AFRICA: Akhwari--Greatest Last Place Finish Ever

Have you ever heard of John Stephen Akhwari? If not, you should find out who he is, and you should share his story with your children. Let me help you.

John Stephen Akhwari is a marathon runner from Tanzania. He was the African champion runner and he competed in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Even though Akhwari had previously beaten the man who would win the gold medal in the men's marathon that year, Akhwari is mostly known for having the worst marathon finishing time in the history of the Olympics. But really, the time isn't the important part--the finishing is. 

Here is the quote he is most famous for:

"My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it."

Akhwari's Olympic marathon finish is nothing short of heroic given all the circumstances and given his tenacious grit. He is an amazing example! I like everything about the following video except that at the end it categorizes Akhwari's finish as one of the "strangest." I disagree. I think it's one of the best and most inspiring.

Years later, Akhwari was called upon to be honored and participate in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, carrying the torch. Here is a good follow up article on Akhwari's life since his famous finish. 

Whether you're studying Africa, the Olympics, focusing on biographies, working on character development, or need a story for a Family Home Evening lesson on enduring to the end, John Stephen Akhwari from Mbulu, Tanzania, Africa is someone to talk about.

Kahoot!

Never be afraid to listen to your teenagers and learn from them! For a recent Family Home Evening, one of my teens introduced us to Kahoot! We. LOVED. It. We played game after game, all of them centered on things relating to the LDS Church. He explained that they play Kahoot! in Seminary on occasion, and he's played it in some of his public high school classes as well, on those subjects. I was intrigued, then hooked, and stayed up that night creating a Kahoot! of my own to use in our homeschool the next day.

Kahoot! says it is "making learning awesome." I would agree. There are so many possibilities! You can look up and play any Kahoot! already created, and they exist for pretty much any topic, including the inane and absurd. (Because anyone can create a Kahoot!, some of them are... less than worthy. These can range from being ridiculous, to wrong, to basically illiterate.) There are some seriously good ones out there, though, and it really is a great tool for motivating, challenging, and engaging students (or families, groups of friends, co-workers, etc.).

Because my kids love these, and because they are easy to create and I can do anything I want with them to use them in our studies, I am all over this. Here are two that I created in the past week. 

Reproduction in a Flowering Plant

Human Anatomy Pre-Quiz

In addition to using Kahoot! in our homeschool, I want to create some for future Family Home Evenings, family reunions with family history, and in other settings.

Try it!

Learning the Ways of Jesus - Pictures for Primary

The Primary Sharing Time theme for April this year is "Jesus Christ Teaches Me to Choose the Right." Choristers are to choose a song appropriate to the theme. I will be teaching "I'm Learning the Ways of Jesus" by Janice Kapp Perry. This is a song published in the Friend magazine in 2010. You can find sheet music here. 

I love this song! As nice as "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" is, I prefer this song for this year as it recognizes and mentions choice in the lyrics and that fits so well with the "Choose the Right" theme of 2017. Further, this song is much more specific in how to be like Jesus and what His ways are.

Here is a video of the song from the Church's website:

To teach the song to my Primary children, I've prepared two banners per verse with pictures and lyrics. Using a roll of banner paper from Walmart, I cut four lengths and put four pictures on each banner, writing the words that accompany each picture with poster markers below. (I do like to mix things up with flip charts, banners, posters, actions, chalkboard drawings, etc. for learning words to songs. Sometimes flip charts frustrate me, though, because the printed words are often not big enough for children sitting in the back to see.) For the final "I try every day to give love away. I'm learning the ways of Jesus" lines, I didn't reprint; I will just point back to the previous pictures and words.

I spent a long time hunting for just the right pictures to use so I thought I'd share them here in case anyone wants to teach this song to Primary children or their own children, whether as a part of homeschool or in Family Home Evening or whatever.

I'm learning each day to be caring and kind.

I think of good deeds in my heart and my mind.

I try every day to give love away.

I'm learning the ways of Jesus.

So if I see someone who's lost or afraid,

I'll offer to help. That's a choice I have made.

Or if I see someone who just needs a friend,

I'll speak to them kindly and spend time with them.

