Family Home Evening: Teaching Personal Application of Gospel Principles

by Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger

28 Jun 2008 08:00 AM

Family home evening is a wonderful way to teach your children the gospel. During family home evening you can model gospel study habits for your children, so that they can begin to apply them to their lives. One important skill to teach your children is personal application of the principles found in scripture stories and lessons. This should happen in all of your lessons, but you may want to spend a week or two focusing on these things.

First your children need to be able to recognize the principles behind the stories. When they are young you may simply tell them what those principles are, but as they grow older, you should ask them to tell you what the scripture verse or story is teaching or saying. You can have your children practice doing this by assigning each family member one or two gospel stories from the Bible or Book of Mormon and then making a list of the gospel principles that the stories teach. During family home evening have your family members share what they have found.

Once they can recognize what the gospel principle is, they need to begin to apply it to their own lives. You can simply ask them how this principle affects them or for an application to life today. As they come up with the answers challenge them to apply the principles to their own lives and decisions. Another great way to illustrate this is to share examples of when you have applied the principles taught in the scriptures to your own life and what happened as a result.

You may also want to focus on how to improve their personal scripture study. Talk about using the topical guide, as well as the Bible Dictionary. You may also want to teach your children to keep a record of the verses or principles that touch their hearts. This will help them to really internalize the teachings, and give them something to look back on.

Related Articles:

Family Home Evening: Four Ideas for Teaching Life Skills to Your Children

Family Home Evening: Personal Scripture Study

Learn more about Miriam Caldwell

Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children.

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