Family Life Honor

The Pathfinder Family Life Honor is earned almost entirely at home. Listed under code AM-012, it dates from 1975, originated with the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and has 10 requirements, from reading The Adventist Home, by Ellen G. White, to a month of family worship. The official list is in the complete requirements for the Family Life Honor. This guide shows where to study each part and how to finish everything in six weeks, with no ready-made answers and with respect for every kind of family.

📋What is the Family Life Honor and what are the requirements?

The Family Life Honor belongs to the Missionary & Community Activities area and is level 1 in the catalog. It also appears on a class card: item 4 of the advanced class Field and Forest Explorer (Pesquisador de Campo e Bosque in Portuguese) asks for Christian Grooming and Courtesy or Family Life. The Explorer class requires a minimum age of 12, according to the South American Division (SAD).

Three requirements depend on the calendar: the one-week diary, the month of worship and the activity with a neighbor. The table sums up all ten, without answers.

Editorial summary of the catalog requirements (AM-012). The full wording on the honor's page prevails.

📖How do you use The Adventist Home for the Family Life Honor?

The Adventist Home is a compilation first published in English in 1952. It gathers passages Ellen G. White wrote over seventy years, mostly articles for church magazines. The Portuguese edition from Casa Publicadora Brasileira (CPB), O Lar Adventista, has 87 chapters in 18 sections and can be read online on the EGW Writings website, where the English original keeps the same numbering. The father's section opens, in chapter 34, with a short sentence: "The home is an institution of God."

Read the whole section before you write. On the website, each paragraph ends with a reference such as AH 211.1 (book abbreviation, page and paragraph). Note that reference next to each idea and write in your own words: a good essay explains what you understood and uses two or three references to show where it came from.

Not every home has a father and a mother present, and the honor already allows for that: requirement 4 speaks of parents or guardians. The book even has a chapter on the stepmother (chapter 46), and Fundamental Belief 23 of the Adventist Church recognizes that some family relationships fall short of the ideal. Describe the role as the book presents it and say, respectfully, who provides that care in your home, whether it is a grandmother, an uncle or a stepfather. If your parents' separation still hurts, read when your parents separate.

Table of contents of the CPB edition on EGW Writings; the English edition uses the same numbering and these titles.

🌳Which families in the Bible should you choose for requirement 2?

Requirement 2 asks for three Bible families, with parents, children and grandchildren, their conflicts and God's plans for each one. Almost no family in the Bible looks like an advertisement, and Psalm 68:6 sums up the hope that runs through all of them: "God sets the solitary in families" (NKJV).

Choose different kinds of families. The table points to where to read; the tree, the conflicts and God's plans are up to you. Draw the tree with one line per generation and the Bible reference next to each name. One curious detail links this requirement to requirement 9: in Ruth 4:17, it is the neighbor women who name the boy born into Naomi's family.

Editorial suggestions, checked against the New King James Version (NKJV).

📊How has the Brazilian family changed since your parents' time?

Requirement 3 compares the family of 20 to 30 years ago with today's on five topics, including customs, respect for elders and school, and calls for a bibliography. Start with the official numbers. In 2024, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) published the household composition data from Brazil's 2022 Demographic Census: the average number of residents per household fell from 3.7 people in 2000 to 2.8 in 2022, reflecting falling fertility and an aging population, according to the institute.

Two Brazilian laws help with the topics of respect and school. The Statute of the Elderly (Estatuto do Idoso), Law 10.741 of October 1, 2003, sets out the rights of people aged 60 or older and is now called the Statute of Older Persons (Estatuto da Pessoa Idosa). Constitutional Amendment 59 of 2009 made schooling compulsory from age 4 to 17, to be phased in by 2016.

The numbers show how big the change was; people tell you how it was lived. Interview your parents or grandparents, one topic at a time, and record the relationship, date and answers for your bibliography. Steer clear of the conclusion that everything used to be better: a good contrast also shows what stayed the same.

Source: IBGE, Brazil's 2022 Demographic Census, Composição domiciliar e óbitos informados (2024). The first three rows are percentages of domestic units.

📝How do you keep the one-week diary and talk about money at home?

The diary for requirement 4 lasts seven days and looks at conflicts, respect for elders and the authority of parents or guardians. Write every night, in a few lines: what happened, who was involved (by relationship), how it ended and what you felt, including your own part. The notebook is yours: agree with your Instructor on an evaluation that protects your family's privacy, such as a conversation about what you learned.

Requirement 5 balances the previous one with a paragraph on what makes you proud of your family. Families going through grief, unemployment or separation have good qualities too, and recognizing them is part of the exercise.

For requirement 6, nobody has to reveal a salary. Ask an adult to show you the main categories of household spending and ask which ones also depend on your choices. Chapter 63 of The Adventist Home, on teaching children how to earn and use money, is good supporting reading.

🕯️How do you organize a month of family worship and a Sabbath as a family?

Requirement 8 asks for a month of family worship, in the morning or in the afternoon or evening, with as many people in the household as possible, plus Friday sunset worship. How to lead a short worship, by age group, is covered in the guide to family worship at home. Here the Pathfinder is the organizer.

Draw up a four-week schedule and stick it on the fridge, with a fixed time, one person in charge each week and a continuous reading, such as one of the Gospels. Mark the days when worship happened: the record serves as evidence for the Instructor. Where not everyone is Adventist, invite them and respect anyone who prefers not to take part. On Friday, check the sunset time in your city and find program ideas in sundown worship.

If your month of worship falls between August and September, make use of Adoração em Família (Portuguese for family worship), a program of the Family Ministries department of the Adventist Church in South America that studies chapters of a book by Ellen G. White on the family during prayer meetings on eight Wednesdays.

Requirements 7 and 10 ask for lists and at least one activity carried out (for requirement 10, if possible). Talk with your family before making the lists, taking into account the budget, ages and anyone who has difficulty getting around. For the Sabbath, the guide to Sabbath activities shows what fits the day. Write your report on the same day as the activity.

🏘️How can you finish the Family Life Honor in six weeks?

That leaves requirement 9, the only one that takes the family outside the home. Agree with an adult on which neighbor to approach, and never go alone to a house your family doesn't know. To turn the gesture into a Unit project, see the guide to Neighbor's Day.

The most common mistake is copying ready-made texts: the SAD's Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual states that answered honors must never be used, especially those from the internet (the reasons are in the guide on answered honors). Another frequent mistake is writing the whole diary at once, on the last day.

You can also earn the honor outside Club classes: the same manual provides for the Club to appoint a qualified person to evaluate it. When you finish, go through the complete requirements for the Family Life Honor item by item and take your material to the Instructor.