A few weeks ago in church, our good bishop, aka dad, invited every family in the ward to work together on completing the 7 Good Works value experiences in the Young Women's Personal Progress book. The following Saturday we held a family council and talked about how we would complete these value experiences and the promises that Garrett had promised would come to our family, and every family in the ward, if we would faithfully and prayerfully complete these experiences.
As a family, we decided to begin with #2, which tells that service is an essential principle of family living and asks each family member to help with planning the meals, menus and even help with grocery shopping. The kids each chose a day to help me with dinner and Garrett decided he would take all three meals on Saturday...yay!
For our family, the last two Monday night Family Home Evenings have been centered around the Good Works value experiences. Ashlyn gave the first lesson based on the required value experience #1 and taught us the importance of serving in our family...how service should be viewed as a privilege and not a bother or a burden. She read scriptures and testified to all of us the importance of serving each other and asked that we each keep a journal for two weeks of the quiet service we notice others doing around us. I was in awe of her knowledge and confidence and grace in the way she presented her lesson and her tenderness in bearing her testimony. But after finding these notes in her room and the final notes typed up, I could see she had put a lot of time into making sure it was just what she wanted...
One night during that first week, the family went ice skating and the boys noticed their skates were a little dull. I texted our good friend, John, and asked if he would mind sharpening the boys' skates. He quickly replied "Bring them over now, I'm heading to my dad's tonight!" He was quick to serve our family. I told the boys what a blessing it is to have others serve us so willingly and happily, so the boys decided they should make him some homemade chocolate chip cookies and write thank you notes to show their thanks. I loved the idea. Not only are the kids learning to serve their brothers and sisters, which sometimes is the hardest service to give, but they are realizing and acknowledging the service given to our family by others.
Kenna taught the value experience #3 at last weeks FHE. She read from Mosiah 18:7-10 and asked each of us to write down three ways we can help others bear their burdens. Across the room, I loved hearing dad ask Wyatt how he could help a friend that was sad. Wyatt's quiet answers were so pure and exactly what we should do to help others bear their burdens...dad wrote for him: be their friend, talk to them, get things to help them, share things that I have. It seems so many families are faced with heartache...it's important to learn how to serve others and help lighten their burdens.
