FHE: Armor of God

Well, this started as an attempt to keep our little toddler occupied at church and ended in a random, thrown together FHE lesson that turned out to be simple but a success.

So I printed off a coloring sheet of a little boy with armor. (I couldn't find the one I originally used but this one at this link is cuter anyway.) We had our little boy color it at church then Monday night rolled around and once again we were not so prepared. It has become a bad habit at our house especially when it is our little man's turn to do the lesson. I just tend to forget that it really is "my" turn again. Anyway, that was a side note.

So my husband says, "Should we start FHE?" Now you have to read this in a hurried manner...this all happened in approximately 5 minutes or so. I look at the clock and then at our FHE chart and my brain starts churning. Lesson...Thinking...Lesson...Hmmm - Got it! I grab the coloring sheet out of the diaper bag. I cut and cut and cut, and cut some more. I run upstairs to look the Armor of God scripture up on the computer - Ephesians...Ephesians chapter 6...11..got it! While searching for the scripture another idea pops into my head and I run into our play room and grab our knight helmet, a shield, and a few other items. And then...(you can read more slowly now) we sit down for FHE and it goes a little something like this:

With a little direction from me and some tape our little boy put together the most fearsome looking, crooked looking, armored man I've ever seen. It was great and we had ourselves a little paper man wearing the Armor of God.

Then we read the wonderfully short (perfect for an almost 2 year old) but powerful scripture - "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." We didn't go into the detials of what each of the pieces of armor meant (although this would be great to do with older children) but stuck to simple things. We made a short list of things that can be our armor like: prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and attending church (all things that our boy somewhat grasps).

Then without much connection to spiritual things our little boy dressed up in the "Armor of God". With a grin on his face and a helmet on his head this week Family Home Evening was a success.

It wasn't the usual battle of wanting to sing "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" for the tenth time instead of having a lesson. Or the battle of convincing that FHE is fun when blocks, puzzles, and balls are in the next room. Or the giving of a lesson over the screaming-tantrum-thrower in the corner.

It was simple, it was fun, but the most important part was that it was with our family, home together for the evening. So every week, rain or shine, scream or smile, FHE will go on.

I am sure you all can relate to the successful FHE nights and well, the nights that almost seem to be good-for-nothing. When it comes down to it though we "have [been] promised that our dedication to this program will help protect our families against the evils of our time and will bring us abundant joy now and throughout the eternities."

We had a simple lesson on the Armor of God but all the while we were creating and strengthing a small portion of our literal armor, we were helping to protect our family from the evils of our time. So the next time Family Home Evening rolls around and whining persists or chaos prevails just remember that through the screams, the whines, and the groans you are putting on the Armor of God.