This year, the 27th of April marked 100 years since the family home evening program was instituted by the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Family home evenings are simple activities organized by the family and they usually involve singing and a prayer, a lesson on gospel principles such as honesty, service to others or keeping the Sabbath day holy. The family also engages in some fun activity and share snacks. The evenings are generally held weekly on Monday nights by Church members worldwide.
Latter-day Saints believe that the family is central to God’s plan for his children, and it is the central unit of society and the means for bringing children into the world where they can be loved, provided for, and taught truth and righteousness.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a senior Church leader, said, “A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for Gods plan to thrive.”
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For this purpose, Church leadership signed a letter in 1915 encouraging the practice of holding a weekly family night. Fifty five years later, in 1970, church leaders invited families worldwide to make Monday night the time to hold this weekly gathering called “Family Home Evening.”
Fiifi Hazel-Acolatse, from Accra, shared his experiences of family home evening.
“Family home evening is a special day in the family where we the children always looked forward to spending quality time with mum, dad and other siblings,” he said. “On this day, we could play and ask questions that on ordinary days we would not get to ask.”
Another Church member Linda Agyeman said, “Family home evening has strengthened me to live my standards as a young single adult and has taught me a lot of things that have enabled me to survive in this era of troubled times and it has drawn me closer to my Heavenly Father.”
A 12 year old, Joseph Kwesi Boadi Oppong, shared his experience as well.
“I learned how to accommodate my siblings by loving, respecting and humbling myself which has brought peace to my family,” he said.
Oppong Agyepong, a father with five boys, said family home evenings have brought peace and order to his home and pulled his family together.
“I have learned a lot from my children and my wife as we understand each other through family home evening,” he said. “It has taught me to love my wife and kids and the more I love them, the more I understand them. It has really been a blessing to my family.”