Our Turtle House
by Becky Squire
“How many teaching moments are unnoticed, and questions go unanswered, because your own life gets in the way?”
With all the different options of content geared toward members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed in choosing what I should use to teach my family the “Come, Follow Me” lessons. I mean, it’s hard for me to simply decide what uplifting message to listen to as I get ready in the morning!
My family members all have different needs when it comes to entertainment. My teenage son loves dry humor. My teenage daughter prefers memes and inspirational quotes. I, personally, enjoy listening to talks as I drive or go on walks, yet my husband likes to read articles or watch videos. And then there’s my two young boys who need something totally different every single day.
Luckily, I came across Our Turtle House, an app that puts the fun in gospel learning! Our Turtle House has everything my family needs: short daily devotionals, full-length talks and podcasts, fun Come, Follow Me lesson plans designed for families with all ages, and so much more! Thousands of hours of entertaining inspiration that our whole family enjoys!
Our Turtle House was founded by some of the best speakers in the inspirational industry. Hank Smith, Meg Johnson, and John Bytheway (and their team of both well-loved AND new-to-me special guests) create daily episodes of family-friendly, gospel-oriented learning. If you’ve even listened to Hank and John, you know that they are hilarious and spiritual at the same time. And Meg is a spiritual giant and always has something positive and uplifting to say. It’s always refreshing to hear their messages as I laugh and learn right along side them. I’m pretty sure we are best friends whether they know it or not.
Our Turtle House also provides great activities for your family to do on Sundays. Both of my teenagers have the app on their phones and I love that they are instantly connected to an almost endless library of spiritual and uplifting content. Scripture study help, tips for going through trials, episodes about people doing good in the world…the list goes on and on. Plus, they have weekly firesides the children can watch digitally! Not only do I want my children to understand the gospel, but I want them to enjoy it, and with the Our Turtle House app, they do!
When it comes to implementing Come, Follow Me every week, I am a minimalist. I want my family to understand the principles without all the fluff. One Monday night soon after I downloaded the app, I could tell that my kids were restless, but we still needed to do Come, Follow Me. On a whim, we decided to pile in the car and go for a drive. I plugged in my phone, turned on the Our Turtle House app, and turned on the Follow Him Podcast while we drove. We were all immediately in a trance (except for dad who was driving, thank goodness). This has quickly become our favorite Family Home Evening activity and we do it almost every week.
The Our Turtle House app has two different plans to choose from: you can join as an individual or you can opt for the family plan, where you can include up to 5 additional family members. Both plans have a low monthly fee; annual discount plans are available, too. You and your family can also try the app out with a free 7-day trial from www.ourturtlehouse.com, where you can explore the app and all it’s amazing content.
The bottom line for me is that I am realizing more and more every day how much the adversary is working harder and harder on my family. It’s scary, but you don’t need to fear because the truth is that the scarier the world gets, the more power God is giving us. We just need to make the daily decision to use that power, and I believe that part of that power is choosing good content for our families.
I love how Our Turtle House says it on their website:
“How many teaching moments are unnoticed and questions unanswered because your own life gets in the way? A lack of gospel application is already taking its toll on your family – are you ready to take it back?”
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