We had a family home evening tonight. We have been trying to have one every Sunday evening for about a month now... I took much comfort in what a friend said last Sunday at church. "Family Home Evenings will only last about five minutes in total with small children. Don't feel like it doesn't matter..." That is about what ours have been lasting for the opening prayer, song, lesson, activity and treat... Not too bad right? Annie invented a song for us to sing, Hank played with the pumpkin seeds James was using as a visual for the Faith as a Mustard...errr. pumpkin seed comparison. My favorite part was how while we ate our "apple pie" all Annie could talk about was how we had sung her song that she made up and how she and Hank had helped make the "Apple Pie." James thought that the closing prayer for our little FHE would be sufficient for the night night prayer... not a go. Annie refused to accept that and we all had to say the prayer for the night again as we do on normal nights. I am so grateful that for the many weaknesses and mistakes that we have made that we have been able to manage to instill somewhat of a tradition on our kids of this simple act of family prayer. Hopefully our five minute FHE's will also take root.
I get frustrated a lot because I look at the whole picture and see the "catastrophe" when if I could narrow in and see the little miracles than I can be happy with and that eventually they will add up to an innumerable amount of perfection right? For example, I spent most of Saturday organizing the kids clothes (and believe me, I have not done that all summer and I had boxes and boxes of clothes that had so graciously been gifted to us...) I walked out of the guest room feeling satisfied until I walked into the rest of the house and saw the disarray. I lost all satisfaction of doing what I had done and began seeing the whole mess. The tender mercy really was in that I had just organized all the clothes, done all the laundry and put it all away!!!!! That is a miracle in itself.
Lastly, I am so grateful for this past summer... Did I mention I am 95% done with work this summer and I mean Fall! I get to be a mom to my kids and learn about everything that I missed out on this summer. I love my work. We are soo blessed to work for and with the people that we do. Many have it far worse than we do. But this next six months of getting to be mommy has been well earned! I cannot thank those who have helped us out soo much this summer with caring for our kids and checking in to make sure we are still alive.
Don't fret the 5 minute FHE! That's about what we accomplish. And the boys love it! If anyone says family home evening Lane goes straight for the flannel board and gets very excited! And it is pretty amazing what they pick up in five minutes. As for the prayers, right now we have to say the dinner prayer twice because they both want to have a turn! It's pretty funny.
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