Family Project Complete!

Last year we tried something new in our family. We came up with a family theme, and the purpose of the theme was to help us focus on a certain aspect of living the gospel for one year.

Our theme was "Fully Invested." I know, I know, we can not take any credit for coming up with that theme. I have to give all the credit to Bronco Mendenhall, and Thomas was the one who pushed for that theme. I figured I had to give in, in order for him to be supportive of the family theme idea. At first when I brought up the idea he rolled his eyes.

But, it was a good experience and so we decided to do it again this year. But this time, we decided to piggy back with our stake and adopt the stake theme as our family theme, which is:

"Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places"
D&C 101: 22

So for the past few weeks we've been discussing what it means to Stand In Holy Places, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon we had all kinds of ideas of what we could do to reinforce this concept in our family during the year.

The best part is that it has involved Aiden and he's learning about the gospel and it's so enjoyable as a parent to see him get excited about gospel principles.

The thing is, there are many ways we can "Stand" in Holy Places. For several days we talked about places where we can be holy...where we can be kind and polite, where we can worship and express gratitude for our blessings, and where we can choose the right and where we can be an example.

We made a list of these places and then took an afternoon and visited each of these places, snapping photos along the way. Then, for FHE this week we assembled all of the photos onto a poster to hang in our kitchen as a reminder of all of these places where we can "stand."

The best part was when we were at the temple. We took Aiden through the first set of doors and let him look through the second set of glass doors into the temple foyer. He was so fascinated and wanted to go inside. I could sense his understanding, as simple as it was, that the temple was a special place.

With pride, Aiden has looked at our poster the last few days when he walks into the kitchen for breakfast. As a parent, I hope we're teaching him enough, and that he'll be prepared to go to school in a few years and be exposed to different philosophies but "stand in holy places."

I hope simple things like this help to reinforce with him, his divine destiny and the importance of our Heavenly Father's plan for us, and why it's important to make good choices.

Here's a photo journey of our family's list of places where we can stand and be holy:

Seattle Temple

Can you believe that gorgeous blue sky??!
It was such a beautiful day, and unheard of this time of year.

This picture represents we can stand holy "wherever we go"

At the playground

At preschool

On campus

At the bookstore

At our friends' houses

At home

At church

And the final product.
Tah Dah...