“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.“

The statement above, included in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, gives guidance on how marriages and families can be successful. The principles shared seem to be practical and a given in theological standards, yet where in the world did ‘wholesome recreational activities’ come from? You mean marriages and families need to have recreation in their lives in order to be successful? The answer, is a resounding YES! Now, it’s inspired that preceding recreational activities, we find the word ‘wholesome’. Ah, blasted, that seems like a word that takes away all the ‘fun’ in the recommendation, yet when you really dive into what the word means, you’ll find that it means to be good for one’s health and well-being. Whew! That’s a good thing, ‘fun’ back in the equation!

This morning, as I was thinking about this blog post, I decided to do the following search “what are some wholesome recreational activities to do” and to my astonishment about 19,800,000 results popped up! Almost 20 million! Needless to say, we live in a world full of activities to fill our needs and desires. Here’s a quick snippet of a few activities that popped up from my search:

Snippet from Google Search Engine

What’s interesting to me is that all of the activities listed above do not include any technology, no computers, no phones, no digital tablets, etc. You see, as I have learned, and as has been stated in many books, Our free time should be used wisely to create the best possible life, to promote individual growth and strengthen families... In general, we spend an inordinate amount of time with electronic media and, as a result, become disconnected from one another… Wholesome family recreation can help us strengthen our relationships and reduce negative emotional and spiritual consequences. Wholesome recreation strengthens families (Eds., Hawkins, et al. 2020, p. 225).

One of my favorite things to do during my free time is looking through old photos. I reminisce on the activities with my current family as well as the activities when I was growing up. I remember and cherish the moments of time in my life when I was young when my family would go out on camping trips, host parties, play board games (monopoly and dominos being a family favorite), cook together, dance together, work on the yard together. All good wholesome things that brought us closer together. And it’s those memories and activities that sparked and ignited the ideas of the activities that I now enjoy and cherish with my own family.

Let us all commit today to search and find the activities that interest you and your family the most, plan them out doing things that will bring you together and create lasting memories, and lastly and most importantly, Have Fun! It doesn’t take much to find joy in the simple things in life and what better way to create joy than by doing things with those with whom you love.

References

Eds., A.J.H.D.C.D.T.W. D. (2020). Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives. BYU Bookstore Publishing Services. https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9780842528030

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (1995). The Family: A Proclamation to the World. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng