FHE 6/4: Receiving Revelation

This week's FHE stems from two talks: Elder Quentin L. Cook's "In Tune With the Music of Faith," and Elder Richard G. Scott's "How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration For Your Personal Life."  I really believe that learning to feel the Spirit--to be "in tune with the music of faith"--is one of the most important and most rewarding things we can spend our efforts on in this lifetime.  Last week we learned a little about how to align our lives with the Lord's ways--to choose His side--so that we can be worthy of receiving this much-desired Spirit.  This week's lesson focuses a little more on that, as well as the importance of being able to *hear* it.  What better things to teach our families than this?

*Note* The Church has made pretty clear that we should not have children--or anyone, really--represent the Spirit by directly acting like it in Church lessons.  I think this holds true for FHE lessons, too.  We should also not draw it like a ghost or trivialize/make it un-sacred in any way.

POINTS TO PONDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• What does is mean to be "in tune" with the Spirit?  What do you think of when you hear the phrase "in tune"--an old radio?  A tuning fork?  A relationship in your life where you were 'in sync' with each other?  Something else?
• When have you clearly received inspiration in your life?  Are any of these experiences something you could share with your family?

QUOTES:
FROM ELDER COOK'S TALK:

• Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks of England, speaking to Roman Catholic leaders last December at the Pontifical Gregorian University, noted how secular some parts of the world have become. He stated that one culprit is “an aggressive scientific atheism tone deaf to the music of faith.”²
• "Finally, there are those who are in tune with the music of faith. You know who you are. You love the Lord and His gospel and continuously try to live and share His message, especially with your families.⁷ You are in harmony with the promptings of the Spirit, have awakened to the power of God’s word, have religious observance in your homes, and diligently try to live Christlike lives as His disciples."
• "In addition, when we inculcate into our lives scriptural imperatives and live the gospel, we are blessed with the Spirit and taste of His goodness with feelings of joy, happiness, and especially peace.²³ Clearly, a dividing line between those who hear the music of faith and those who are tone-deaf or off-key is the active study of the scriptures. I was deeply touched years ago that a beloved prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, emphasized the need to continually read and study the scriptures. He said: “I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns.”^24"

FROM ELDER SCOTT'S TALK:

• "The Holy Ghost communicates important information that we need to guide us in our mortal journey. When it is crisp and clear and essential, it warrants the title of revelation. When it is a series of promptings we often have to guide us step by step to a worthy objective, for the purpose of this message, it is inspiration."
• "When I am faced with a very difficult matter, this is how I try to understand what to do. I fast. I pray to find and understand scriptures that will be helpful. That process is cyclical. I start reading a passage of scripture; I ponder what the verse means and pray for inspiration. I then ponder and pray to know if I have captured all the Lord wants me to do. Often more impressions come with increased understanding of doctrine. I have found that pattern to be a good way to learn from the scriptures."
• "Inspiration carefully recorded shows God that His communications are sacred to us. Recording will also enhance our ability to recall revelation."
• REALLY, you should read this WHOLE TALK.  It's amazing and every word is powerful...I find myself wanting to just put the whole thing here.  :)

SONGS:

• "Listen, Listen" (the short, round of a song. :)
• "Search, Ponder, and Pray"
• "The Holy Ghost"
• "If With All Your Hearts"

OBJECT LESSONS:

• (Put a quarter on your head) Tell the children that whomever can get the quarter off your head without touching you can have it. When they cannot get the quarter, tell them that if anyone of them had asked, you would have handed him/her the quarter. The Bible says "Ask, and it shall be given you" Matthew 7:7 (see also verse 8). God desires to share His blessings with us, but we must ask in order to receive.
• Obviously, since one of the talks focuses heavily on being in tune with the music of faith, you could have lots of music playing from different sources (some worldly, but not inappropriate, music and then one primary song on repeat).  Have the children try to listen to the music--discuss how they feel (frazzled? confused? is it hard?).  Then have them literally "tune out" or turn off altogether the other songs until they can only hear the Church one, and talk about how they feel now.
• If you have access to a piano and/or a tuning fork: Ring the tuning fork, play the same note on the piano. Ask if the piano is in tune with the tuning fork. Ask why or why not? (piano hasn't been tuned, humidity, time between tunings, etc.) Make the connection that we need to do certain things to keep ourselves in tune with the Holy Spirit, i.e. prayer, scripture study, church attendance, etc.     
• Start off your lesson with a volenteer to put on a pair of socks. When you show the volenteer the muddy socks, he/she won't want to put them on. Walk around the room asking for another volenteer to put them on. After they are reject the opportunity to put on the socks, relate it the the holy ghost, that he does not dwell in unclean things, just like we would not like to wear muddy socks, the Holy Ghost does not want to be in unclean situations. 

