March 2014 FHE

We had a family home evening at Jeff and Margie's house on March 16.  It was Joe's birthday.  We had a variety of food, thanks to everyone who brought something.  Jeff made a stir fry with rice.  Margie made lasagna.  Steve and Katie made a spinach and strawberry salad.  Kristin brought jello with whipped cream on top.  Nickie brought steamed vegetables.  Emily brought the dessert.  It was some Mexican dessert that I can't remember the name of but it was amazing.  We put candles on it and sang to Joe for his birthday.

Jeff and Margie gave the lesson.  Jeff told about how when the Lord helped free the children of Israel from bondage, Moses led them in the wilderness for 40 years.  The Lord provided for all of their needs.  When the people complained and were not grateful for all Heavenly Father had done, the Lord sent serpents among them, which bit some of the people.  The people knew they had sinned for not being grateful.  Moses prayed for them.  The Lord told Moses to make a brass serpent and set it on a pole for the people to see.  The Lord promised that everyone who had been bitten would live if they looked at the brass serpent.  It was such a simple solution to their problem but many of the people would not do it. Sometimes it is the small things that we do that make the biggest impact on our lives.

I talked about how I was so inspired at the Women's Conference in Salem a few weeks prior to do small and simple things to accomplish big things.  The stake president mentioned in his talk about simply opening the Book of Mormon daily and reading a little or a lot.  It is small and simple thing but by just doing it daily for a few minutes will make a big difference in our lives.  Jeff and I have been struggling with our kids and their behavior lately and we have gotten lazy in our family scripture study because it was so hard to keep the kids reverent for so long while we read.  So we decided to read only two verses a day with them and then read a chapter in the children's Book of Mormon Reader with them.   It is simple but we are so far being consistent and we feel a stronger peace in our home.

Then we played a game where each kid chose a picture of a different scripture story and they told the group about the story.  Then they got to throw a rice bag into a bucket after they finished telling about the story.

It was a wonderful night.  Joe brought his friend, Taylor for us all to meet.  We missed  Rob and Diana's family and Megan and Ryan.  The kids got to eat on our deck in the backyard for the first time because it was such nice weather and so I snapped a picture.  I'll try to take more pictures next time.  The next family home evening will be in Salem on April 20 and Kristin is in charge of the lesson. 

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