This is such a good reminder about family home evening =) --------------------- Forwarded message: From: [email protected] (Dave Crockett) Sender: [email protected] Reply-to: [email protected] To: [email protected] (lds-gems) Date: 97-08-21 14:07:39 EDT Topic: Family Home Evening Gordon B. Hinckley Our children deserve such a home in which to grow. I am not speaking of the architecture or the furnishings. I am speaking of the quality of our family life. I am grateful that we as a Church have as a basic part of our program the practice of a weekly family home evening. It is a significant thing that in these busy days thousands of families across the world are making an earnest effort to consecrate one evening a week to sing together, to instruct one another in the ways of the Lord, to kneel together in prayer, there to thank the Lord for his mercies and to invoke his blessings upon our lives, our homes, our labors, our land. I think we little estimate the vast good that will come of this program. I commend it to our people, and I commend it to every parent in the land and say that we stand ready to assist you who may not be of our faith. We shall be happy to send you suggestions and materials on how to conduct a weekly family home evening, and I do not hesitate to promise you that both you and your children will become increasingly grateful for the observance of this practice. It was John who declared: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 4.) This will be your blessing. (CR Oct 1965) ===================================================================== We ask that parents begin early to train their children. Where there is family prayer, where there are family home evenings, where there is scripture reading, where the father and mother are active in the Church and speak with enthusiasm concerning the Church and the gospel, the children in such homes become imbued in a natural way with a desire to teach the gospel to others. (Ensign, Oct 1987) ===================================================================== Again, are we holding family home evenings each week? Your immediate results may seem far from ideal at times, but by holding weekly family home evenings, as we have been counseled, we help to perfect that eternal family unit. (CR Apr 1988) ===================================================================== If you have any doubt about the virtue of family home evening, try it. Gather your children about you, teach them, bear testimony to them, read the scriptures together and have a good time together (Promontory Branch, Utah, Oct 15, 1995) ===================================================================== We advocate in the Church a program we call family home evening, reserving one night a week where father, mother and children sit down together and talk - talk about the family and about one another and study some together. (President Hinckley to President Bill Clinton, Nov 1995) ===================================================================== I hope, my brothers and sisters, that you are having your family home evenings with your children. You cannot afford to postpone this. The days, the months, and the years pass so quickly, and before long it will be too late. (Veracruz, Mexico, January 28, 1996) ===================================================================== We are trying to preserve the traditional family - father, mother, and children - working together in love toward a common goal. In large measure we are succeeding against great odds. We advocate a family home evening, for instance, one night a week reserved for family activity together. Lessons from the scriptures are taught. Family business is discussed. Vacations are planned. We sing together. We pray together. It works! (From media luncheon, Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 1996) ===================================================================== You're trying to rear your children in truth and righteousness. You hold family home evening, and that's a wonderful thing. Isaiah said, "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord." And then he gives this promise of reward: "And great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isa. 54:13.) (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Fireside, Nov 1996) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Teachings of President Hinckley - You can receive this and other gems by subscribing to the LDS-GEMS mailing list. Send SUBSCRIBE LDS-GEMS to [email protected] More quotes: http://www.indirect.com/www/crockett/hinckley.html Dave Crockett, Tucson, Arizona - [email protected]