Four-Year-Old and a Family Home Evening Lesson

Last night was the night we try to have our weekly Family Home Evening. I say try because we don't always succeed at having it, and sometimes we only get through half of it before someone makes someone else cry and then they have to go to their room, or something else happens that is totally unforeseeable.

Last night, was a bit more successful. A bit. Ethan was in charge of the lesson last night and I kept asking him if he would like some help preparing - you know, since he's four and can't read words with more than four letters. He repeated the same answer over and over. "No. I can do it. I'm going to give my lesson about clocks."

Clocks. Hmmmm. Okay. Who am I to judge. In the back of my mind, I had the whole tie-in. Clocks tell time. Heavenly Father has given us time. We need to use it wisely to do good things. Gold star on my forehead for a wonderful lesson from one word. The self confidence I felt should have been my first clue.

After a rendition of "I am a Child of God" that made me laugh because we were all singing at different paces and were more off-key than usual, we ventured into the lesson. Ethan, sitting next to Gary, started off, "I am going to talk about clocks."

He then turned and gave the rest of the lesson while STARING at Gary. His expression-filled eyes were even bigger than usual. He was serious. He had given this a lot of thought and knew exactly what he was going to say. He went on to tell us why clocks are important. You know, you need them to know what time it is so you won't be late for school and work. If you didn't have them, oh the horror, you might be late for work or school because you would get up late and then just hang around and play and not leave on time.

At this point, I am crying from laughing, on the inside of course, and Gary, bless his heart, still had most of a straight face. It's here that the humor became more than I could take. Tom raised his hand and Ethan diligently called on him. Tom went on about the different types of clocks, digital and non-digital. They talked for a minute while Gary and I just sat there trying to keep our laughter stifled. Next, Logan's hand shot up. He too had some comments on the importance of clocks and the different noises they make from the alarm clocks that are useful for waking him up in the morning to the tick-tocking that the annoying clock buried in his top drawer makes. It makes it hard for him to sleep you know.

Well then. What a lesson. It had some of the best audience participation we've had for some time. Spiritual message? Not sure.