Prayer Bears

So I pop in on our 8 year old Activity Day girls for our ward and they were making these prayer bears for their activity. I started thinking "I could use one of those" and so I turned it into a Family Home Evening for our kids. I didn't have much fabric for them to choose from but they were happy with what they chose and that's all that mattered. The stitching is very rough and I added a pocket to the front for them to tuck a heart into if they read their scriptures that day (or had someone read to them). They loved picking out their eyes and nose out of my jar of misc. buttons. Johnny picked his out right away and stuck with it the entire time. He spent the rest of the time finding button suggestions for the other two. Alex came up with about 5 piles of eyes and 3 piles of noses that she wanted to choose from because there were just too many cute buttons on the table she just couldn't choose. Hunter came to a final conclusion saying "there, this is what I want for good" about a dozen times.

In the end I think they all turned out pretty cute, I even made one for myself. We hang them on our door knobs at night so we won't leave our rooms without seeing our bears and remember to say our prayers. Then we place them on our pillow so at night we see them and remember to say our evening prayers before hanging it back on the door. The kids have all become more thoughtful in their prayers when they're asked to pray over meals or say family prayer. And I'm grateful for the reminder to spend time each day to talk with my Heavenly Father.

We have also taken an idea from a talk President Monson gave in the Oct 2009 General Conference called "What Have I Done for Someone Today?" Last month we started asking them "What have you done for someone today?" and they have started looking for ways they can serve others. Like they have kept an eye out for a lonely person on the playground or gave a smile to a person passing in the hall. Alex has even learned to sign her name to the hearing impaired children at her school so she can say hi and introduce herself. I make sure and remind them as they're leaving the house to look out for someone who might need their help today and they're always excited at the end of the day to share with me what services they had offered.

Just a couple of ideas that have helped our family stay closer to the spirit that I hope become habits for the rest of our lives.