Family Home Evening Lesson: Ceasing

Last week for Family Home Evening we wanted to do a lesson about several things that have been problematic in our home the last few weeks. Namely, room cleanliness and fighting. Part of the problem in keeping their toys picked up, is that every time they go in to do it, they just sit there. Unfortunately, the point system has lost a bit of its luster (partly my fault), and they don’t care too much anymore if they earn or lose points.

So, we read the following scripture and talked about it:

“Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.”
~D&C 88:124

In giving this lesson, I realized that I have much to improve on in every single one of these areas. I also realized that much of my stress is totally self created, and it would be so much lesser if I would just adhere to these principles.

Related: Back-to-School Feast and Family Theme—CEASE.

Idleness? Guilty. Sure, I need a bit of downtime every day, but let’s face it, I waste a lot of my time doing pointless activities. Can anyone say internet? It’s just too easy to sit down to check my email and get carried away looking at various blogs, Facebook, scrapbooking message boards, and photography websites.

Uncleanliness? Guilty. Any of you who has even one child, let alone three, knows the destruction that can be had on a clean home within 5 minutes. I admit, sometimes I just give up. Sometimes I can’t keep it all in check.

Fault Finding? Guilty. Well, I think this is one of my lesser problems. However, I do get a bit impatient (okay a lot) with my children much too often. They don’t tell me I’m mean 20 times a day for nothing! I need to work on building them up more, and not sweating the small stuff (like the tasmanian devil gene they all seem to possess).

Sleeping in? Guilty. Now, I highly doubt that I sleep longer than is needful, since I get very little sleep at night due to my insomnia issues. That said, I still need to get myself out of bed every morning and get going. When I do this, I am happier. And I usually sleep better, so there is something to it.

Going to bed late? Guilty. I am a night owl. I think though with getting up earlier I can work to change this a bit, although I know I’ll never overcome completely. On my mission I dutifully awoke every morning at 6:30, but it was hard. I know I can do it again with a bit of willpower.

I have worked on these things quite a bit this week and am happy with the small changes I have made. Having a garage sale, and hauling all things that didn’t sell to the local thrift store, helped to get rid of much of the clutter that drives me insane. I also rearranged my furniture in a way that seems more conducive to keeping the front areas of the house clean. I have tried getting up earlier and being more productive in the morning, but have a long way to go! School starts this week so I’ll be a bit more forced to be good in that area. I’ve tried hard to lose the impatience with the kids and be more understanding, and they’re noticing.

Amazing how the scriptures can touch us and teach us to live our lives a little better. I’ve read that verse a million times and never had it prick me in quite the way it did this last week. I have lost sight a bit of my word for the year (simplify),and I think I’m back on track.

Now to get the kids on board!