What has helped develop greater harmony in your home?

The gospel! A friend once told me that I had a "white picket fence home". When asked what she meant by that, she told me that I just had the perfect family and home. I had a happy mom that stayed at home and cooked dinner. A dad that went to work and took care of us. It just seemed to good to be true. We just seemed so happy.

We were so happy in my home growing up! Now, I drove my mom crazy in high school. One of my strongest memories is saying something mean to my dad and feeling horrible for it. My brothers and I fought a lot. But not all the time! We had an underlying knowledge that we loved each other. We had the counter weight of Family Home Evening, where every (most) Mondays we'd get together as a family to do something fun, read the scriptures, sing and pray. We had prayer together at night before bed, heard each other bear our testimonies of the gospel at church, had family vacations and "forced family outings" where we did things with just our family. I remember home being some place where I was safe. That I was cared about. Where we'd eat dinner together every night. Now that we're adults, my siblings and I are great friends and very close to our parents.

Now that I am married, my husband and I strive for harmony in our home. We try to attend the temple regularly. We read the scriptures with our kids and say a family and couple prayer each night. We try to put each other first and strive to communicate well. We may disagree or hurt each other's feelings but we always apologize and never say bad things to or about eachother to others. We express our love for each other often. We try to have fun! There is a deep sense of loyalty to each other and our children because we were married in the temple for time and all eternity. The knowledge that we are a family sealed together forever brings an added desire for harmony.

We're not a perfect family, but our belief that our family is our first priority makes us a very happy family.