Wordfull Wednesday {Wholesome Recreational Activities}

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." Proclamation to the Family, Paragraph 7



When I read this topic I remembered the talk given by Dallin H. Oaks in the October General Conference.  It was called "Good, Better, Best."  I would highly recommend reading it if you aren't familiar with it, or re-read it, if it has been a while.  In summary he is talking about the abundant amount of good things there are to do with our time.  BUT, there are things that are better that should take priority,  And even more importantly there are the best things that we shouldn't ignore.


I struggle with this because I see so many children who are involved in baseball, dance, music lessons, church activities, Boy Scouts.  They are all good wholesome activities.  At times I feel guilty for not getting my kids involved in these things.  Each and everyone takes time, precious time.  I look at my children and wonder which is the better part?  Are these activities going to help them later in life?  Quite possibly yes.  Then I think about the time we get to spend as a family.  The moments when we turn on the sprinklers in our nearly dead lawn, and let the kids run through it.  Then cooling off on our driveway eating Popsicles.

Trying to squirt dad with a squirt gun.  The times when I am asked to sing Hannah to sleep, and it works (I sing a lot like Scuttle from The Little Mermaid).  Or the moments when we bake cookies together.  Even being a little goofy no matter how unattractive it is!

We love our family time and with all the other good activities, especially with 6 kids, we would never get to be spontaneous and often times we would find us split and probably heading in different directions.  We enjoy family walks on Mount Diablo.  Playing the Wii as a family, and the most regular is family meals.  When school is in, we pretty much start and end our day with a family meal, but 98% of the time get to have dinner together.


Dallin H. Oaks says:

We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.

In all that we do I hope our children realize how important they are to us and more importantly that we are teaching them about the Savior.  He is the absolute BEST part.  I love the above quote because it states it plain and simple, the best helps develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ AND strengthen our families.  This is the question I should be asking myself when I choose to get involved in something, does this help develop faith and does it strengthen my family?

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