I try every day to give love away.

I'm learning the ways of Jesus.

I'm learning each day to be friendly and fair.

I try to help others; I willingly share.

I try every day to give love away.

I'm learning the ways of Jesus.

So if I see someone who can't walk or run,

I'll think of some ways I can help them have fun.

Or if I see someone who can't see or hear,

I'll tell them that I'll be their eyes or their ears.

I try every day to give love away.

I'm learning the ways of Jesus.

F.R.O.G. - A Chocolate Acronym of Faith

F.R.O.G.

Fully Rely On God

It's Easter candy time. What I like about that is the variety of really cute (and yummy) spring and nature candies, especially Lindt's chocolate insects, frogs, ducks, and bunnies.

The chocolate frogs lend themselves nicely as accompaniment to an acronym that would fit a Family Home Evening or Church lesson, or homeschool devotional. They're also a great meaningful treat for Visiting Teaching, a pick-me-up for a neighbor or friend, or an addition to an Easter basket.  I created the tags below and sent a package of chocolate frogs to my missionary with one of the tags attached:

Happy Spring!

Aiming at Love - New Meaning for an Old Symbol

Everyone is familiar with the Valentine image of Cupid or a heart with an arrow shot through it. I've never thought too much of it before, but as I've planned out our Love at Home devotionals and activities, I came across  Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Aiming at the Center" article and it has given real purpose and meaning to this symbol for me (and I hope now, my family). 

While I read the entire article to my children (and please do read the entire thing) the point I emphasized was that Christ taught us to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Mattew 22:37-40) This means that every other commandment, every other thing we are supposed to do or not do, come back to being categorized under these two commandments. (I  had the kids name off commandments off the top of their heads and we tested each one to see if these two great commandments were at the "heart" of every other we could think of. They are!) Then I asked the kids who their closest "neighbors" were. Each other, of course! 

Elder Uchtdorf had begun his article with the example of archery, and how you shoot at a target that already exists, not that you shoot the arrow at a blank wall and then draw the target around it. Using this powerful archery example and the scripture, I wanted to turn the Valentine symbol into something with more meaning, to remind us of what we're aiming for:  LOVE. Loving God and loving each other.

Here is the end product:

We followed this up with...

This would make a great Family Home Evening lesson and treat!

And if you're wondering what I'm doing with things like this little project...

Sarcasm--Corrupt Communication

We had a most excellent Family Home Evening lesson tonight. I have felt for some time that the communication in our family was drifting further and further from the uplifting "Love at Home" kind of talk needed and wanted, instead sinking into a muddy, swampy, stinging, biting mess of sarcasm and meanness. After a series of particularly sharp jabs by one family member that led to some tears in another, I told the family member issuing the jabs to find what the Lord's apostles have said regarding sarcasm and to share it with us during FHE.

The full article the lesson was based on, "No Corrupt Communication" by Jennifer Grace Jones, can be found here. I just want to share a few of the things that stood out most to me and/or us.

The most attention grabbing thing we learned was that the Greek root for sarcasm is sarkazein and means "to tear flesh like dogs." That really brought us all up short. One dictionary definition defines sarcasm as irony designed to "give pain." Oftentimes teens and adults alike consider sarcasm as a way to demonstrate smarts or cleverness and humor. If we all thought of sarcasm as a bestial tearing of emotional flesh that was sure to give pain, I think we'd be more careful. 

From the article:  "Parents and siblings who use sarcasm against young children often cause more damage than they ever intend. Studies show that children as young as five years old can detect sarcasm immediately. Although children discern sarcasm, they don't have the ability to understand it fully. Parents are much more proficient at using sarcasm than children and it can become a veil for undisclosed anger, annoyance, even jealousy. This unequal power changes parental sarcasm from a joke into a form of bullying." 

Jeffrey R. Holland has taught:  "Be constructive in your comments to a child--always. Never tell them, even in whimsy, that they are fat or dumb or lazy or homely. You would never do that maliciously, but they remember and may struggle for years trying to forget--and to forgive."