GAMES & LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

• Show pictures of people doing good things, such as sharing and helping each other. Ask the children how they feel when they do good things. Describe to the children some situations of people doing good and bad things, such as helping their mothers, fighting with their brothers, sharing their toys, and disobeying their parents. Have the children smile when the action is good and frown when the action is not good.
• In a quiet voice say, “Everyone who can hear my voice, put your finger on your nose. Everyone who can hear my voice, put your hand on your head.” Continue, designating other parts of the body, until all the children are listening to your quiet voice. Explain that even though you were speaking quietly, when the children listened, they could hear your voice and obey your instructions. Explain that the Holy Ghost sometimes speaks to us in a quiet voice. If we listen carefully he will tell us important things.
• Set up a simple obstacle course, blindfold one of the kids, and have someone designated as the "leader" to get them through the course.  Everyone else tries to lead them astray.  Liken this to the Holy Ghost and the many distractions in our lives.
• People feel the Spirit in different ways.  I know for me, sometimes it comes in a feeling of peace and warmth like Elder Scott said.  Sometimes it's having something brought to my memory.  Sometimes it's a feeling of clarity, or excitement.  Reflect on your own life and find a few examples of inspiration/revelation that YOU have had, and share them with your family--even your very small children.  Give them something to relate their feelings to.  Have them share their own experiences if they feel so inclined.  Teach your family through word and example Elder Scott's counsel: "Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter. It is a sacred privilege. It is based upon eternal, unchanging principles. We receive help from our Father in Heaven in response to our faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency."
• One of my favorite games growing up was Outburst--where you picked a card that had a category and then 10 things that fell under that category, and you tried to name them all in a certain amount of time.  I made an "Outburst" card (for the whole family to work together) that summarizes the ideas in Elder Scott's talk in 15 points.  Download HERE. (Sorry, I didn't cover it in cool red marks, you'll just have to print it and mark off what the family says in black sharpie or something. :)  Give family members 1-2 minutes to come up with as many things as they can from the list.  If they miss anything, go back and highlight what Elder Scott said about it in his talk.
• For older children/youth, have them make a "T-chart" (divide a paper into two columns).  On one side, write "Inviting the Spirit."  On the other side, write "Things that block the Spirit." As you listen to Elder Scott's talk together, family members write down principles under the appropriate column.  Share & compare.  Have each person come up with a personal goal to help them improve their being "in tune" with the Spirit for this whole month.  Follow up later.

HANDOUTS & FREEBIES:

• There's a coloring DICE about the Spirit, along with instructions on how you might use the cube, in THIS NURSERY LESSON.  There's a coloring page of a boy getting the gift of the Holy Ghost HERE and a girl one HERE.
• There's a fun crossword all about the Holy Ghost HERE and a word search HERE.

CRAFTS & MORE:

• No crafts for you this week.  That's okay, right?  The Spirit does the inner beautifying.  :)

TREATS:

• Give family members an origami box filled with white candies (it's a gift, just as the Holy Ghost is...and the white represents our purity).  Wash it all down with some good ol' milk!

FHE 5/28: Who's on the Lord's Side?

This week's FHE ideas are from two different talks: Elder Ulisses Soares' "Abide in the Lord's Territory!" and Elder Paul B. Pieper's "To Hold Sacred."  Both of these talks center around the struggle to put off our "natural man" and the worldly, secular temptations around us and instead to "sow in the spirit" and hold to the sacred things we've been given.  We know that a key, foundational part of our having agency is that there is "opposition in all things"...and yet we must "choose the better part" if we want to return to our Father in Heaven and inherit all He has in store for us.  So this lesson is about OUR CHOOSING THE SACRED, spending our time on the things of eternity.  Prioritizing, if you will.  And that doesn't just mean choosing good over evil, (although that's what's emphasized in these talks)--it's more often that we struggle to choose the RIGHT over all the other good things we *could* do.  NEXT week, we will focus on the feelings of the Spirit that attends us when we do this.  :)

POINTS TO PONDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• Does what I spend my time on truly reflect my priorities?  Of course we all feel that our hearts are in the right place, but are we SOWING in the Spirit?  Do our actions and our time reflect that?
• What "opposition" am I facing right now?  What can I do to overcome it?

