Snippets from this week’s FHE

It was my turn for the Family Home Evening lesson last night. I pulled out the nursery manual and prepared to teach the lesson on eternal families.

We began by describing the temple and what makes it beautiful. Rachel pointed out the flowers and then to angel Moroni.

“Jesus died on temple,” she said.

“Jesus died on the cross,” I told her, “That’s angel Moroni.”

“Angel Moroni like cross,” she said.

After failing to understand what she was trying to say we decided to move on. I pointed out the spire.

“Ooh, spire!” she said, excited to have a new word. “Spire is tiny like pyramid,” she added, drawing a big triangle with her arms.

Then she told us that Moroni was on the spire and that going up there is “a tiny scaresy.”

“We don’t go up there,” we told her, “We go through the doors. Only Moroni goes on top of the temple.”

“Jesus went on temple, too. Jesus died on angel Moroni?”

“No, Jesus died on the cross.”

By this time we were kind of cracking up but after several more inquisitions we figured out that she was referring to how churches often have crosses on the top, and how the angel Moroni was kind of like that. She was wondering if Jesus maybe died on top of a church—or if Moroni was a kind of a cross and Jesus died on a temple.

She was pretty confused. We’ll be sure to save the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan (in Matthew 4) for a little later. I don’t think we’ve read that to her yet and knowing that Jesus did go on top of a temple might get her all confused again.

When her question was answered and we had explained that crosses on churches were there as symbols and weren’t literally where Jesus was crucified, and when we had cleared up that Jesus didn’t die on the temple with Moroni, we sang I Love to See the Temple.

I love to see the temple.
I’m going there someday
To feel the Holy Spirit,

We sang in unison until we got to the line “to listen and to pray,” where, instead of singing listen, Andrew sang whisper.

I stopped singing.

“It’s listen and pray,” I told him, “You go to the temple to whisper?”

We both started laughing.

“Well, if you need to say something you’re supposed to whisper,” Andrew justified, “They tell you that.”

“Yeah, to make it easier for people to listen,” I said.

“You’re sure it’s listen?” he asked.

“I’m sure.”

We started over again, having killed the mood of the song with all our laughter.

I love to see the temple.
I’m going there someday
To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen and to pray.
For the temple is a house of God,
A place of love and beauty.
I’ll prepare myself while I am young;
This is my sacred duty.

Giving Rachel a verbal cloze quiz, I asked,

“The temple is the house of…”

“God,” she answered.

We looked at the inscription on the temple that reads Holiness to the Lord and then The House of the Lord.

After discussing how the temple is the house of God, we talked about things you do in the temple.

“Where did Mommy and Daddy get married?” I asked her.

“In the temple!” she said.

“That’s right!” I said, “It’s a very special thing to get married in the temple. Daddy, can you tell us why?”

Andrew explained to her about eternal families and how Mommy and Daddy got sealed in the temple for time and eternity, which meant that our family can always be together, even after death. Families are very important and being together forever is a special, special thing.

Rachel was happy to talk about our marriage and was happy to know that we were a forever family. What really caught her attention was the word seal.

“What do seals do?” she asked.

She often asks questions that she knows the answer to and then answers before anyone else can. This was one of those cases.

“Seals eat me! Seals are scaresy.”

“First of all, we aren’t talking about animals right now,” I told her, “We’re talking about a different kind of seal. And seals don’t eat people; they eat fish.”

“Seals eat fish and dolphins. And me. So they are scaresy.”

We talked about other kinds of seals, like how when we close the lid on a Tupperware container we seal it shut, keeping everything inside the container inside. She still didn’t quite get it so I told her to hold my hand as tightly as she could. Then we tried to stick our fingers between our hands; we couldn’t. We were sealed together—just how our family is sealed together and death can’t come between us. I think she got it.

Maybe.

We ended by singing Families Can Be Together Forever.

The evening was full of miscommunication and laughter. But I guess that’s what Family Home Evening is about. For now. We haven’t reached the fighting and arguing stage yet.