Family Home Evening When Dad is in the Military by Ailihn

We are the Harris bunch. I, Ailinh (i-lean) am 23. I am the wife, the mother, and head of the household… well, sometimes. Husband (25) is an active duty soldier in the army, so he’s always on the go away from home. Sometimes we get to tag along with him (like right now–hooray!), most times we don’t. Our bunch also includes two mini troopers (ages 2 years and 8 months). Home, to us, is where the army takes us.

Family Home Evening (FHE) is one of the priorities in our home. Although I wish I could say we have a set and stable structure of how we carry out family nights, I can’t. The army highly demands hubby’s time, so some Monday nights we don’t have FHE. Sometimes it is on a Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday depending on when Hubby gets home from the field. Sometimes it’s over the phone or on Skype. Sometimes it’s cut short unexpectedly. Sometimes it’s over an hour. Sometimes it’s done when we’re all together on the couch. Most times it’s done being thousands of miles apart.

Our FHE structure varies. But we’re used to it by now. We’ve learned how to make it work and how to make it totally worth doing even if that means we’ve got to sing opening songs on speaker or eat treats in front of the other thru a computer screen.

Recently, hubs and I came to a conclusion that we wanted to be sure I was familiar with the basics of the gospel, so I can be more prepared as an individual and as a mother to teach our kids. So hubby had a trés cool idea: use the lessons in Preach My Gospel as a weekly FHE lesson plan. He used this guidebook on his mission and it helped him tremendously to teach those who were investigating the LDS church to know more of Christ and God’s plan. He believed using this to teach our family will surely do the same thing. And boy, it sure did!

We would flip cover to cover and learn each lesson from the book every week. Hubby would be the teacher, and I would look over the upcoming chapter and come prepared with questions and/or thoughts.

And seriously. Doing this was So. Neat. T’was a fantabulous idea!

We both learned a great deal about the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as about each other. And might I add… hearing Hub’s testimony every week was such a turn on. He looked extra handsome when he speaks spiritual. I love me a man who loves the Lord!

Occasionally, hubby would leave for weeks or months at a time, so the home would feel bare and empty without him. But every FHE night when he logs onto the phone/computer and we share to one another our testimony we have of Jesus Christ, it’s as if hubby has been home all along. The Lord truly does bless the home that welcomes the gospel of Jesus Christ. In our case, He strengthens us each week that we’re apart, making our trials seem lighter and our burdens more bearable. It draws our family closer together to know that no matter how far we are from one another, no matter the time zone difference, we’re always reminded that families can be together forever.

It’s remarkable to know how something so simple as holding family nights can bring incredibly huge blessings.

And I totally dig it.

Don’t forget that on Monday I will be hosting a blog hop in which you can share your own post on “This is What Family Home Evening Looks Like at My House”. Everyone who participates in the blog hop will be eligible to win one of these great prizes.