Family Home Evening - The Holy Ghost and Praying to Our Heavenly Father

Since I didn't post last week's Family Home Evening Lesson idea, I'll add it to this week's post.

We got last Monday's lesson from HERE and this week's lesson from HERE.

The Holy Ghost
First of all we talked about the Holy Ghost - his personage of spirit and his relationship to the Godhead.

Then, we divided family members into pairs and gave one of the following clip art pictures:

- a campfire
- a warning sign
- a person giving a testimony in court
- the sun
- a compass
- a quilt

The assignment was for us to discover and share the mission of the Holy Ghost. Each companionship was to 1) discuss how their picture related to the Holy Ghost and 2) find a scripture that teaches the connection.

As we each shared what we learned, we also found ourselves recounting personal experiences we have had with the Holy Ghost. Even our youngest children were able to share.

Praying to Our Heavenly Father
We did like we did last week: divided into pairs, and each pair was to consider and discuss one of the following questions as presented in the manual:

- What is Prayer?
- Why Do We Pray?
- When Do We Pray?
- How Should We Pray?
- How Are Prayers Answered?

In discussing the answers, we were asked to use the scriptures to find a verse or a story to teach the answer. We were also asked to share a personal experience with prayer.

And the Highlight of Tonight's Family Home Evening . . . (drum roll, please),is when our fourteen year old son raised his hand and said, "I learned something about prayer." And there was a hush because usually he says something more along this line, "Uh, pretty much everything I heard tonight is just review."

"Heads up everyone," I announced, as I nodded for him to continue.

"Well, it's exactly what our Stake President said yesterday in Stake Conference. (Whoa. He was listening in Stake Conference?!)

"And what was that, son?" I coaxed. Because it is so nice to hear this teenage boy of mine talk about what he learned during Church.

"Remember the story he told of the two teenage boys?"

We all nodded, so he went on.

"They were caught speeding and the police that it would be a good idea for them to stay overnight in jail so maybe they would learn a lesson. Well, the next morning when they awoke, they realized it was Sunday.

'It's Sunday,' one of the boys said, 'our families are in church.'

'We should have our own church since we can't be with them,' replied the other. 'You say the opening prayer and I'll give a lesson.'

'Okay.' the first boy agreed as he bowed his head.

'Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this beautiful day. We are so happy to be here. We are so grateful to meet in this beautiful building and hope those who are not here will be with us next week.'"

We all laughed.

"So," our 14 year old continued, "I think I need to be a little more aware of what I am doing and what I am saying in my prayers."

Para bing. Para bang.