Also from the article:  "Eliminating hurtful sarcasm doesn't mean our homes need to be empty of humor or necessary correction. Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught that 'a good sense of humor helps revelation' and that it 'is an escape valve for the pressures of life.' Whereas sarcasm stems from light-mindedness where nothing is taken seriously, true humor blossoms from lightheartedness and helps cultivate beautiful, healthy family cultures."

I LOVE that comparison of light-mindedness with lightheartedness!

President Gordon B. Hinckley said:  "Everywhere is heard the snide remark, the sarcastic gibe, the cutting down of associates. Sadly, these are too often the essence of our conversation. In our homes, wives weep and children finally give up under the barrage of criticism leveled by husbands and fathers. Criticism is the forerunner of divorce, the cultivator of rebellion, sometimes a catalyst that leads to failure..."

As a reminder for my family, I've just created a couple of visuals to put up in our home. Feel free to use them in yours. And check out and share the entire article mentioned above.

Left-Right Christmas Story

We played this game for Family Home Evening tonight. It's a fun little Christmas activity.

To prepare, have some small item for each person participating. I had candy bars, packages of gum, etc. and put each item in a separate brown paper lunch sack and stapled them shut. 

Have everyone who is playing sit in a circle and randomly hand out the bags/packages. Instruct everyone that when they hear the word "right" they must all pass their bags to the person on their right, and when they hear the word "left" they must pass their bags to the person on their left. This must be done each and every time they hear these words.

Read the following story aloud as everyone listens and follows directions. When the story is over, open up the bags and see the surprises.

     Something was wrong this Christmas. Mrs. Claus could tell RIGHT away that Santa was not his usual jolly self. Things just were not quite RIGHT. Why, just before Santa LEFT for the workshop, he put his LEFT foot in his RIGHT boot and his RIGHT foot in his LEFT boot. He stood RIGHT up and LEFT for work without even noticing what he had done.

     Now being the good wife that she was, Mrs. Claus decided she had better find out if all of Santa's good sense had LEFT him. Mrs. Claus LEFT all her Christmas baking until later. RIGHT now Santa needed her help.

     As she glanced out the window, she saw the line of elves marching like tin soldiers on their way to the workshop. She fell RIGHT in behind as the elves counted cadence, to the LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT. To the LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT. Turning the corner to the RIGHT, they marched RIGHT into their places and started RIGHT to work.

     On the shelves to the LEFT she saw Barbie dolls, baby dolls, porcelain dolls, Cabbage Patch dolls, and on her RIGHT she saw Ninja Turtles RIGHT between Batman cars and train sets. Never had she seen so many toys LEFT to finish. Never had she known Santa to wait RIGHT up to the last minute to finish just the RIGHT toy for each girl and boy. Even if the elves worked RIGHT around the clock and never LEFT for a break, she did not see how they could RIGHT this terrible wrong.

     Mrs. Claus LEFT the workshop and headed RIGHT back home. LEFT to herself to think, she LEFT the baking awhile longer when the time would be RIGHT.

     When Santa returned he found Mrs. Claus full of questions. Why had he LEFT things until the last minute? Even if they worked RIGHT around the clock and RIGHT until Christmas Eve, did he think they could make it without some child being LEFT out? Santa LEFT Mrs. Claus still talking and sat RIGHT down next to her. RIGHT she was! Things were a terrible mess all RIGHT! He could agree with almost everything she had said. But she was LEFT speechless as she listened to Santa's sad but RIGHTful tale.

     Why, children were not being taught RIGHT by their parents anymore. RIGHT after Thanksgiving, Santa would start RIGHT in receiving hug long lists of things kids wanted. He was sure they started on the RIGHT side of Toys R Us and wrote and inventory of the whole store, clear to the LEFT side. Why, kids were asking for so many things he did not see how he could possibly keep his RIGHT mind. LEFT too much to themselves, these little folks never even knew what was RIGHT. Getting RIGHT to the point he said, "These children have become very selfish, never thinking that I am an old man with only so much energy LEFT. Why RIGHT now? I'm so tired. I don't think I can do another thing even if all the toys are LEFT unfinished.

