Last year in October the church announced a change in church schedules and curriculum. Rumors had been stirring for years - it wasn't a huge surprise. But still shocking. This was and is still hard for Jason and I. We love church. We love 3 hour church. We love learning about and discussing the gospel. So much so that we do it in our home all the time anyways. Living the gospel and teaching it to our children has never been something we have struggled with. To be honest our real struggle is NOT teaching it all the time and being careful not to be overly zealot and turn our children away, from it just being "too much". I felt like we had found a perfect balance. Our children (so far) have loved the gospel and love to talk about it, learn about it, and read about it.
When the announcement came I had a pit in my stomach. I didn't want 2 hour church. I didn't want to add something to our family study - becasue I felt like adding one more thing would disrupt our delicate balance of "too much" - but I didn't want to take anything away. During Elder Cook's talk I felt like crying. Until... he said this at the very end:
"The announcements made today will result in profound blessings for those who enthusiastically embrace the adjustments"
I was in. I would enthusiastically embrace these changes. I would find out how the Lord wanted me to do it in OUR home. THEN I went to the Women's Conference that night at felt an endowment of power given to me to lead my family in this new holier way. I was ready.
After some discussion with Jason I spent the next 2 months praying, pondering, and searching for how the Lord wanted me to do it. I came up with a plan and presented it to Jason. He agreed and we presented it to the children.
The first sentence in the Come Follow, Me manual says:
The aim of all gospel learning and teaching is to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ. For this reason, when we study the gospel, we’re not just looking for new information; we want to become a “new creature”
That's the key.That has become my motto. When ever I get distracted or discouraged about not doing it the way everyone else is doing it I come back to that. My children don't need to learn the stories or information, they already know that. We don't need to bring the spirit into our home by discussing the gospel everyday, we already do that. What we DO need is our children's conversion. They need their OWN testimony. We ALL need to become new creatures - every. single. day. So we turned it over to them. Every Sunday Jason and I have couple scripture study and we study the whole Come Follow Me lesson.
Sometimes Dane joins us.
And then we make a board - we ask question, highlight our favorite things, give a favorite quote, etc (it is different every week). It looks like this.
Then on Sunday night we gather together and we read the chapter headings and briefly discuss the ideas behind them. We show our kids the board and talk to them about it.
Then over the next week they are encouraged to read the chapters on their own, add to the family "discussion board" and talk to us about it (we also do our studying independently and add to the board as the week goes on). We have found over the past 3 months that this ONLY works if Jason and I discuss the Come Follow Me chapters during the week at random times. We casually talk about our favorite parts or discuss a certain aspect of the story. Our children naturally want to be in on those conversations so it motivates them to read it so they can talk with us. By the end of the week the board will look something like this:
Then we discuss the board at the end of the week. We still do everything else and keep it separate (read the BoM every day as a family, do separate FHE, have other gospel discussions, etc)
Some weeks it goes well. Some weeks don't. On the weeks that don't I get discouraged and think "this isn't working, we need to change something, we aren't doing it right, we should do it everyday" or something like that. And almost immediately the spirit rests upon my heart and reminds me conversion is the goal and we are planting seeds that will flower in the future and to be patient and keep sewing. So we do. We are playing to long game. It has been a blessing in our home and I am grateful for this opportunity to be more intentional, more in tune, and if nothing else to teach me how to receive more revelation for my family and to take the lead in the spiritual development of our family. I thought that Come, Follow Me was something we didn't need - but we would do to be obedient. How wrong I was. Looking back it was like I was playing the piano with snow gloves on. I was going through the motions, but the music wasn't quite right. Now the gloves are off, and while my music still isn't perfect, I see the potential and the improvement, I hear the difference. Come, Follow me has given me visions, ability, focus, and purpose. It has elevated our home and scripture study and refocused our attention.
