Day of rest. Went to church. We had a lesson on the law of chastity in Sunday school. A very basic subject, one of the Ten Commandments, and also taught at a higher level in the Sermon on the Mount. But, as evidenced by the commercial success of various enterprises that promote unchaste behavior, apparently this commandment is not well understood. Even in the Utah County. If it was, many DVD rentals would go out of business with the selection they offer. Interestingly enough, the lesson in the deacon's quorum was on avoiding temptation. Then the talks in the Sacrament meeting discussed teaching the Gospel in the family. One sister told about how the experience she had with reading the scriptures and the family home evening growing up. She said she enjoyed it. It was a memorable experience for her. She asked her mother why it did not happen more often. The answer was: "Because you, kids, hated it." What I learned from this is that the kids may express negative thoughts at times, but we must have the faith to persist in the course that was given us by the Lord through His prophets. They will later appreciate it. Interestingly enough, I do not recall our kids ever complaining about either the family scripture study or the family home evening. In fact, the oldest three - Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in addition read the scriptures on their own without a reminder. Joseph and Jacob do a supervised personal study with a parent or an older sibling helping them find their place and helping them with the difficult words if needed. I do not know if it is just that we got very good kids, or maybe it has something to do with the environment and upbringing. We never miss. We will postpone or cancel whatever needs to be postponed or canceled, we will do it in the most inconvenient circumstances if needed, but it will happen. We believe that if a certain form of entertainment is not appropriate for a child it is not appropriate for the adults either. We do not have any video games and the like in the home. We home school, which mean that our children spend more time with the parents. Our kids are expected to work in some way, and there is always plenty of opportunity. We eat at least one meal a day together. They never eat junk food and never watch dumb TV shows. In fact, we do not even have a cable TV subscription. Ironically, the only time we wish we did is during the General Conference, but radio does the trick.
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