     Mrs. Claus's RIGHT eye twinkled. She knew what had to be done RIGHT away. Immediately she called Mr. WRIGHT, the assessor, who knew RIGHT what to do. Early the next morning, RIGHT after feeding their families a wonderful breakfast, all the workers of the North Pole Stake LEFT their homes and headed RIGHT to Santa's workshop to help RIGHT the wrong (of having selfish children) and help Santa finish the toys that were LEFT.

     Santa now had renewed faith in parents and he knew RIGHT down deep in his heart that next year parents would help their kids learn what was RIGHT.

     Santa sprang to his sleigh and to his team gave a whistle. Merry Christmas to all and everything is all RIGHT.

Self Worth--Crabs, Fleas, and Belief Windows

I love, love, love having a recently returned missionary at home. It's not just because I missed him like crazy and now I get to hear his laugh and see his smirks and smiles, either. It's because of the discussions we have and the ideas and lessons he's been sharing from his two years of amazing personal growth.

After some rousing family discussion today as I prepared and we ate Sunday dinner, my son said that he wanted us to listen to this talk on Self Worth from Hyrum W. Smith. I loved it and learned several new things. I'm going to have to listen to it a few times for all of it to sink in. (He had it mostly memorized!) I heartily recommend it for individuals, families, through personal study or homeschool or Family Home Evening or whatever.

There is no video, so just click it and listen.

Influence - The Power of You

This experiment is one of the coolest things every. It also makes for a good object lesson. WARNING:  it's addicting!

To demonstrate the amount of influence a person has we did this simple experiment. (We'd done it before, during a unit on color theory, but it's been quite a while so the effect still struck awe and this time it had meaning.) 

1. I gave each of my kids a clear pie plate with a quarter to a half inch of milk poured into it. This represents each of their circles of influence. (Do not use skim milk.)

2. They each chose three colors of food coloring:  one represented family, one friends, and one other people they come in contact with. They squeezed a few drops of each color in the milk, 

3.  I gave them each a Q-tip and told them it represented them. They rolled the ends of the swabs in dish soap. The dish soap represents influence, the influence of each individual, whether it be through kindness and service, example, missionary work, etc.

4.  They each put their Q-tips in the milk and then watched the fun.

The interesting thing is that the "influence" continues even after the Q-tip is removed. Colors continue to mix, swirl, roll, and boil seemingly on their own. So, a person's influence continues on and on, even when the person is no longer present.

This makes a great Family Home Evening lesson or morning devotional. To see more about the science of this experiment, go here. For scriptures and more on the spiritual application, go here. 

Music Lyrics Matter

If you're ever concerned about your children's/teens' music choices, or you are looking for a Family Home Evening lesson, here are two good sources to bring to the discussion table. I like that together these combine science and scripture, a servant of the Lord bearing testimony as well as some proof via the scientific method. (Not because I or you or anyone should need science to back testimony or science to back the Spirit--we shouldn't and don't--but because it's really interesting when it does.)

First is an article recently published in the Deseret News titled "Literal lyrics? The effects of sex, violence and misogyny in popular music." This describes fascinating studies and results that aptly link song lyrics with increased instances of sex, sexualization, aggression and misogyny, and issues with self-esteem and ends with what parents can do.  Here is the last quote, from Jack R. Christianson:

“Music will do exactly what it is written to do. How you put lyrics to music and what music you choose to listen to affects just about every part of your life. The thing I want to do is teach my students how to make their own decisions based on how things make you feel and act. Do they go along with your moral compass? There’s a ton of good in almost all genres, but there are some that are a subculture. They intend to be bad, and they want to drag people to a dark place. It can take you to the highest peaks and lowest valleys.”

 Add to this the experience Elder Gene R. Cook of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy, which he has shared in multiple talks, including "The Eternal Nature of the Law of Chastity" and "How Not to be Discouraged."  Below is an excerpt of just part of the story.

Sometimes young people have a feeling that the music they listen to doesn’t have anything to do with chastity. And yet, as I’ve had opportunity to interview many youth in varying countries throughout the world, I’ve found that is just not so. I believe, without any doubt, that there is music of the Lord. I also believe there is good music that men have created—some romantic music, maybe some good cowboy music, and just plain fun songs, etc. Those can be okay. They can cheer you up and they’re fun to be involved with. It ought not surprise us that the devil has his own music as well. That kind of music is found throughout the world and has a great impact upon young people especially.

