Centered on the Savior

I've never had much money or talent for decorating our home.  However, I have made it a priority to have a number of pictures of the Savior on the walls throughout.  It thrills me to hear a two year old sweetly whisper the name, Jesus, as we pass a painting in the stairwell.  Our children need to know of our love for Jesus Christ and our determination to follow his teachings from the very youngest ages.
 
The church has made it so easy to teach our children about the Savior in our homes.  The scripture readers and the gospel art book are easy to buy and use.  We purchased the old gospel art kit in the blue box from the Distribution Center years ago.  I slid the pictures into sheet protectors and put them into binders…one for New Testament, one for Old Testament etc. I regularly let one of the younger children choose a picture then tell what he or she remembers about that story.  Then we read the story off the back of the picture.  Then I have another child tell the story again.  They always remember more details after that reading.  Sometimes I'll pull out several pictures depicting stories from the Savior's life and have them choose a favorite and tell that story to the other children.  The scripture readers make great bedtime storybooks and my younger ones love to "do their scriptures" online.  On lds.org you can have the scriptures read aloud to your children. 

Another one of my favorite ways to teach my children of the Savior, his mission, teachings and love for us, is through the Primary Songs.  There are so many wonderful songs about the Savior in the Primary Songbook.  Here are just a few of my favorites: I'm Trying to be Like Jesus, Jesus Loves the Little Children, When He Comes Again, I Feel my Savior's Love, Jesus Once was a Little Child, and Tell me the Stories of Jesus.  I teach these songs to my children, sing them often during the day and as lullabies and let them listen to them on the cd player as they fall asleep at night.  What better thoughts right before they go to sleep than of Jesus Christ and his love for them.

Howard W. hunter has counseled us:

"Please remember this one thing.  If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong.  On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right." (Fear Not, Little Flock, 1988-89 Devotional and Fireside Speeches, Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1989, p. 112}.