Relationships and Hunger Games

First for the relationships part, then I will get to the Hunger Games.

For Family Home Evening (March 19th), I gave the lesson and we talked about specific ways to build relationships with individual family members.  We watched two video clips from Mormon messages and then discussed the ways they had (in the clip) used to build relationships in their family.  Find one of the videos we watched on fathers and sons HERE.

In the video, the boy did the following 3 things to build his relationship with his father:

(This was based on a talk given in November 2009 by M. Russell Ballard called "Fathers and Sons, A Remarkable Relationship". Quotes from the talk given below each thing.  Find the full talk here.)

1) Trust your father

"He is not perfect, but he loves you and would never do anything he didn’t think was in your best interest. So talk to him. Share your thoughts and feelings, your dreams and your fears. The more he knows about your life, the better chance he has to understand your concerns and to give you good counsel. When you put your trust in your dad, he will feel the responsibility of that trust and try harder than ever to understand and to help. As your father, he is entitled to inspiration on your behalf. His advice to you will be the heartfelt expressions of someone who knows and loves you. Your dad wants more than anything for you to be happy and successful, so why would you not want to trust someone like that? Boys, trust your dad."


2) Take an interest in your father's life

"Ask about his job, his interests, his goals. How did he decide to do the work that he does? What was he like when he was your age? How did he meet your mother? And as you learn more about him, you may find that his experiences help you to better understand why he responds the way that he does. Watch your dad. Watch how he treats your mother. Watch how he performs his Church callings. Watch how he interacts with other people. You will be surprised what you learn about him just by watching him and listening to him. Think about what you don’t know about him and find out. Your love, admiration, and understanding will increase by what you learn. Boys, be interested in your dad’s life."

3) Ask your father for advice

"Let’s be honest: he is probably going to give you his advice whether you ask for it or not, but it just works so much better when you ask! Ask for his advice on Church activity, on classes, on friends, on school, on dating, on sports or other hobbies. Ask for his counsel on your Church assignments, on preparing for your mission, on decisions or choices you have to make. Nothing shows respect for another person as much as asking for his advice, because what you are really saying when you ask for advice is, “I appreciate what you know and the experiences you have had, and I value your ideas and suggestions.” Those are nice things for a father to hear from his son."

I challenged all the kids to choose one person to build a better relationship with in the family by doing these three things: trust them, ask them for advice on something that person may know more about, and take an interest in their life.  As an incentive, I bought a box of Mike and Ike's and left it up on the fireplace mantle as a reminder for the person who worked the hardest at building a better relationship.  They were not supposed to tell who they had chosen until the next week.  

It turned out to be pretty successful.  Right away I knew that Jarem had picked Alex because he asked him questions and really listened when he answered, but didn't make it obvious.  Even Alex didn't realize it.  I also figured out Tessa's right off because she asked Jesikah straight out after family home evening, "So how was your day Jesikah?" It was very obvious to everyone including Jesikah.  I think Jesikah was flattered at first that Tessa picked her, and Tessa tried all week.  Unfortunately, she was just too obvious about it and would ask her the same question everyday in the same tone.  Tact isn't really her best trait, but she did try to do all the things and it was her effort that counted.

Alex picked Jarem and tried to be a buddy to him, but didn't really go through all the steps.  Jesikah picked me and I picked her.  We both had had a trying week the week before, so that must have been why we picked each other.  No one could figure out who Eric picked, so when we asked him the next week, he said he picked himself since no one else picked him.  I think he just forgot to do it. :)

So, now to the Hunger Games part.  During that week, the new Hunger Games movie came out.  Jesikah, Eric, and I had all read the books and wanted to go.  Jesikah wanted to go to the midnight showing, but with it being a Thursday night, I basically told her it just wasn't going to work out.  However, with her being my chosen person for the week, I wanted to do something special for her. As I started thinking about what would mean a lot to her, I decided I would go ahead and surprise her and buy us tickets for the midnight showing!!  Now, I am definitely not a late night person, in fact, this is the first midnight showing I have been to ever!  And I have to admit, I was not at all excited about hanging out for 2 hours before the movie either just to get a good seat.  But once again, I swallowed all practical instincts and went with it.  I surprised her after-school that day and we went.  Amazingly, I stayed awake during the whole movie!!  The movie was good and following the book quite well.  The only thing I felt was lacking was maybe some narration of Katniss's thoughts during while in the arena.  There were a lot of things that she did for specific reasons that weren't really understood in the movie due to lack of narration.  I really thought the characters were well cast though.

Anyway, in the end, the movie was a good time, and the relationship lesson was pretty successful as well.  Jesikah won the Mike and Ike's because she tried all week and accomplished each of the 3 goals.  However, she did share some with Tessa and Jarem since they really did try to.

Once Jesikah found out we were going to the movie, she found and old t-shirt and with fabric markers, created a Hunger Games t-shirt to wear to the movie.

I thought she did a great job!