Why Home Teaching Should be Less then 30 minutes

I have heard over the years to keep home teaching between fifteen and thirty minutes.  I usually disagreed.  I am now doing an about face!  Here is my reasoning.  In any given home teaching relationship there are four main participants and perhaps others.  First, let's take the home teaching family.  Let's assume it is a couple.  The issue is time.  Each spouse will be different regarding how he or she is using his or her time.  There might be a few people that have huge amounts of time but I would bet that most people are time crunched.  They have more things to do than they have time.  Now, the same goes for the home teacher.  He may or may not have a lot of time for home teaching.  His wife needs to be taken into the picture as well.  Even if he feels he can spend the time, does she really need him home to do other activities (family time, chores, etc.)?  Whose time is more valuable? Is the home teaching program more valuable than other time related things that need to be done?  The answer is no.  Time is precious and each person will value the way he or she uses his or her time differently.  We can't judge this.

With all this in mind, with all the people involved, with every one's different schedules involved, with every one's different time prioritizations, home teaching should be a fifteen to thirty minute event.

Q: What if the person is lonely and needs longer visits?
A: I no longer believe this is in the scope of the monthly home teaching visit.  This is because of all the reasons stated above.  Of course, we should always follow the injunction in James 1, that true religion, undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction.  The lonely person may require more visits, etc.  But, nobody should be required to run faster than he has strength (Mosiah 4:27).  This need, I believe, should be taken off line and discussed by the home teachers.  Perhaps the solution will need to be at a different level, especially if both home teachers have huge time constraints.  Perhaps sacrifices will be made and there will be more visits (but, not the official home teaching visit).  And, perhaps assignments will need to change to meet the needs of each person involved.