Family home evening a 'great program'
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Encouraging parents to hold family home evening, President Gordon B. Hinckley addressed members of the Bennion Heights (Utah) 6th Ward on July 13.
"You parents, practice it. I promise you that you will be blessed if you do so," he said during the impromptu visit. "Your children will grow in righteousness before the Lord, and your gratitude as you watch them will increase before the Lord. The time will come when you will get on your knees and thank the Lord for His blessings upon you as a family."
President Hinckley offered this counsel during a visit to the ward's sacrament meeting, during which the emphasis was family home evening. "What a great principle it is. What a great program it is," the Church president said, recalling when then-Church President Joseph F. Smith announced the program in 1915.
"I was 5 years old then, and my father said, 'We are going to have family home evening. The president of the Church has asked if we have family home evening.' We all said, 'What is that?' He said, 'We will try it.' So we tried it."
Continuing, President Hinckley recalled the children of the Hinckley home trying to sing and laughing at one another. "We got off to a very poor start. But we worked at it, and finally we had home evening working as it ought to work.
"I am so grateful for this program in the Church. Life was much simpler then it is now. And if we needed it then, we need it even more today."