Let me try to bring this principle alive by relating a true story that happened with an individual of whom you probably have heard. How many of you have heard of Mick Jagger? I think almost everyone has as he is one of the most famous rock stars in the world. Well, you might be surprised to know that I had about 2-1/2 hours with him on an airplane and it was quite an experience. I’m going to relate part of that to you to try to illustrate this important point about selecting wholesome music.

Mr. Jagger and I were on a flight that originated in Mexico and were headed, I believe, to either Houston or Dallas. As I sat down in the plane, the seat next to me was empty. Later a man came and sat down by me. I noticed immediately that he was reading a rock magazine. I offered a silent prayer as I often do when I try to talk to people about the Church. I prayed that the Lord would inspire me in what to say as I talked to this man. After the prayer, I said something like, “My name is Gene Cook, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What’s your name?” And he said, “My name is Mick Jagger.” Not realizing then who he was I said, “Well, I’m glad to meet you, Mick.” And then he said, “I said my name is Mick Jagger.” I said, “I heard you, Mick.” And then he opened up the magazine and pointed to his picture and said, “This is me.” Of course, then I finally realized who he was. I just hadn’t ever thought about sitting next to him, but it was so.

What I’m going to say is, in no way, speaking evil of Mick Jagger himself. Please understand that. I’m not speaking evil of the man, but I am of what he represents because it is wrong. It is of the devil himself, in my opinion.

Even before I knew who Mick was, I noticed that his pant leg was pulled up a little on his calf. As I looked at his leg I thought for some reason, “This fellow looks a little sick.” I’m not sure why, but that caught my attention before I even knew who he was.

After we visited back and forth a minute or two about what we were doing and all, I finally said something like, “You know, Mick, I have a question for you that I’d like you to answer for me.” He said, “Well, I’ll be glad to try.” Then I said to him, “I have opportunity to be with young people in many different places around the world, and some of them have told me that the kind of music you and others like you sing has no effect on them, that it’s okay, and that it doesn’t affect them adversely in any way. Then other young people have told me very honestly that your kind of music has a real effect on them for evil and that it affects them in a very bad way. You’ve been in this business for a long time, Mick. I’d like to know your opinion. What do you think is the impact of your music on the young people?”

This is a direct quote, brothers and sisters. He said, “Our music is calculated to drive the kids to sex.” Those were his exact words. I’m sure I had a real look of shock on my face in receiving such a bold response. He quickly added, “Well, it’s not my fault what they do. That’s up to them. I’m just making a lot of money.”

Then he told me he’d been in Mexico making a video because he could make it for about one-third of what it would cost in the United States. He told me this was a great day for them because now instead of just having audio where they could portray some of what they wanted to about sex and all, they now had videos and could have the people both hear it and see it portrayed. He said this would have much more impact on the youth, that his music was selling much more, and thus he was making much more money.

As I said, we talked for a couple of hours. Let me just share a few things that happened because it teaches the importance of what we are discussing with respect to music. As we chatted, I told him that I was married and had eight children. He told me that he was not married but that he had three children and was proud of it. He told me that he had one woman pregnant in Virginia, one in New York, and one in England, as I recall. He told me that it didn’t matter what you did in life, that you could take whatever you wanted, and that you could do whatever you wanted. He said there were no commandments, there was no God, and nothing really mattered. He indicated there was no judgment day and that you could just do whatever you felt like doing. Whatever I told him in our discussion was white he said was black.

And whatever he said was white I told him was black. He indicated that he had had the missionary lessons. In the beginning I didn’t believe that, but as we talked further I think he probably had. He told me he had had two or three lessons, and I think that was probably true because of some of his responses to me. According to him, he had been taught by missionaries in England.

He said, “As I listen to you Mormons, your problem is that you think you have all things figured out. Life isn’t that simple.” Then he would go on and explain some complex things, some theory of man. I would answer him in a very simple way from the scriptures, and he would say, “See what I mean?” He was always trying to make things much more complex than they really were.

