Friday, February 22, 2008

It's a new day

"It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life." (michael buble)

Since yesterday was the pits of a day, I decided to attempt to make today a wee bit better. The kids lost their privilege of watching tv all day so we had a Disney free day. Yay! I'm thinking tv-free days can be a good thing.

I decided that we need a better morning routine so this morning I had a morning devotional after breakfast with the kids. I loved Jenni's idea to do this and have a scripture, song, and prayer to start the day right.

I read Moroni 7:13, "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." Then I had the kids share some 'GOOD' things that we can do.

It makes me so sad when we have contention in our house, so we also talked about how our hearts can feel happy when we do good things and have the Holy Ghost with us. Then I sang (and attempted to teach) the song - "Do you want to feel happy... do you want to feel joyful... do you want to feel gladness in your heart... do something nice for somebody else that's what Jesus did...don't be afraid it won't hurt if you try it... do something nice for somebody else that's the way to be happy... joyful...gladly..." (or something like that).
Today ended up being much happier than yesterday. Phew! It wasn't perfect, but I'm thinking a morning devotional is a great start to the day. I think we'll follow this Primary Outline with the scriptures and songs to reinforce the Primary 2008 Theme. Here is a link to the zipped folder download of the 2008 Primary Scriptures. Or you can download them one at a time here on picasa web albums. I'm having them developed to put on the fridge or in a small photo book for sacrament meeting. (it is a large file ... so it might take a while to download - like 15 minutes... let me know if it has troubles) (p.s. I used Gina Cabrera's Lovey Dovey Papers)

I'm hoping that this new start to our day will help us fulfill this quote:

"Make your home a haven of peace and righteousness. Don’t allow evil influences to contaminate your own special spiritual environment. Be kind, thoughtful, gentle, and considerate in what you say and how you treat each other." (M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, May 1999)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

January's "Friend" had a little puzzle thing where you and the kids memorize the scripture for that month, and then after the whole year, you have a picture... I cut it out and laminated it and we work on it daily.
I love doing those type of things for the kids, and going with the Primary's theme, you can't go wrong...

Kirstin said...

Well hi Heather--

I just saw your comment on my blog. And I have to admit...I've been a regular viewer of your blog for a couple months. I saw the link on Grandma's computer, and then saved it on mine :) I love reading about your family. Here's an interesting tidbit. If Philip and I have a boy, we're going to name him Lincoln. And then there will be an Abraham Smith and a Lincoln Smith in the "Price" family. Funny, huh. We'll have to get our boys together someday :)

Jenni Taysom said...

I'm glad you have started morning devotional. Another friend of mine gave me the idea and on the days we do it I notice a positive difference in my home. I also like using the Primary outline - if you have the actual booklet (also available online I think) it gives four sub-focuses a month so each week we learn about a different aspect of the monthly theme.