QUOTES:
From Elder Soares:

• "To sow in the Spirit means that all our thoughts, words, and actions must elevate us to the level of the divinity of our heavenly parents. However, the scriptures refer to the flesh as the physical or carnal nature of the natural man, which allows people to be influenced by passion, desires, appetites, and drives of the flesh instead of looking for inspiration from the Holy Ghost. If we are not careful, those influences together with the pressure of the evil in the world may conduct us to adopt vulgar and reckless behavior which may become part of our character. In order to avoid those bad influences, we have to follow what the Lord instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith about continuously sowing in the Spirit: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33)."
• "Therefore, our daily question must be, “Do my actions place me in the Lord’s or in the enemy’s territory?”...The Light of Christ together with the companionship of the Holy Ghost must help us determine if our manner of living is placing us in the Lord’s territory or not. If our attitudes are good, they are inspired of God, for every good thing comes from God. However, if our attitudes are bad, we are being influenced by the enemy because he persuades men to do evil."

From Elder Pieper:

• "That which is sacred to God becomes sacred to us only through the exercise of agency; each must choose to accept and hold sacred that which God has defined as sacred. He sends light and knowledge from heaven. He invites us to receive and treat it as sacred."
• "The opposite of sacred is profane or secular—that which is temporal or worldly. The worldly constantly competes with the sacred for our attention and priorities. Knowledge of the secular is essential for our daily temporal living. The Lord instructs us to seek learning and wisdom, to study and learn out of the best books, and to become acquainted with languages, tongues, and people (see D&C 88:118; 90:15). Therefore, the choice to place the sacred above the secular is one of relative priority, not exclusivity; “to be learned is good if [we] hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:29; emphasis added)."
• "The sacred cannot be selectively surrendered. Those who choose to abandon even one sacred thing will have their minds darkened (see D&C 84:54), and unless they repent, the light they have shall be taken from them (see D&C 1:33). Unanchored by the sacred, they will find themselves morally adrift on a secular sea. In contrast, those who hold sacred things sacred receive promises: “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24)."

SONGS:

• "Who's On the Lord's Side, Who?" (a hymn, not a primary song, but still...most appropriate :)
• "Choose the Right" (also a hymn, but primary kids are learning it this year)
• "Seek the Lord Early"
• "The Wise Man & The Foolish Man"
• "Choose the Right Way"
• "I Have Two Little Hands"

OBJECT LESSONS:

• Obviously, with a theme like "you reap what you sow," anything related to plants would be a good object lesson.  If you plant a tomato seed, you're not going to sprout up peaches!  If we want to grow a strong, spiritual self, we need to "sow in the Spirit" as these leaders suggested.
• Give each family member a small pack of LEGOs (make sure each pack has the same number/color/sizes of bricks), and have them build anything they want.  Point out that they were given the same things, but they made choices with each one and in the end they were all very different structures.  NOW, show them step-by-step (or show a picture for older children) how to build one specific way.  This is like life--we're each given different talents, sure, but we are all given the same time in a day to build what we want with those talents, and we could turn out lots of different ways.  But when we prioritize our lives to follow what the Savior would have us do, we turn out as HE envisions us to become--and that is the best version of ourselves we can be.
• This is a classic from my youth: gather a few mason jars, large rocks or tennis balls (they should fit into a mason jar so much it seems "full"), some dried beans, some sand or rice, and some water to pour in at the end (optional).  (You'll want to do this ahead of time to measure how much of each to have for them to use.)  Have your kids experiment a little to see who can fit the most things in their jars.  Show them that if you put the biggest things first, and work your way to the smallest, you'll have room for almost everything.  But if you start with the small things, like the rice or beans, you won't be able to fit in the BIG ROCKS.  Liken this to the BIG THINGS that matter most, that we ought to put first in our lives.
• From Mormonshare.com: "At the start of the lesson I had each person write on their popsicle stick something that they enjoyed spending their time on. (hobbie, sports, etc.) We talked about the importance of spiritual things and how the world tends to pull our focus away from those things. Have them look at the picture that your brought. (do this from a distance of atleast 7-10 feet) Know ask them to hold up their popsicle stick and put it in their field of vision. While focusing on Christ you can still keep in line other things. What would happen if you changed all your focus off of Christ and only on your stick. As you do this you will notice that your spiritual focus has been thrown off because you are focusing to much time on the other."      