Our conversation continued. He told me he believed in evolution and that he also believed he had descended from a monkey. I told him, with a smile, “That might be the only thing you’re right about.” We pursued the idea of evolution and the fact that if one is going to subscribe to the philosophy that he did, then he’d have to believe there was no God and that he must have evolved. And if there is no God, there are no commandments. There are no rules, and thus you can do whatever you want. He told me the importance, in his view, of freeing up the youth. He felt that they ought to be able to do whatever they wanted in spite of their parents. He said that parents were inhibiting them too much and controlling things and they ought not be doing that. It was truly astounding to me. He told me he was thankful the family, as an entity, was being destroyed. And I gathered from what he was saying that he was doing his best to help that along. 

A Shout Out for Shout Out!

I just found out about Etsy shop Rise and Shout and the fun games there. If you've ever played Spot It, then you already know what to do with these LDS- and educationally-themed Shout Out versions. 

Among the purchases I made were the Symbols of Christ Shout Out to use this week before Easter (it makes a good FHE and Sunday game, too) and the Singing Time Shout Out to use in Primary. Can't wait! I'm also thinking I'll print off extras to use as gifts. There are versions to help youngsters with basic reading and/or speech as well as holiday versions and more.

In addition to the normal matching play, there are instructions and ideas for using the cards in other ways and adapting for large groups (like playing Bingo).

So glad to have found this resource!

Easter Journaling

We're suspending our normal journaling notebooks this week and using the Free Easter Study Journal created by Heidi Hillman over at A Lively Hope. We just began today, so we did two pages to make up for yesterday. You could do the entire thing this evening for Family Home Evening, or incorporate it into your schedule some other way. 

After reading the scriptures listed on the pages I'm pulling out corresponding pictures from the Gospel Art Kit and we talk about it some more. Then I hang them up and embellish with the extra eggs on the last page of the study journal.

If you are looking for other neat ideas for the days preceding Easter, I've always found great inspiration at Cranial Hiccups (formerly known as Chocolate on My Cranium--be sure to look through ALL the Easter pages) and We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ.

Happy, Joyous Easter!

Lesson Ideas with LDS Perspective on the U.S. Constitution

Going through my shelves of books and resources on United States History and especially the Constitution, I re-"found" the Family Home Evening lesson plans and tools that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produced in 1987 for the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. I figured that at this point this fabulous resource had to be available online, and so it is.

Click here for a PDF version of this terrific resource.

Scripture Cookies!

"Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."  (2 Nephi 32:3)

Need an activity that gets your family FEASTING on the scriptures? Scripture Cookies!

3/4 cup Psalms 55:21 

("smoother than___")

1/3 cup 2 Nephi 26:25

 ("buy ______ and honey")

1-1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20

 ("the ____ from a far country")

2 of Isaiah 10:14

("as one gathereth ____")

1 teaspoon Exodus 30:23

("and of sweet _____")

1 teaspoon Matthew 5:13

("ye are the ____")

1/2 teaspoon Matthew 13:33

("the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto ___")

3 cups D&C 89:17

("____ for the horses")

1 cup 1 Samuel 30:12

("clusters of _____")

Press Forward

I love, love, loved using the new video for the 2016 Mutual Theme, "Press Forward," in one of our New Year devotionals, along with some of the articles from the January New Era.

My favorite images are the youth walking the Salt Flats; the ending scenes are powerful!

We Believe in Being True

The next portion of our in depth study of the 13th Article of Faith was "We believe in being true." Oftentimes folks think of being honest and being true as the same thing because honesty is telling the truth. But the word true is one with multiple uses. Honesty is a part of being true, but being true is much more than honesty. It is being faithful, and living the truth.

Here are some of the resources I used for these lessons. Discussions went with each, of course.

"I Believe in Being Honest and True" talk by Ann Dibb
"True to the Truth" talk by Joseph B. Worthlin
"Be True," chapter in Gordon B. Hinckley's Way to Be
"True to the Faith" talk by Thomas S. Monson
"Stand True and Faithful" talk to YW by Gordon B. Hinckley (adapted)
"Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth" talk by Cheryl A. Esplin


When we read Sister Esplin's talk, we actually did the soda can experiment.

