The Gospel Goes Hollywood

Family home evening looks very different for us nowadays. We don’t pull out the flannel board anymore. We don’t scour the Friend magazine looking for coloring pages. And we don’t sing the same song every week. No, with only two kids left at home and both of them teenagers, things are different. We still talk about the gospel and teach gospel principles, but those kinds of conversations happen as a part of our normal day to day interactions. These discussions come up over dinner or as a result of something that happened to the kids or something we read about in the news. And honestly, that seems like the better way to approach gospel teaching at this age. Incorporating these important topics into normal everyday life is how we want to live the gospel anyway. We want it to permeate our lives all the time and not just at those regularly scheduled moments. So we’re rolling with it. 

That means that sometimes we have to think outside the box when it comes to our actual FHE. Today thinking outside the box meant going out to dinner and then to a big screen showing of the movie “The Goonies.” It’s an old 80’s flick, one that we’ve all seen before, but seeing movies in the actual theater is a much different experience from watching at home, so when fun ones are showing, we like to catch them if we can. We had a good time, and Malia is old enough now to get the jokes, so she was entertained. And since we were in Astoria, Oregon two years ago, we recognized a variety of the locations that were in the movie, which was also fun.

And the best part? We actually had a gospel tie in for this activity! When we got home, Kevin geared up to share a spiritual thought about the movie. But Malia stole his thunder by saying that in the movie, they all work together even though they all make mistakes. I am so proud that Malia offered up that insight! Plus, having her outsmart Kev is always fun. 😉 He did add his two cents though, pointing out that they all have different strengths and skills and as they cooperate, all their different strengths and skills are needed. And that is what we are here to do. In this mortal life, we all need to learn to work together, meshing all our different strengths, skills, and talents.

So yeah. Like I said, gospel conversations are triggered by the most ordinary events and experiences around here. And I love it.

This is definitely not the movie we saw, but it was a fun photo op we came across at the theater.