need to explain a little bit about how we arrange Family Home Evening meetings in our home and how it came about.
Several years ago, my husband and I determined that we were not very good at planning ahead for Family Home Evening. We would usually wait until the last minute and then watch a Church video or play a game. Sometimes we would tell a story with pictures from the Gospel Art Kit but often we did this without first reviewing the story from the scriptures and often got the details wrong.
We decided that while our children were young that we would follow a set pattern for Family Home Evening, taking advantage of materials provided by the Church through the Distribution Center. This would require little or no planning on a weekly basis but would ensure that we were teaching our children correct doctrine and principles. The format consisted of 4 segments: Apostles, Book of Mormon Stories, The Friend, and a Testimony Meeting.
We obtained (8 1/2″ x 11″) pictures of each member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Each Monday we use these as flash cards to review the name of each man sustained as “Prophet, Seer, and Revelator.” We tell the children that these men are “Apostles” and that their job is to “teach us about Jesus.”
Also from the Distribution Center we purchased the Book of Mormon Stories book and the DVD. Each Family Home Evening we read one or more chapters from this book. The children look at the book while the DVD reads the inspired summary of the stories in the Book of Mormon. They learn the stories and characters from “the most correct of any book on earth.”
We subscribe to the Friend. This is an endless wealth of stories, activities and articles that are created through the inspiration of the Lord to teach Primary age children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each week we pick a story or activity from the Friend to add to our Family Home Evening. Sometimes this requires that we print the activity page from the Church website so that each family member has their own to look at or color.
The most sacred portion of the Family Home Evening is the Testimony Meeting. There are several rules that must be observed before testimonies begin. Everyone must sit quietly and stop being silly. Often we require the children to fold their arms. Everyone must listen and be polite. One by one the family members go to the front of the living room with a toy microphone and share their personal testimony. Sometimes it is necessary to instruct the children about what is appropriate in a testimony. We tell them that a testimony should be about Jesus, or Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon.
Since we have begun, we have seen many blessings in our family that we did not anticipate. We have had the opportunity to bear our testimony to our children on a weekly basis. We have been able to listen to the testimonies of guests who participate occasionally in our Family Home Evenings. At spiritual low points in our lives we have been buoyed up by feeling the Spirit that attends a Testimony meeting without ever having to leave our home. We have seen the growth of our children’s understanding of the gospel and their ability to bear their testimony.
We are always considering ways to alter our Family Home Evening to meet the changing needs of our family, but I believe that a testimony meeting of some sort will continue to be a staple of our FHE for many years to come. Elder Oaks’ talk has reinforced my determination to make hearing and bearing testimony a common occurrence in my life and the lives of my children.
Topics: Blessings, Book of Mormon, Family, General Conference, Home, Parenting, Relief Society, Teaching, Testimony, Young Women |
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:22 am
You can not believe how long ive been searching for something like this. Went through 7 pages of Google results without finding anything. Very first page on Bing. There this is… Really have to start using it more often!