And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)
We had the opportunity to get together as an extended family for Christmas. As expected, we had a marvelous time. We enjoyed the kind of camaraderie that comes when brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents come together. We did the kinds of things that most families do when they get together. We played and did chores together. We ate and played some more. As a family we also recommitted ourselves to be a family that serves the Lord.
Many other things became apparent during this time. It was obvious that our parents are becoming older and weaker. They are no longer the vibrant and energetic people they once were. The teenagers have developed many interests and friendships outside of the family circle. The younger kids have formed strong opinions about what they like to eat or not eat such as ‘no mayonnaise on a ham sandwich.’ There were also two new additions to the family since Christmas last year.
In addition to these changes and differences, it was also clear there was a distinct difference in the level of comfort that existed between the three generations of our family when it comes to modern technology. The grandparents had the most limited familiarity with modern technology. In fact, my father has never used a cellphone. He says he has absolutely no use for it and he is right. Since he doesn’t need it and doesn’t use it, he would have a hard time placing or receiving a call on a cellphone. The next generation (mine) displayed a varying degree of knowledge but we definitely were a lot more comfortable with modern technology than our parents. The youngest generation, our children, were clearly the most tech savvy of all of us.
This point was driven home one evening when we were all sitting around after dinner. Our teenagers got bored and decided they were going to have a texting contest. One family member was designated to read a scripture and everyone else was supposed to text it word for word to someone else in the room. Needless to say, the teenagers were super fast. I didn’t dare enter the contest. If I did I wouldn’t have been much of a competition to the teenagers in the room. I’m sure that if I had tried to text, the teenagers would be finished with the whole verse while I was still struggling with the first couple of words. I consider myself fairly tech savvy but texting is one thing that I just don’t like to do. I have no need for it on a regular basis and so I don’t do it as much.
Still, we all had fun either watching or participating in the contest. We decided that something like this would be a wonderful idea for a Family home evening if it was properly thought out and developed. Family home evening refers to a practice of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons) where a special time is “set aside each week that brings family members together and strengthens their love for each other, helps them draw closer to Heavenly Father, and encourages them to live righteously.” Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:
We invite those not of our faith to adopt this practice with their own families.
With this in mind, we started brainstorming ideas for a technology themed Family home evening night that would focus on sharing instead of competing. One of our teenagers is quite proficient at building and developing web pages. We thought we’d have him teach the whole family how to do it and together we can all contribute to a family web site. We talked about having the grandparents talk about the technology they used, such as typewriters, when they were growing up and perhaps even teaching the kids how to use it. (Of course, we’d have to find one first). Since we all live in different states and different countries, we thought it might also be fun to hold a teleconference family home evening for the whole family once or twice a year.
We also thought about having everyone take a turn to text a scripture to the extended family once a week. This will be our family scripture for the week that would be memorized by everyone. All the teenagers are experts at texting so we thought we’d have them share their tricks. Perhaps, they can even teach us the shorthand method that they use to text so fast.
Several years ago, we had videotaped these same kids when they were all under 13 doing a Christmas eve talent show for the family. When we pulled it out to watch this year, it somehow broke in the VCR. This saddened us as we realized this was a huge loss for all of us. It led to us discussing yet another wonderful project for the whole family to work on together – preserving old home movies and photographs. We could have easily saved this wonderful record of our children if we’d thought to convert it to a DVD. Modern technology has given us the tools but it is up to us to utilize them and use them to our advantage.
Technology can be divisive, but it doesn’t have to be. We can look for ways to bridge the gap between generations. All of us can learn new skills and develop a working familiarity with new technologies. One of the best ways to learn new things is with your family, with those that you trust. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints value families. Mormon theology and lifestyle is family-centered. This very fact is one of the reasons why I love my Mormon Religion. I love the focus on family. I love the value that it places on the family unit especially in the kind of world that we live in today. The Mormon Religion is one of the few places that offers such a focus in a society that seems to attack and disregard this most sacred unit.
If you’d like to know more about the Mormon Religion and our stand on the family, I invite you to read this proclamation on The Family by the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles. I encourage you to also read these articles on the Family by General Authorities of the Church.
