Blessed are the Speedmakers

For Family Home Evening this week, we read a message from President Eyring from a past issue of Friend magazine. The topic was being a peacemaker, which we thought was appropriate for our two boys, who lately have taken to pushing each other around. After Brandon read the message to us, we talked about what it means to be a peacemaker.

We played a little game - Brandon and I gave examples, and asked the boys to give a thumbs-up if it was a good example of being a peacemaker or a thumbs-down if it wasn't. We used real-life situations for them, such as "a big brother takes turns with his little brother" or "a little brother bites his big brother because he is frustrated."

While we were playing our little game, Mason and Danny were standing at the couch looking at a page out of the Friend. Before long, Danny started pushing against Mason, trying to knock him out of the way. Mason called out, "Danny's fighting! Thumbs DOWN!" Brandon and I couldn't help but laugh.

Later, while they were enjoying their snack (graham crackers with Nutella - yum!), I tried to get them to repeat the scripture with me - "Blessed are the peacemakers." My little Dan, who still struggles with the letter S, couldn't quite get the word out. He kept saying "blessed are the speedmakers." So cute! They were far more interested in running their Matchbox cars around a gameboard layout included in that issue of the Friend:


At bedtime, the boys and I read out of our scripture stories, as we do every evening:


Sidenote: we count this as our family scripture study, and it is really going so well! Usually it's all we can do to get Danny to sit down for the stories, but at least we're starting the habit. And Mason is always interested in any story that involves fighting and weapons. Go figure.

Anyway, as I left to put Danny in bed, I suggested to Mason that he say a personal prayer while I was taking care of Danny. Truthfully, I didn't expect him to do it - after all, I've never seen him say a prayer on his own before and usually he protests whenever we ask him to offer the prayer. But you know, this time he didn't even question it. I looked back as I left the room and I watched him kneel by the side of his bed, fold his arms, and begin to pray out loud. You can't imagine how my heart swelled. This is the same little boy who, just months ago, flat-out refused to say prayers. I am just so pleased with the progress he's making.

It's definitely hard to know sometimes whether the things we do are sinking in, and it's easy to become discouraged. We've spent many a Family Home Evening chasing these guys down and dragging them back into the living room. As a friend of mine remarked once, sometimes it seems like Family Home Evening is the only argument that starts and ends with a prayer! But tonight I felt such a sense of peace as I watched my four-year-old son pray on his own. We must be doing something right.