Where the White Things Are: CFM, Cowiche Canyon, and Cousins

Adapting the church's Come Follow Me scripture study plan to our family is an ever-changing ever-challenging adventure. Last week we had a wide range of lessons, but we actually managed FOUR whole evenings of CFM-ing so it was a successful week. I like tracking what we do for our lessons because it's an interesting window into a small daily routine.

On Monday night, Jeff did a short lesson about the parable of the talents. He is so good at teaching short thoughtful lessons with lots of participation. We have both noticed that often our kids don't even realize that we are "having a lesson" when we do our nightly gospel tidbit over the dinner table. Jeff and I think that means we are doing gospel instruction right, making it a natural part of our everyday, but I have noticed that a lot of times that we are so subtle that the kids don't think we did any Come Follow Me lessons at all. Just last Sunday, Jay and Rose each whispered to me separately during sacrament meeting, asking what we did for Come Follow Me last week. I reminded them each of two of our lessons, and thankfully they recognized the hints I gave them and remembered the lessons.

On Tuesday Jeff went to the track and field awards banquet at 6pm, so I did our CFM lesson alone. I read Matthew 25:40 and a corresponding story in the Friend magazine about service, and then we made cards for Rose's classmate, Noah, who was in the hospital in Seattle with a mysterious infection. After we made the cards I realized that we didn't have a way to get the cards to the hospital three hours away (oops), so I took pictures of our cards and sent them to Noah's mom so she could show him. It was a good family lesson-in-action. I was a little concerned about "using" Noah's sickness as a quaint family service project, but I think everyone was sincere in the notes they wrote to him. Jay wrote him some jokes to cheer him up. Rose wrote a kind note in her lovably blunt way ("I'm sorry you're infected.") Amber used every color she could find all on one paper, and even laboriously wrote her name with lots of coaching, with the lopsided letters scattered across the page and mixed in with her scribbles. I wrote a note too, and we also recorded a video to send to him as well. I still think it would have been better to give him our actual paper cards, but we did what we could.

At the dinner table on Wednesday, I decided to do a "what did you read last night" style lesson. I started by asking Jay what he read in the scriptures the previous night. He couldn't remember. Rose piped up and told us how she read about Nephi's brothers not believing he could build a boat and we talked about that a little.

Next I took a turn and talked about reading Joseph Smith--Matthew (aka Matthew chapter 24), all about the second coming. I showed them the famous picture of the second coming that was conveniently printed in the week's CFM lesson. Jeff piped up, saying "all of the angels in that picture have the same face." The kids immediately shifted their attention to him and asked the obvious follow-up questions. "It's the face of the painter's dead wife, painted over and over." Jeff said simply. I stared at him from across the table in disbelief for two reasons: I didn't know that and why did he have to bring it up now?

"Thanks a lot for derailing my moment, husband." I said, half joking, half stung. He immediately was contrite. Not in the mood to continue talking about my topic, I sat there quietly trying to master my irritation. Seriously, it's always a battle to get the kids engaged and listening to even our short 5-7 minute gospel lessons, and my husband of all people was working against me too? Et tu, Jefe? It was more than I wanted to handle. After my brief peeved pause, Jeff took the reins and told us what he had been reading in the scriptures, also about the second coming (the topic of the week). When he was done, I slipped in a sentence of my thoughts on the topic. It was not the most neatly done lesson, but we salvaged it. Jeff made sure to say "thank you for the lesson" at the end, maybe to placate me, maybe to signal to the kids that we had just had a Come Follow Me gospel lesson.

After our discussion on Wednesday, I asked Jay if he would choose something from his scripture reading that night to share with us the following night, and reminded him to read with his brain ON so he can think about what he reads. I know ages ten and eight are pretty young to be reading scriptures alone every night, but Jay and Rose can handle it, and it just seems like a good idea to encourage them to get in the habit now.

Thursday night during dinner, Jay told us about what he read in the scriptures the previous night--he had chosen one of the subtopics in the weekly CFM lesson. ("What does it mean to treasure up the word of God?") Nice job, son! We let him say his bit, made one or two comments, and that was that for the evening.

Friday night was family movie night, so no CFM.

There it is, a weekly log of our attempts to teach our kids the gospel. Our lessons this week were not exactly easy, but they did go a bit more smoothly than usual. That is encouraging! I'm going to choose not to think about the easier-harder-easier-harder pattern that we usually seem to follow in our home and family efforts, because that would mean this coming week will be harder.

Reading Joseph Smith's translation of Matthew 24 about the second coming this week made me feel the importance of mindful living, or carefully choosing my activities so that I can always feel honestly ready for the second coming, even though I don't know when it is. I don't plan to live "looking over my shoulder" for the second coming, but I want to choose the better part and not waste my time on trivial things. It's ok to have fun and relax, but BALANCE is the key. I follow some apostles on Instagram, and this week Elder Gary E. Stevenson posted something that really resonated with me:

"Maintain a spiritual balance. ...Keep in mind that balance doesn't always equate to equal amounts of time. Rather, it means maintaining a spiritual focus amid all the responsibilities you have."

I think that's the way to be ready for life's challenges: maintaining a spiritual focus AMID all of our responsibilities. Our imperfect/arduous efforts at teaching our kids the gospel is all part of maintaining our spiritual focus and balance.

Now, to slide in the last few pictures from May. On Friday, May 31st, while the big kids were in school, Amber and I went on a last minute hike with Aunt Steph, Grama Leslie, and three cousins: Tate, Grayce, and Cole. We went to Cowiche Canyon and walked, climbed, and threw rocks for a little over an hour. It kept getting hotter, so when we left, it was ice cream time. It was fun to get away and play for a day!

These cousins were all about the ROCKS: collecting them, climbing them, and throwing them. Tate (5), Grayce (3), Amber (4), and Cole (2). Their ages are a perfect stairstep: 5, 4, 3, and 2.

A bridge without a railing--not a mom's best friend in any way. But the kids relished the risk of tossing rocks over the eight foot drop into the creek below.