Can you believe we are in the final week of our Family Proclamation Celebration? This month has gone by so quickly. I can’t thank our guest bloggers enough for their words and thoughts about FAMILY. I have so enjoyed reading all of your comments as well.
The family home evening I’m sharing today is one I’ve shared before. It’s been on my mind though because we are starting the “Birthday Season” at our house today. Little Cookie is turning 6! From now until the end of January we will have a birthday celebration every two weeks or so. Can anyone say cake overload?
In the hustle and bustle of the birthday season a couple of years ago my husband and I had a discussion as to why we even celebrate birthdays. How did that tradition get started? Is it a good one to carry on? Our conclusion – You bet it is!
In our church we believe before we were born we lived with God as His spirit children. In this premortal existence, we attended a council in which Heavenly Father presented the Plan of Happiness. We would come to earth to receive mortal bodies, to learn and to grow, to have agency. As part of this plan Jesus Christ covenanted to be the Savior. He would provide a way for us to repent as we knew we would inevitably sin because of our agency. Lucifer rebelled against the plan and “sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3). He became Satan, and he and his followers were cast out of heaven and denied the privileges of receiving a physical body and experiencing mortality. Those who followed Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were permitted to come to the earth to experience mortality and progress toward eternal life. That is what we celebrate on our birthdays – the righteous decision we made to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And, we are trying to teach our children, it is a great time to reflect on the good choices made during the past year and a chance to recommit ourselves to do better and follow the Lord in the coming year.
So here is a lesson about birthdays. I cannot take credit for this SUPER family home evening lesson. Thanks to Christine W from my FHE Swap who put it all together. All the illustrations for the game and stories are included.
To view and download click HAPPY BIRTHDAY FHE.
Fixed the link! Sorry about that. I forgot to change the settings to public instead of private. 😀
Today’s blog hop is a family home evening lesson based on any topic covered in the Family Proclamation. Write a post that tells us about the lesson or activity you had with your family then come back and link up!
Participate in the blog hop to be eligible to win
Show off your family in a unique and beautiful way! These custom silhouette art prints are created to best display the look of your family and are an amazing art piece in any home.
Each print is custom designed by Gretchin Anderson of ishootnouns on Etsy, based upon the information you provide to help capture your family silhouettes in the best possible way,
and then professionally printed on art paper.
Leave comments on any posts this week to be eligible to win the following:
High quality wood handled rubber address stamp designed for our
family celebration by Ginger’s Design Studio.
A custom handmade journal from The Anomalous Star. This handmade journal is 4 1/2 x 9 inches in size.
It is bound with 3 rings and filled with cream non-lined paper.
The cover features an image of the Salt Lake Temple.
The Alice Green Paisley Headband from KellyCrunner. This particular headband has a beautiful collection of greens, blues, aquas, and browns that compliment each other very well. Made from designer fabric and vintage buttons. Perfect for any outfit or season!
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birthdays truly are ways to teach so many aspects of The Family and to proclaim to each child exacty who they are.
I have often wondered about birthday celebrations and wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. You have given me something to think about. I love the comment that it is celebrating “the righteous decision we made to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ”. That puts a whole new perspective on birthday celebrations. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much for the month long Proclamation celebration. I’ve enjoyed everyone’s posts so much.
What a wonderful way to think about it! This will help me as I try to find better ways to celebrate birthdays. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the link to “view and download happy birthday FHE” isn’t working. I’ll try again later, I’m anxious to see it!
That is a wonderful way to think about it. I felt the same way (sort of) about Christmas. The past few years it has taken on a drastically different feel around here for Birthdays, Christmas and Easter. They are all wonderful celebrations when celebrated with an eternal perspective.
(I also can’t view the FHE…it says the link is not there…)
Birthdays sure are something to celebrate! It’s sad to me to see so many people turning birthdays into days to be extremely selfish or have lavish parties. We’re not celebrating how lucky we think the world is because we’re here! Like you said, we’re celebrating the righteous choice that was made:)
And I love the candles in that FHE lesson!
What a great thought to incorporate and highlight during “birthday season”…Our birthday season is coming up as well…starting with mine in October! Thank you for this and what awesome prizes!! Thanks for putting this month together for all of us!
What a great perspective! I love birthdays and I have always felt that it is a great reason to celebrate another year of life we have been able to live. We are so blessed with each day we have as we never know when it will be our turn to return to Heavenly Father. So that is one way I look at birthdays. But I love this perspective too!
We have a birthday season at our house too. 🙂 Thank you so much for the uplifting posts this month. What an amazing celebration!
Great! Thank you. My Andrew turns 5 today. We’ll be celebrating with a blue and orange football field cake.
What a cute FHE packet! Thanks for sharing! I love this idea of birthdays are a great time to celebrate not just because they joined our family on that day, but because of the choice they made in heaven. It’s brilliant!
I’ve blogged about that headband! Love it!