Copywork

"Each of you has an eternal calling from which no Church officer has authority to release you. This is a calling given you by our Heavenly Father Himself. In this eternal calling, as with all other callings, you have a stewardship, and 'it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity' (D&C 72:3). This most important stewardship is the glorious responsibility your Father in Heaven has given you to watch over and care for your own soul." -Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Be True. Be true to who you are. Be true to the parents who are rearing you and caring for you. Be true to the family whose name you bear. Be true to the land and country you call home. Be true to those in your circle of friendship. And most of all, be true to yourself." -Gordon B. Hinckley


Hymns
As Zion's Youth in Latter Days
Behold! A Royal Army
True to the Faith

Here is my absolute favorite part of the April 2015 LDS General Conference, which I shared again with my kids. There was something so stirring to me about this that invigorated me personally, but also gave me great hope in the future as I stared into the faces of these young adults and felt their testimonies of faithfulness in their voices. It takes a lot of extra time in practices to prepare for singing in a choir for conference; these people had to sacrifice their time and want to be there, which leads me to believe they want to be faithful.

We spent time talking about covenants and promises. Whenever I think of the word "promise," I immediately think of the character Samwise Gamgee in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. He is my favorite character and a shining, solid, stalwart example of being faithful to the end. My children and I had a long and animated discussion of the characters of the Lord of the Rings and because of our love for this story and how intimate we are with it, it made for a strong common example to talk about. Sam taught us so much about what it means to be true.

Memorial Day Repentance FHE

We had a Memorial Day Family Home Evening tonight. I told my family that we needed to repent for being so lax regarding this day. We've allowed ourselves to slide a little on the slippery slope of current American UNconsciousness, taking certain holidays for granted as nothing more than 3-day weekends and excuses to party. 

After a hymn and prayer I talked with my family about the purpose of holidays, the roots of that word being holy days. These are days meant to be reverenced and full of purpose. Not that we can't celebrate or enjoy, but that we need to spend some time in sincere reverent reflection. I talked about how I've always been good with religious holidays, and I've tried over the years to give more meaning to the 4th of July and Veterans Day. I explained how as a child I never cared for Memorial Day and visiting cemeteries, especially since my birthday falls on Memorial Day every now and then, and as a kid I always thought that was the pits. But I never really understood any higher purpose to Memorial Day. So when I became an adult I sort of shunned the day and didn't pay real attention to its meaning. 

Until now.

I have always been very sensitive to and appreciative of the price of freedom. I think about it a lot more than just once a year. But now I want to be sure that we mark Memorial Day for what it is and let it sober us and remind us and keep us ever humble, grateful, and vigilant. We certainly don't want to be like the people in the following video, who make me sad and concerned at the ignorance of the population:

If you don't know what Memorial Day really is, here is a little history we watched tonight.

I also wanted them to understand the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Though they've been there, they were very young so it didn't mean much to them and they don't remember it.

And I shared my favorite tribute video.

Sincere and respectful gratitude to those who gave their all. We must not forget.

God Gave Us Love

Friday's focus for our Valentine Devotional was GOD'S LOVE IS A GIFT. I didn't think the scripture suggested in the download for this one was "right," so I changed it to James 1:17.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

We sang the hymn "Because I Have Been Given Much"  (Can't link to it because of copyright.) Then we spent some time in the Topical Guide under "God, Gifts of" discussing the many gifts of God and the purposes of the gifts, which always, in the end, come down to His love for us. We talked about gifts and giving in general and what those two words imply as to motivations and expectations. Then we read a new Valentine book purchase, God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Perfect!

We read and discussed Jacob 2:17-19, Mosiah 18:27-19 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-7:

"But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity:  for God loveth a cheerful giver." 

For a visual reminder of the lesson we went to this great site for making Word Hearts.  Everyone took turns reflecting on the scriptures, discussion, lesson and taking what stood out to them and turning it into something neat for decorating the house with. (We LOVED doing these and found it kind of addicting. My daughter later made several different ones to send to her missionary brother and I stayed up late making a whole bunch of them for my husband with phrases from "our song" and other things and "heart-attacked" his office door with them.)