This week the family home evening lesson discusses the importance of choosing good friends. The lesson will also discuss the influence that your friends can have on you. This is a great topic to discuss with your children as they prepare to start school again. Remember as you teach this lesson to do so with the spirit.
You can open your lesson by sharing the account of Alma the Younger and the sons of King Mosiah in Mosiah 27. After you share the story you can ask your children if these friends were good influences or bad influences? You may want to point out that at the beginning they were bad influences, but that they all repented after the angel visited them, and they became good influences for each other. You may want to share a story from your life when your friends were good influences for you. As you discuss this point, you should emphasize that you want to be friends with people who want to do the right thing. This does not mean that they need to be a member of the church, but someone who doesn’t want to get into trouble all of the time.
The next part of the lesson should focus on not giving into peer pressure. You should discuss with your children situations that they may get into that involve peer pressure. You can have the examples match the age and interests of your children. A few examples are cheating, drinking, skipping school, and being unkind to others. As you talk about these situations emphasize that your children can stand up for their beliefs, and that they do not need to give into peer pressure.
If you have a child who will be starting school for the first time, you may want to spend some time addressing his concerns. You can have the older children talk to this child as well. This is an important time in a child’s life, and it is nice to take some time to honor it.
You can sing your favorite songs for this lesson. Do not forget to have an activity. A fun activity may be a new school clothes fashion show (especially for girls) or a trip out to buy new school supplies. Refreshments are always fun as well.
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