Wholesome Family Recreation

When you think of Wholesome Family Recreation, what comes to mind?  When I first started studying this for my class I just assumed this was good activities you do with your family.  Whether it was a walk to the park, appropriate movie, vacation, etc.  The more I studied, the more I realized that there is more to it than just that!

Wholesome family activities/recreation should encompass things that are not only fun, but also activities that help your family in becoming a stronger family unit, allows your family to grow together and helps your children develop.

Many families use the excuse that life is too busy.  The family seems to be over-scheduled today with an influx of activities and appointments.  There are certainly valid reasons to sign kids up for sports and extra activities.  They can develop talents and skills, they probably wouldn't pick up.  However, what if we instead, spent time focusing on family activities that could also help and develop those talents as well?  Things that will help the family grow closer together, instead of running from one lesson to the next practice.

I look at my family and how vastly different our family is, from even 5 years ago.  There are times I have to tell the kids to put the tablets down and to do something else.  I have a couple kids who would rather sit inside all day, instead of going outside.  I was raised in Northern Chicago.  We played outside all day long.  We rarely watched daytime TV as there wasn't anything on that was fun.  It was usually daytime soap operas or court tv shows.  Now, children can watch anything at anytime.  They have no desire to go outside and do sports, but rather go and watch YouTube videos on people doing sports and tricks.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World:  "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

Elder Christofferson said in October 2010 General Conference, "wholesome recreation is the friend and steadying companion of work. Music, literature, art, dance, drama, athletics—all can provide entertainment to enrich one’s life and further consecrate it. At the same time, it hardly needs to be said that much of what passes for entertainment today is coarse, degrading, violent, mind-numbing, and time wasting. Ironically, it sometimes takes hard work to find wholesome leisure. When entertainment turns from virtue to vice, it becomes a destroyer of the consecrated life. “Wherefore, take heed … that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God” (Moroni 7:14).

In conclusion, I love what Elder Oaks teaches us about how we spend our time.  "Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in viewing television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books or magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain interesting information,” Elder Oaks says. “But not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best. When the Lord told us to seek learning, He said, ‘Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom’ (D&C 88:118).” Leisure time should be filled with the best activities rather than those that are merely good."