HOME IS WHERE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS HAPPEN

James MacArthur, 1994

"I feel satisfied that there is no adequate substitute for the morning and evening practice of kneeling together---father,  mother, and children.  This, more than soft carpets, more than lovely draperies, more than cleverly balanced color schemes, is the thing that will make for better and more beautiful homes....I know of nothing that will so much help to ease family tensions, that in a subtle way will bring about the respect for parents which leads to obedience, that will affect the spirit of repentance which will largely erase the blight of broken homes, than will praying together, confessing weaknesses together before the Lord, and invoking the blessings of the Lord upon the home and those who dwell there.
Can we make our homes more beautiful?  Yes, through addressing ourselves as families to the Source of all true beauty.  Can we strengthen society and make it a better place in which to live? Yes, by strengthening the virtue of our family through kneeling together and supplicating the Almighty in the name of His Beloved Son.
This practice, a return to family worship, spreading across the land and over the earth, would in a generation largely lift the blight that is destroying us. It would restore integrity, mutual respect, and a spirit of thankfulness in the hearts of people."

Gordon B. Hinckley
President, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
ENSIGN, Feb. 1991

A few thoughts of my own after reading President Hinckley's thoughts----
I thought of the times all twelve of us were racing around the house at 7 am trying to find shoes, books, sign notes for the teacher, making lunches.....confusion.  Then, according to our family agreement, we stopped...knelt down together in our living room, and prayed together before we all went our separate ways.  The confusion mostly stopped....we felt good....better anyway.  To hear one of our children pray for all of us in the family was heartwarming.  To pray for each child by name..Toran, David, Paul, Mike, Lindi, Lori, Don, Debbie, Mark, Sharolyn...made each one feel loved and cared about.  And as parents we prayed for ourselves as those finally responsible for the well being of the family.  And, over time, through all our difficulties, trials, challenges...sometimes taking us very low.. we felt the guiding and healing hand.... the loving hand of He who teaches us through our daily life experiences. We knew we were in the Earth School....and  were trying to learn and grow together and hold hands as we walked the many miles of mortal education before us.  But through it all......we tried to faithfully remember that there were not many things that would help us start and end each day with the strength to go on more than to pray together as a family.  For children to hear their mom or dad pray for them tenderly and lovingly is a gift to each child that is precious.  And to hear each child take his or her turn to address God, the father of us all....is priceless.

That is one thought I hope will be of value to anyone who reads this....I can honestly say that, after raising ten children to adulthood.....the practice of kneeling and praying together really helped us. When we did not take the time to do it...we noticed a difference.  That day we had forgotten one of our greatest family assets---family prayer.  I always love to hear my children, and now grandchildren...pray.  It gives me confidence in the path they are traveling as they are asking for our Heavenly Father's hand to be upon each step they take.

Jim MacArthur

I LIVED AFTER GETTING A D IN GEOMETRY!

Hello!!!  This is my very first blog.  My daughter in law Jennifer Carter MacArthur actually set it up for me as I am "technologically impaired."  Thank you, Jenni.

So, why am I doing this?  I once wrote a full length book EVERYDAY PARENTS RAISING GREAT KIDS---published by Deseret Book in 2004.  I wrote it because I wanted to share my ideas on functional families learned almost totally by my own experience as a parent and grandparent. I also wrote it for my children so they could see my ideas in print and see if they would inspire my children to create their own  ideas about healthy parenting.  I grew up in a troubled family and as I became a father myself I realized I had never seen a healthy family up close.  So I actually went and talked to a number of people who, in my opinion, had fairly healthy families. I wanted to ask them questions and see if I could learn how to be a good parent despite my difficult childhood.  I made plenty of mistakes as a young parent but learned a lot over the years.  I decided I wanted to share my parenting ideas and see how people reacted to them--so I wrote the 300 page book.  It was a fascinating experience to write a book since I had never attempted anything like that before.  Getting it published was a great moment in my adult life as I really did not think I could do it.  A number of years before I wrote the book I coined a phrase that has been on the wall of our home for probably 30 plus years now------HOME IS WHERE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS HAPPEN.

Also, I have been a licensed psychologist for 35 years and my many clients have taught me a great deal. I would like to share some of those ideas, too.  I have done a lot of public speaking sharing my ideas on mental health, family, personal growth and development and many other topics that relate to the topic of  "people."
I love questions. Answering questions helps us learn from each other.  I am interested in almost anything other than math.  Math and I do not get along.  I got a D in geometry in high school.  So none of my blogs will deal with math--but they will deal with almost everything else. I do not think I am smarter than you are.  Quite to the contrary.  I just like to learn and I like to share what I have learned.  So, my blogs will not be "battlegrounds".....but rather they will be "classrooms" where I will write something and invite you to think about it and even respond with your own ideas if you would like to do so. I hope to see you on the road called BLOGS RD...take care. Jim MacArthur  oh and my nickname is "Sparky"....in case you are interested.