Family Home Evening

The home is the most important place for gospel learning. No other organization can take the place of the family. Latter-day prophets have repeatedly called on parents to nurture their children with love and gospel teaching.

In 1915 President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency began a Churchwide effort to strengthen the family. They called on parents in the Church to gather their children once each week for a "Home Evening." Families were to take time to pray and sing together, read the scriptures, teach the gospel to one another, and participate in other activities that would build family unity.

In 1970 President Joseph Fielding Smith joined with his counselors in the First Presidency to designate Monday night as the time for family home evening. Since that announcement, the Church has kept Monday evenings free from Church activities so families can have this time together.

Latter-day prophets continue to urge Church members to give highest priority to family home evening. They have promised that our dedication to this program will help protect our families against the evils of our time and will bring us abundant joy now and throughout the eternities.

All members of the Church should make Monday evening a sacred time, reserved for family home evening. Those who are married should have weekly family home evening with their spouse. As couples have children, they should include them in family home evening, adapting the program to their needs and interests and letting them participate. After the children grow up and move away, couples should continue to hold family home evening together.

A suggested outline for family home evening follows: opening song, opening prayer, scripture reading, lesson, activity, closing song, closing prayer, refreshments.

Lessons for family home evening should be based on the scriptures, the teachings of latter-day prophets, and personal experiences and testimony. Other sources to consider could include the Family Home Evening Resource Book (item number 31106), Gospel Principles (31110), the Family Guidebook (31180), and Church magazines.

See also Family

—See True to the Faith (2004), 65–66

• "Family Home Evening"

  Gordon B. Hinckley, Liahona, Mar. 2003, 3–5; or Ensign, Mar. 2003, 2–5
  [The Lord] expects us to have family home evening—one night a week to gather our children together and teach them the gospel.

• "Enriching Our Lives through Family Home Evening"

  James E. Faust, Liahona, June 2003, 2–6; or Ensign, June 2003, 2–6
  Devotion to God developed in family home evening seems to forge the spiritual moorings and stability that can help families and individuals cope with the complexities of life.

• "Family Home Evening: Counsel and a Promise"

  Ensign, June 2003, 12–13
  A formal family home evening program was developed in the Granite Utah Stake and was first endorsed and made Churchwide by this 1915 First Presidency statement.

Search Church magazines for content related to this topic.

• "Family Home Evening"

  Encyclopedia of Mormonism
  (Please note that the contents of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, a joint product of Brigham Young University and Macmillan Publishing Company, do not necessarily represent the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) 

• "Family Home Evening"

  Home and Family Section of LDS.org

• Family Home Evening Resource Book

• "Strengthening the Family through Family Home Evening"

  Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Part B, Lesson 13

• "Strengthening Families in Family Home Evening"

  Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, Chapter 39

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