We are not always traditional when it comes to our Family Home Evenings.We don't follow the standard order of things: prayer, scripture, song, lesson, activity, talent, prayer, etc. We always have prayer, we don't always do a song. We don't always have our FHE on Monday night, either.
One of the things that I have come to realize is that each family and each situation is different. Whether it's FHE or something else, the most important thing is consistency. Sometimes we have family prayer in the car, in the morning, before heading off to drop children off at school. Sometimes I have had family prayer more than one time in the morning; once with each child, if they are not up at the same time. It might not be a traditional family kneeling in a circle, but we have consistent family prayer.
When it comes to FHE, some people have it on Sunday. Others are strict in their formats: always a song and scripture and lesson and talent. You need to do whatever works for your family and often that means reevaluating.
This past week, my husband was off work on Monday, and our children were off school. So, our FHE was our day trip to another part of Idaho. We knew we would not get home in time t have a traditional FHE, so instead of having our Fun FHE later in the month, we did it today, as a day trip. We did not have a "lesson" nor did we have a song or talent, etc. But, we often try and incorporate gospel lessons into our every day conversations and activities, and we were perfectly comfortable doing this yesterday.
When you have young children, your lessons are often shorter. A former bishop's wife used to call FHE, her Family Home Moment, when her children were very young. As they get older, you can incorporate longer, more advanced lessons.
Consistency matters. Like Elder Bednar said in his October 2009 conference talk, "Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent.
Sister Bednar and I thought helping our sons understand the content of a particular lesson or a specific scripture was the ultimate outcome. But such a result does not occur each time we study or pray or learn together. The consistency of our intent and work was perhaps the greatest lesson—a lesson we did not fully appreciate at the time." Ensign, Nov 2009, 17–20