GAMES & LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

• Write or show pictures of several things your family does in a day--be sure to include some things that are spiritual, some things that are necessary, and some things that are fun.  Have your family work together to put them on a spectrum from MOST important to LEAST important.  I bet young children will have some pretty strong opinions about the matter!  (Be sure to point out that most things we want to do are GOOD things, but that some things matter more because they help us work towards eternal life/draw nearer to Heavenly Father, and some things HAVE to be done or we aren't taking care of ourselves!)  You could also do this with a daily to-do list or with a "bucket list" of 5 things each person really wants to do when he/she grows up.
• Ask your family to pretend they are in the following situation: Someone calls, “Help, the neighbor’s house is on fire!” As you rush to help the neighbors, which of the following would you do first? Carry out the furniture, call for help, save members of the family, or get the car out of the garage? Why did you choose as you did? Discuss with the family the fact that all of these things are important, but saving the family members is the most important, so it is the thing you should do first. Explain that in this situation it is very easy to see that one thing is more important than other things and so must be done first. But every day we must decide which are the most important things for us to do that day, and often we have a hard time making the right decisions.
• Elder Soares says that every choice we make has us either on the Lord's side or Satan's.  Grab a handful of Teddy Grahams, Sour Patch Kids, or other human-esque treat (gingerbread men?) and some stringy licorice.  Lay out the licorice and decide where the "Lord's side" and "Satan's side" are going to be.  Give examples (pertinent to your family's age) of choices you might make and have them place their people-marker on the appropriate side.  Point out that even when we make bad choices, we can repent and come over to the good side again.  :)
• Does anyone else want to watch a Star Wars clip now?  Maybe you could even have pool noodle lightsaber wars as your kids fight off the "dark side."  :)
• Speaking of Star Wars and other fictional characters, what kid doesn't like to learn about Super Heroes and super villains?  There's a fun FHE idea HERE that likens Christ to a super hero, and has kids drawing choices that lead them "upstairs" to Christ or "downstairs" to the devil--with some repentance cards thrown in there, too!  :)
• Print off the "CTR gameboard" HERE and make up your own cards on half-size index cards that have to do with choices we might make (multiple-choice questions, and they choose the answer they think...Important (priority) and eternal choices should be worth more points than everyday, secular things, and good choices move you forward that many spaces--bad choices move you back.   

HANDOUTS & FREEBIES:

• COLORING: There's one about choosing the right HERE.  There's one about our spiritual attitudes (definitely coordinating with the talks even though the quote is by President McKay) HERE (I like the second one, personally, which is the picture shown above).  And I made a simple coloring page for you again, about choosing the Lord's path over all the others, shown below.  :)  You can download that one HERE.

CRAFTS & MORE:

• Make a pretty bucket list (like this one, or this one, or even just for this season, if not your whole life) or daily to-do that you can easily change out.  Display it somewhere to keep your mind focused on the things that matter most to you!
• Obviously things of eternal importance--especially daily prayer and scripture study--keep us on the Lord's side best and should be our biggest priorities.  Paint/design prayer rocks and print off a scripture reading chart for each person to color in as they read, or make a spiritual sticker chart, etc...

TREATS:

• Eat the Teddy Grahams/Animal Crackers and twizzlers from the activity above.  :)
• 'Use Scrabble Tile Cheez-its to spell words like "agency," "priorities," "choice," etc. or a sentence like "I Will Follow the Lord."  Each child gets to eat their words!
• Make fortune cookies with things you all want to do in the future as your fortunes! 
• If your discussions, like mentioned in the talks, led you to talking about prioritizing spiritual and secular education, make these "scripture cookies"--you'll need BOTH to make them!

Scripture Cookies–Oatmeal Raisin

Psalms 55:21- 3/4 c. crisco butter 2 Ne 26:25- 1/3c. milk & honey Jeremiah 6:20- 2/3 c. packed brown sugar Isaiah 10:14- 2 eggsAdd to above mixture: Kings 4:22- 1 c. flour Songs of Solomon 4:14- 1 tsp. cinnamon D&C 101:39- 1/4 tsp. salt 1 Corinthians 4:6- 1 tsp. baking soda 1 Samuel 30:12- 1 c. raisins D&C 89:17- 3 c. oatmealMix well. Drop tablespoon size onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min.

