Family Home Evening

Last night we had our first family home evening of the year. It was based off the talk by President Harold B. Lee called "The Constitution for a Perfect Life." Basically it talks about the beatitudes. 

Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are they which are persecuted.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

While I was reading this talk and then preparing my lesson, I tried to think of how I can apply each trait to daily life. Where can I work on it? It became humbling to think about all the improvement that I have room for. I thought of each trait as difficult to master. Which made me think of a poem that President Monson read in the October 2013 conference. 

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.⁸

I wanted to incorporate this poem into the lesson for FHE. So I created a poster board with a tree on it and glued each trait on it as a leaf, and referred to them as things that are difficult to do or be, but they make us stronger and give us great rewards. Andrew and I talked about other things that have been difficult in our lives but we are now grateful for because of the blessings and how they helped us grow. Some things we brought up was Andrew graduating college, having kids and paying tithing. All of those things require a lot of sacrifice but in the end give us so much happiness. 

We also watched a video by Jeffrey R. Holland called "Christ is the Way". He talks about the beatitudes. 

After talking things that have already passed, we talked about things we want to work on now that we know will be difficult but will provide more rewards in the end. Things like working out, budgeting our money and keeping a cleaner house. We then wrote everything that we talked about on the back of leaves and glued them onto the tree. I'm going to keep the poster board up for the week to remind us of our goals. ...I know I've become really 

cheesy. Or maybe I always have been. 

Next weeks lesson is going to be based on a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley called "Cornerstones of a Happy Home". I read the talk last night to have it in the back of my mind all week. I really loved this talk and what it teaches. If any of you read it, let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on how to present it.