Simple FHE: Joseph Smith

So, I struggle with Family Home Evening. Making things simple is not really one of my strong points, and so it's hard for me to come up with simple gospel lessons that are also fun for the kids. I feel, somehow, that I have to teach them everything all at once. Which is totally stupid. It's definitely important to me, though ... what's that quote about wise parents never missing an opportunity to teach the gospel to their children? I want to be wise and establish this weekly opportunity while the kids are young, so that we have less of a chance of missing out as they get older.

This week, though, I think I've got the simplicity thing down. Here's what we're going to do:

I took a picture of Joseph Smith from my collection of gospel-art-from-the-Ensign. Mounted it onto construction paper. Cut it into 6 puzzle pieces. I labeled the backs of the pieces as follows:

1 - He wanted to know which church was true.*
2 - He read in the Bible that we can pray to know the truth.
3 - Read James 1:5
4 - He went to a grove of trees to ask Heavenly Father in prayer.
5 - Sing "On a Golden Springtime"
6 - While he was praying, he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and they answered his prayer.

(*Text is almost word-for-word from the example of the First Vision story in the Nursery manual, lesson 21.)

I will hand the pieces, in order, to the kids so they can put the puzzle together and end up with a picture of the person we just described. Then, if their attention spans are still with us, we'll read an abridged version of the First Vision from the scriptures.

And that's it.

Oh, also I promised Charlotte that we could play one of our new games - either "Hi-ho Cherry-o" or "Hungry Hungry Hippos" (I know, really reverent, huh?) - that we found in great shape at Goodwill today. So if all else fails, we'll at least have another family game night (which we're trying to establish as a regular Sunday night thing - last night was our first, and it was really fun, so yay!).