Keeping the Spirit in Our Homes - Part 5 of 6

Five - Don't Forget the Primary Answers


In my family, we always had a joke about the "primary answers." Those were the answers in Family Home Evening that were safe and almost always right if you worked the context around them. You know the ones--"Read your scriptures," "Say your prayers," "Go to church," "Have family prayer." 

As easy as it was to laugh about a 3-year-old answering any question with an enthusiastic, "Say your prayers," it's a good answer. It's right in nearly every situation. Can you think of one it doesn't work on? 

In his talk, "More Diligent and Concerned at Home," Elder Bednar compared every Family Home Evening, even the ones where the kids fought and didn't seem to be listening, to a brush stroke in a great painting. I loved that analogy. 

When my older children were in elementary school, I'd go to their classrooms and teach Art Start. One of the artists we studied was Georges Seurat, who was famous for his use of pointillism. I was lucky enough to see the above painting in person when it was being displayed at the National Museum of Art. It was remarkable to me that when you were up close to the painting, you discovered it was made up of thousands and thousands of tiny dots. When you stepped back, the picture came into focus and was beautiful. Since Elder Bednar's talk, I like to think of every Family Home Evening, every prayer, every time we go to church, each time we go to the temple, every time we read the scriptures together or do an act of service for each other as a dot on the painting that we want to be our family's masterpiece. 

The Primary answers work.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Such a true statement. "THE PRIMARY ANSWERS WORK." The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple and yet so powerful. Often in classes, no one wants to raise their hand to give the "primary answers" because they want to give a long more complicated answer. I find this interesting because to me, "THE PRIMARY ANSWERS WORK." You know, like, "Don't fight" and "love each other more." These are favorites in our family.
Great post. LMH