FHE 5/21: Keeping our Covenants

We've got another parable-based talk this week, this time from Elder Robert D. Hales--"Coming to Ourselves: The Sacrament, The Temple, and Sacrifice in Service."  It's interesting, when I first heard it I was focused on the parable aspect, probably because we had just heard Elder Holland's.  But re-reading it, it's really all about making and keeping our covenants.  But, of course, "covenants" seems so BIG!  You can focus on what a covenant is, or specifics from his talk like what the sacrament means or how to prepare your families for the temple...or even what it means to "come to yourself" as the prodigal son did and "act on our desires" to come to the Lord.  SO MANY THINGS to talk about.  So prayerfully decide what your little family needs and go from there.  I'm putting a little bit of ALL of that here for you this week.  :)

 

POINTS TO PONDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• Do I understand what the sacrament really means?  Do I prepare my family well for such a sacred ordinance each week?
• What covenants have I made already with the Lord?  Where might I be falling short?
• How are coming to yourself and coming to the Lord connected?

QUOTES:

• "Throughout our lives, whether in times of darkness, challenge, sorrow, or sin, we may feel the Holy Ghost reminding us that we are truly sons and daughters of a caring Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we may hunger for the sacred blessings that only He can provide. At these times we should strive to come to ourselves and come back into the light of our Savior’s love."
• On the sacrament: "I testify that the sacrament gives us an opportunity to come to ourselves and experience “a mighty change” of heart—to remember who we are and what we most desire. As we renew the covenant to keep the commandments, we obtain the companionship of the Holy Ghost to lead us back into our Heavenly Father’s presence. No wonder we are commanded to “meet together oft to partake of [the] bread and [water]” and to partake of the sacrament to our souls.^"
• On temple recommends: "Worthiness to hold a temple recommend gives us the strength to keep our temple covenants. How do we personally gain that strength? We strive to obtain a testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the reality of the Atonement, and the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We sustain our leaders, treat our families with kindness, stand as a witness of the Lord’s true Church, attend our Church meetings, honor our covenants, fulfill parental obligations, and live a virtuous life. You may say that sounds like just being a faithful Latter-day Saint! You are right. The standard for temple recommend holders is not too high for us to achieve. It is simply to faithfully live the gospel and follow the prophets."
• On service in God's kingdom: "Whether we are young or old, what we do today determines the service we will be able to render and enjoy tomorrow. As the poet reminds us, 'Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been!"' Let us not live our lives in regret of what we did or did not do!"

SONGS (all from the Children's Songbook):
About baptism/baptismal covenants:

• "Baptism"
• "When I Am Baptized"

About reverence in sacrament meeting:

• "Father, I Will Reverent Be"
• "The Chapel Doors"
• "Reverence is More than Just Quietly Sitting"
• "To Think About Jesus"
• "Before I Take the Sacrament"
• "The Sacrament"

About temples/worthiness:

• "I Love to See the Temple"
• "Choose the Right Way"
• "Keep the Commandments"
• "Seek the Lord Early"

About service:

• "'Give,' Said the Little Stream"
• "Fun to Do"
• "When We're Helping (We're Happy)"
• "I Have Two Little Hands"

OBJECT LESSONS:

• Baptismal covenants are one of the "keys" to eternal life.  Check out the full object lesson HERE.
• There's a cool idea HERE where you use a hard-boiled egg to represent us, and you draw all over the shell with crayon to represent different sins or weaknesses.  Then, because of baptism, or later repentance and renewing our baptismal covenants through the sacrament, we can shed our outer layers of skin and become clean/whole again (you peel the egg). 
• I love this one: teaching kids that ordinances and covenants are inseparable, show them both sides of the coin and ask which is more important or if they can separate it.  Just as these are inseparably connected, ordinances and covenants are BOTH important and they both go hand-in-hand.  (Here I would have family brainstorm a list of ordinances--like baptism, confirmation, the sacrament, endowments, sealings, etc.--and then talk about the covenants that go along with them--or, for REALLY young children, define these things and show pictures from the Gospel Art Kit.) (Came from "Teaching, No Greater Call.")
• Covenants protect us from the "filth" of the world: In a shallow dish/pie pan, pour in water and have it settle a little before you teach.  As you talk about some of the bad things in the world, or the temptations we might have, sprinkle pepper across the top of the water.  Have kids look at how "dirty" it could be.  BUT, if we keep our covenants, we are strong enough to repel those unclean thoughts and stand up to the world's filth--place the tip of the soap into the peppered water and watch the pepper flakes run away!
• There's a fun, quick idea HERE about helping children to understand that covenants are really just promises.
• Decisions are like dominoes: Set up a short domino course and talk about cause and effect (AKA Choices and Consequences) as you knock it down.  (You could relate it to the parable here--how the prodigal son was greedy, so he left, and because he left, he didn't have any money or support system, and because of that, when famine hit he got REALLY hungry...etc.)  Talk about how the Lord can help us set the course back up and inspire us how the path of our lives should go as we repent and come to Him.  And we can have multiple paths open up to us because of His promises!

