Response to my friends blog

My friend Adam posed a question on his blog. I'm going to make you go here to read it. My response was so long I lost it a couple times so I decided to put it on my own blog. Is that cheating? Oh well.

The First Presidency stated in 1976: “Family home evening is for everyone. It is for families with parents and children, for families with just one parent, and for parents who have no children at home. It is for home evening groups of single adults and for those who live alone or with roommates. …
“Regular participation in family home evening will develop increased personal worth, family unity, love for our fellowmen, and trust in our Father in heaven. It is our promise that great blessings will come to all who conscientiously plan and hold weekly family home evenings.”

A topical definition of FHE says, "Church leaders have instructed members to set aside Monday night as "family home evening." This is a time for families to study the gospel together and to do other activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories, and increase unity and love."

Additionally, in a March 2003 First Presidency message President Hinckley was quoted as saying, "“You have to establish in your life some sense of prioritizing things, of giving emphasis to the important things and of laying aside the unimportant things that will lead to nothing. Establish a sense of justice, a sense of what is good and what is not good, what is important and is not important; and that can become a marvelous and wonderful blessing in your lives”.

I think it's wise to agree with the First Presidency and say that FHE is for everyone. In a family setting I imagine you would make decisions together about what FHE will be for you, and while we're single we have the responsibility to decide what that will mean for us individually. I know some people who have school on Monday nights and don't attend FHE. I have a friend who takes Monday nights as their own personal time to be settled at home and at times visits with her own family in the area. Since I can admit that I was one of those who left FHE after the lesson and went to Red Robin I should give a reason for that decision and say that yes, for one week I thought it was fine to leave early and have dinner with some friends I see regularly and some others I don’t know as well. If I hadn’t gone to dinner I still would have left early to go to the gym. (I know I traded out the gym for Red Robin, typical!) To make a long comment short, I think that while it's important to make efforts to participate in the prescribed YSA FHE plan, it can be just as beneficial at times to mix it up a bit or spend Monday nights doing something you feel is appropriate for your stage of life.