What is Family home evening?
Family home evening or FHE for short, is a day and time set by family members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints that encourages spending time together, and studying scriptures as a family.
Decide on a day to do Family home Evening.
Most pick Monday around 6 PM when everything is settling down, however, this may not work for your family. Pick a day that works best for your schedules.
Tip: Picking a time of day for example, right after dinner, is an easy way to make sure it happens every week. This is because when we build new routines off of old routines, the new routines tend to stick a little better. (This tip also works great for family scripture study everyday.)
How to structure FHE as a couple?
Assign one person to plan the activity and the other person to do the lesson. Then rotate between the who does what every week. The lesson doesn’t need to be long, just enough to feel the spirit in your meetings. Music is generally assigned by the one giving the lesson.
There are two ways my husband and I structure FHE
If the activity relates to the lesson:
- Opening prayer
- Sing a hymn
- Lesson
- Activity
- Closing Prayer
If the activity doesn’t relate to the lesson:
- Opening prayer
- Sing a hymn
- Lesson
- Closing prayer
- Activity
Example of how my husband and I do FHE together
This generally tends to be an introduction for our week on what we will be studying in “Come follow Me” So we read the introduction page and share our comments, insights, and things we want to learn more about during the week. After this we will have an activity. I get my ideas for activity ideas from a few different places listed below.
Resources for FHE activity ideas
- LDS daily has information for teens/adults that can be applied to couples as well.
- Food Storage Blog This blogger has some great resources for finding activities!
- Dating Divas This is an amazing place to go if you need date ideas, which can be turned into FHE activities!
- The Ensign This has a section in it called Family Study fun in it’s magazine, sometimes if i’m creative I can turn these family activities into things to do as a couple.
- Living Scriptures/FHE Gives family ideas for FHE, followed with a living scripture video. These videos could be used in your lessons if you want!
My favorite FHE activities:
- Go bird watching outside. Try to learn the names of all the birds you see in your neighborhood.
- Do an art project together!
- Make cookies together and give them to a friend or member in your church.
- Have family home evening with another family or couple.
- Paint rocks with positive words written on them like “You Rock!” and place them in random places around your neighborhood.
- Make a budget together
Make a budget together, FHE:
This was the first Family home evening my husband and I ever did together. It was a really difficult activity trying to combine our views on money to get a harmonized budget. It actually took us a few Family Home Evenings to get through it all! After all the struggles we were able to create an amazing budgeting system that works for us, and we have never argued about money! I truly believe making and changing habits as quick as you can in the beginning of your marriage can really set your marriage up for success.
FHE activities challenge
Find a list of activities and go through and accomplish them in order. Even if you think you and your spouse may not like the activity, it could surprise you!
Final thoughts
Don’t forget the importance of adding variety! You can have Family home evening in different locations, such as at the park, or with other newly-weds. The main thing with Family home evening is to make it consistent, fun, and spiritual. This can be amazing opportunity to give your family the time an nourishment it deserves. Family home evening can be your little escape from the crazy things going on in life and set a positive tone for the rest of your week.
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