Family Home Evening - A Miracle in and of Itself

As a child, we didn't have Family Home Evening, aka FHE, on a regular basis. My mom did her best to get FHE going, but with my dad not being active in church at the time, she had her hands full contending with 4 kids. So, having FHE on a regular basis in my own home has been a challenge for us. Lee is really supportive, but so tired from working hard everyday that the responsibility falls mostly on my shoulders. For a long time I was upset that he didn't get more actively involved with planning and presentation. I just thought "Well, if he's not going to be in charge, we just won't do it!"

In church a month or two ago, one of our counselors in the branch presidency gave a great talk on families and on Family Home Evening. He said that his wife had taken FHE as a personal calling. This particular brother works many, many hours of long hard work in addition to his time consuming church calling.  It was so easy for me to sit and listen and to understand why his wife took over the FHE responsibilities. I was really humbled to realize how unfair I had been to Lee all this time, expecting so much from my tired husband yet completely understanding another husband's role as non-coordinator in respect to FHE. What Brother Wilde said that day really hit home for me and helped me understand and support my husband, who does so much to support me and our family. So I've decided that I really do want to follow the counsel of my church leaders, and to do that effectively I need to adopt Alison Wilde's philosophy - I'm taking Family Home Evening on as my own personal calling.

So, I printed out two calendars at the beginning of March and we taped them to the wall next to the table in the kitchen. I gathered a stack of stickers and our Book of Mormon. I then instructed Ying (our housekeeper) that the scriptures are not to be "fan hao'ed" which is my Chingrish adaptation of 'put away'. In our house, we speak in a rather confusing mixture of Spanish, Mandarin and English. 'Fan Hao' (pronounced fawn how) means to put away and I am always yakking at the kids to 'fan hao' all their 'dongxi' (dohng shee).... meaning stuff. I also tell the kids 'Chi famos'(churfahmos) almost daily. 'Chifan' (pronounced chur fawn) means 'to eat', but I love adding the spanish verb conjugation for we, which is '-amos' (think Vamos!) to call the kids in to eat dinner. Anyway, I digress.... Back to the subject of my post - we have a calendar for daily scripture study and a calendar for FHE.

I am so please to announce that for the month of March we had 100% FHE and 93% scripture reading!!! Wohooo! We celebrated our success by eating at Papa John's Pizza for dinner this past Saturday night. The kids love Papa John's and it's probably daddy's least favorite pizza joint in Shanghai, so we did dad a favor celebrating while he was away in Rhode Island. We have printed a new calendar for April and are well on our way to great habits. It would be so easy to try and weasel out of my commitment, if it weren't for my dedicated children, who are there to keep my on my toes. If I ever lack motivation, that calendar is right there, staring at me and my kids are there to remind me and help me stay on track.

 My sister in law has titled her blog "Brilliant in the Basics" and I love her quote from Sister Julie Beck:

"Live in your home so that you're brilliant in the basics, so that you're intentional about your roles and responsibilities in the family. ... think in terms of precision, not perfection."


Many thanks go out to all the amazing people that I am privileged to know here in Shanghai. Our branch is absolutely filled to the brim with wonderful and devoted members who inspire me to try harder and to be better and to be brilliant in the basics.