Treasures laid up in Heaven

This week for FHE, Kurt and I totally collaborated on lesson and treat; without even knowing what the other was doing I should add. The lesson Kurt happened to pick was on obeying the commandments, and the blessings that come from obeying all Heavenly Father's laws, they are for our good even if we can't see the purpose right away. We talked a minute about what a commandment is, and why would Heavenly Father give us commandments. When we asked this to Jexten he said, "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and not get a spankin' " As always Adessa had an insightful and well beyond her years answer "Heavenly Father knew that we needed rules if we were going to find our way back to heaven. Heavenly Father loves all of us, and has a plan for every one of us to be able to return to Him again someday. That is why we follow the commandments, and follow the Prophet." Needless to say, there wasn't much left of the lesson after that answer. Kurt and I ended with telling Adessa and Jexten how we felt when each of them came into our family and how happy we are that we can be a family forever if we follow all of Heavenly Father's commandments. Then came the game portion that worked out as if it had been planned for weeks.
Kurt hid paper picture clues all over the house. He handed the first clue to Adessa and said "Now we are going to go on a treasure hunt, but you will only get the treasure if you follow all the directions correctly. There are clues hidden all along the way, and if you are looking in the right places you will be led to the treasure." So off we went, with great enthusiasm going from one clue to the next. We were led all over the house, some of the clues were tricky, and we weren't sure which way we should go, so we had to study our clue closer and get all the details. we began to lose our enthusiasm, and wonder where we were being led. As we got near the treasure the clues became harder, but we also got better at figuring out what they meant because of our experience with the previous clues. Finally we made it! Our enthusiasm that we had in the beginning more than doubled, in fact, an exuberant cheer HOORAY WE DID IT!!!!! filled the whole house, and could probably be heard by the neighbors. :)
The difficulty was more than rewarded by the treasure of Fruit Pizza that we found! Oh, how sweet it tasted! We were all glad that we had gone on that treasure hunt and followed all the clues correctly. We liked our treasure so much, and it made us feel so happy inside, that we decided that it should be shared with our neighbors too, so they could taste how sweet it was and be just as happy as we are. Of course they were grateful that we had shared our treasure with them.
Ok, so by now I am sure you got all of the parallels to real life that this family home evening touched on, but I was amazed at how perfectly and completely this particular lesson was carried out. And all without any prior planning or coordinating. Everything just fell into place perfectly. It must be a pretty important lesson, not just to teach to our kids, but for us to be reminded of too. I am happy to say, I get it. There is more I can do to more fully follow ALL the commandments, and do ALL I can to more perfectly follow Christ's example. It is sometimes easy to forget and lose some of our enthusiasm as we go along our way in this life. Especially when the going gets tough, or more likely, when the going gets easy. We sometimes forget how blessed we really are, and where those blessings are actually coming from. So this lesson spoke to my heart in a gentle encouraging way that, even though I have it pretty good right now, and we have a pretty easy going routine for the most part. We go day in and day out on our merry little way, let's not forget the "small things" like: scripture study, and personal prayer, and love one another without letting things like pride or prejudice cloud our path and muddy the way. Lead with a gentle hand, and "let thy heart be slow to anger", speak kinder words, and think brighter thoughts. Enjoy what you have, and share what you can. Don't stop making goals for the future, but don't focus so heavily on them that you lose sight of today.
Anyway, these are just some of my personal thoughts, and nobody is perfect, but wouldn't it be nice if we all tried a little harder to regain some of that enthusiasm we must have had in the beginning? Just on a side note, Kurt gave me a challenge--or a dare-- to see if I could make a second "treasure" as good as the first. ;) We will see.

Some pictures of my Treasures. :)