Family Home Evening Ideas & Prayers
- Family love is precious.family image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
It takes commitment and love to create and maintain a healthy and happy family environment. Gather the family on a regular basis. Pull from your family's religious and/or spiritual foundations for guidance, inspiration and support. Make mealtime the centerpiece of a family evening at home. Engage each family member and show interest in their lives with its challenges and joys. Weave prayers throughout the evening to create a tapestry formed by each moment together. - Serve a hearty meal on family night.soup image by AGphotographer from Fotolia.com
Make a dinner filled with comfort food for your family evening. Cook a bubbling pot of vegetable soup, laden with fresh vegetables and warming broth. Serve a crisp green salad, warm bread and non-alcoholic drinks. Finish the meal with a peach cobbler or a dish of sherbet. - Engage the family in dinner conversation. Ask about each other's days. Keep conversation as non-judgmental as possible. Strive to understand what each other has to say. Use healthy conversation skills. Repeat for example, what someone says in order to let her know you heard her and to clarify what she meant. Treat each other, above all, with love, tolerance and respect.
- Start a family tradition of reading and discussing spiritual books. Read family favorites and selected Bible narratives. Choose from the world's treasure trove of spiritual literature. Select spiritual books from suggested lists, such as AbeBooks.com's 100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century. Gather once or twice a month to talk about what you read. Allow a different family member to choose the next book. Begin each book club session with a prayer for enlightenment.
- Pray together throughout the evening for a sense of ultimate purpose. When the family gathers at the beginning of the evening, join hands, asking one member to lead the family in a short prayer. Pray, for example:
God, we are all here
Gathered in your sight.
Let your divine love lighten our spirits,
open our minds and hearts to your guiding hand.
Thank you for this wonderful family.
Amen.
Ask the head of the family to say a dinner prayer. Begin each activity and close the night with a prayer of gratitude, asking for God's continued guidance in each person's life.
