We interrupt this fire to bring you to the Adamism of the day.

I can't start this post without providing a little background and back story. 

First, a little background on an activity we hold in our home on Monday nights.  It's called Family Home Evening, or FHE, and it's an event that many members of our church strive to hold each week.  It's basically an evening that we dedicate to being together as a family, but it's an evening with an added purpose.  Family Home Evening consists of several components, and these components are assigned out to each member of the family.  Components consist of choosing a lesson topic, choosing appropriate hymns or children's church songs which support the lesson, having an activity or a game, and then having a treat.  We have found it to be a wonderful bonding experience, and it has opened some great dialogue in our home.  Topics can range from the importance of family, to lessons on various virtues, to fire safety, to budgeting, to scripture stories.  Each person takes turns in choosing and preparing the various activities of this weekly event.

Now that you know how Family Home Evening works, I'll tell you the next part.

Twice a year our church holds a conference (which is called General Conference) in which church leaders speak to us about a variety of topics.  We really love watching conference, and we provide activities for our children to do during conference because, honestly, it's hard for them to watch a bunch of grownups talk using big words for eight hours over two days.  We hope that they glean a little bit of what is being said, and we provide them with activity packets that help them look for details (such as who's speaking, what color their tie is, what day a particular person spoke, et cetera) in order to help them pay attention.  Truthfully though, we don't really expect them to retain a whole lot of it.

Okay, now you know how General Conference works.  I want to share with you a small bit about one of the talks that was given at our most recent conference (held two weeks ago).

A gentleman named Russell Ballard, an elder and leader in our church, gave a talk about addiction, and about how people become ensnared or trapped into such a dangerous and difficult place.  He talked about Lucifer's role in such matters.  Understand that in our home, Satan, Lucifer, the devil, whatever you call him, is not really a topic of conversation, well, pretty much ever.  We talk a lot about choice and accountability.  We talk about free will and agency.  We talk about the love that God and Jesus have for each of us.  We tend to focus on the positive, and generally only discuss the adversary (as we call him) when we can see that influence in the world around us.  We really honestly rarely discuss him though.  This is part of what Elder Ballard spoke said:


"Like the fly fisherman who knows that trout are driven by hunger, Lucifer also knows our hunger or our weaknesses and tempts us with counterfeit lures which, if taken, can cause us to be yanked from the stream of life into his unmerciful influence...and unlike a fisherman who catches and releases the fish unharmed back into the water, Lucifer will not voluntarily let go. His goal is to make his victims as miserable as he is."

Adam had to choose a topic for an upcoming Family Home Evening.  The rest of us had already chosen topics for other FHEs  in the month, and they were fairly simple.  I chose healthy eating.  Michael chose Thanksgiving.  Frankie chose honesty.  It was Adam's turn to choose.  "Well," he said matter-of-factly, "How about hooks that Satan has all around us?" 

Wha--at??? Who are you?  Hooks that Satan has all around us?  Where did that come from?  "Yeah, Adam," I said, laughing, "Where did that come from?" "You know," he said, "Like in Elder Ballard's talk. Like the artificial snares that Satan uses like fly fisherman use."

Little pitchers.  Big LISTENING ears.  Grateful mom.

And I will finish the fire story soon.