A Meaningful Family Night

We have our family night lessons on Sunday evenings, and Heather asked if she could teach this week. She asked the day of, and we were skeptical about her preparation. She told us she was completely prepared so we gave her a shot. She spent an hour setting up and then called us in to begin the lesson. I want to record as much as possible because she simply blew us away.

She began in the kitchen with scripture reading. She had us get our scriptures and then asked each of us to read. We went through the entire story of the birth of the Savior. Then she read a story from The Friend magazine. We laughed when, in the middle of her lesson, her notes got mixed up and she said, "Boy, I never knew it took this much work to do a lesson!"

From the kitchen she directed us to the laundry room, otherwise known as the Time Machine. For those who don't know, our laundry room is a small, square room with a bathroom attached. There were glo stick lights hanging from the cupboard knobs and door handles. She instructed that when the sticks stopped flashing, we were at our destination. Behind the closed bathroom door, Jenna provided sound effects as the Time Machine moved through centuries. Heather operated all of the glow sticks. She left us in the machine for a minute and then came back to turn off the flashers indicating we had arrived.

When she opened the door for our exit, the entire house was dark except for all of my battery powered candles. She led us "down the road", past the Christmas tree and on to what we were to see.

She had us stop at each Nativity scene and explained what each was made of. She explained that the last set was made by Jim Shore, and she picked up each of the pieces to show and explain that the carved scenes depicting what we had read from the scriptures.

We then went back to the Time Machine and were transported home.

I just have to say that my heart is full. I am in awe of this sweet, eleven-year-old girl who listens to her lessons at church and at home, and she loves the Savior enough that she wants to teach others about His birth. I pray she never loses her enthusiasm or her testimony of Jesus Christ. We have been well instructed this week.