SPIRITOMETER {Printable}

We have a problem in our home which is that most some of us have trouble speaking kindly.  There is far too much yelling, name calling, fighting, and just general nastiness.  One of my sons is particularly challenged in this area.

I am a Mormon.  I’m not sure I’ve ever really said that on this blog.  It isn’t that I wanted to hide it.  I just don’t want to be preaching religion on here all the time.  But, yes, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In our religion, we talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, as we believe he is a member of the Godhead, which is comprised of God, the father, His son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  We believe the Holy Ghost is the one who helps us to communicate with God, our father.  Sometimes, you can feel his presence so strongly.  And we talk a lot about having the Holy Ghost near and even present in our home.  When there is peace and love in our home, we believe he is present.  But when there is bickering and contention, we believe he cannot abide that type of environment and therefore leaves our presence until we are behaving better.

Anyway, one Sunday a couple weeks ago I had absolutely had it with the nastiness in our home.  I sat my family down and told them things had to change so that we could feel the Spirit more abundantly in our home.  That day, I required everyone in my family to speak only in a whisper.  Amazingly, it made a huge difference.  There was much more peace and kindness in our home that afternoon.  The following day, my birthday, I required everyone to whisper as well.  It was a very nice day for me!

That day I came up with a brilliant idea to make a “Spiritometer”.  I talked to my family about how we have different gauges to measure different things, like a speedometer on a car.  I told them I was going to make a “spiritometer” and explained to them that when the Spirit was strong in our home we could speak in normal voices.  But when there was fighting or complaining or disobedience and the Spirit was not so strong, we would need to lower our voices and try to say nice things to encourage the Spirit to return to our home.  I told them that unfortunately I would not be able to make a Spiritometer that automatically measured the level of the Spirit, but that I would have to move it manually depending on how I felt things were going in our house.

While I didn’t get around to making the Spiritometer for two weeks, I did verbally tell them where I thought it was and at what level they should be talking.  My 4 year old was so super cute.  Whenever I told them the Spirit was leaving, he would immediately start telling everyone he loved them and how awesome they are to try to bring it back up!  So cute!

Anyway, I really think this idea was an answer to my prayers in asking God how I could change the culture and tone of my home.  It really is helping us, me included.

I want to give this printable to you for FREE if you want it to try in your own home.  I created it in the program that goes with my Silhouette, and the only was I can figure out to be able to give it to you is that I made it into an .xps file.  Hopefully that will work for people!

To make it, I simply printed the image on cardstock and used ModPodge to adhere it to some cardboard.  After it dried, I ModPodged over it.  Once that was dry I gave it a coat of clear spray paint.  For the pointer, I used my Cropodile to punch a hole in a popsicle stick.  I printed out the orange polka dot design and ModPodged it to the popsicle stick.  I used a sanding block to sand the excess paper off.  You can make a pointer how ever you want.  A laminated cardstock arrow would work well.  I attached the pointer with a brad, but I put a small washer between the pointer and the board to keep it from scraping against it as it is moved.  Then I just stuck it in this frame and put the glass behind the board.  It would look better in a black frame but I didn’t have one on hand. 

The little ghosts are for my little ones that can’t read so they can see a visual of how strong the Spirit is.

Please email me if you would like the files.  remarkablehome@gmail.com