 

GAMES & LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

• If you're lucky enough to live close to a temple, take your kids on an evening walk around the grounds...talk about how they feel there and what they can do to prepare to go inside someday. You can even hold mock-interviews so they understand, as Elder Hales said, that temple worthiness is really just living the gospel and following the prophets. 
• Pick one of the Primary songs listed above that you don't know all that well (or that your family doesn't) and learn it.  Find a way to teach it to your kiddos/family--through objects, pictures, or just listening to it and going through line-by-line.  Music has a way of teaching pure doctrine and helping people *absorb* gospel truths in a lasting way.  :)
• Act out the parable of the prodigal son!  (Or you can show a video clip...LDS.org has one HERE.)  Make sure you draw parallels between the father in this story and our Heavenly Father's love for us!
• There is a GREAT lesson idea about the sacrament that uses Gospel Art Kit pictures (and she has some printables, too, including a coloring page!) HERE.
• From the same site as above, there's a lesson about preparing for baptism HERE.
• To illustrate the value of making covenants with the Lord, invite the strongest and smallest members of your family to stand. Ask the person to imagine that the strongest family member represents Christ while the smallest represents each of us. Using a rope, handcuffs, or other material, tie the hands of these two people together. Ask them how the weaker person would be helped by uniting with the strongest. How is a covenant with Christ similar to being tied to or bound to Him? (Dennis H. Leavitt and Richard O. Christensen, Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families: Book of Mormon, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003], p. 121.)
• The son in the parable misstepped a lot in the beginning, but in the end he returned to his father's house.  We can walk by faith down the right path, too.  Cut out six footprints and attach one of the six pictures found HERE (go down to the middle-end of the lesson) to each footprint.  Have these footprints lead to a picture of a baptism--maybe even yours, if you have one--and discuss each step.  (Full instructions can be found at that link.)
• Reverence in sacrament meeting activity idea from the Primary 2 manual: "Ask the children to listen carefully as you read some statements about things they could do or think about during the sacrament. Tell the children that if the statement describes something they should do or think about during the sacrament, they should stand up. If the statement describes something they should not do or think about during the sacrament, they should sit down. Use the following statements or create some of your own: Remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. Think about going out to play. Think about Jesus making sick people well. Whisper and talk to your neighbor. Wiggle in your seat. Think about the sacrament song or another song about Jesus. Say a prayer to Heavenly Father. Draw pictures or play with a toy. Remember stories about Jesus."
• A big part of keeping covenants is choosing the right!  There's a free CTR gameboard and questions HERE.
• Play BAPTISM BINGO!  I made you a print-and-play game, which you can download HERE, that has a bunch of questions about baptism and the covenants we make there in a BINGO-format.  There are pictures in the boxes, and directions and answers are included.  :)

HANDOUTS & FREEBIES:

• COLORING: There are two coloring pages about baptism HERE.  There are images on THIS PAGE that you could easily put into a word document and make into a coloring page about baptism. There are some about sacrament, temples, AND service on THIS PAGE.  HERE are some temple images for coloring.  There's a coloring page of children being reverent HERE. 
• Pass out a copy of "My Gospel Standards" (you can buy it from the distribution center online)--it reviews ways children can keep their covenants.
• There's a great subway art about baptism available for free HERE.  There's another one for $6 on Etsy HERE.
• There are beautiful, antiqued temple pictures HERE.  :)
• You can buy this BEAUTIFUL print about temple prep for super-cheap HERE.

 

CRAFTS & MORE:

• Make a Sunday Binder filled with file folder games, LDS-themed coloring sheets, etc. (or just print off that quiet book you've been wanting to for a while now) to keep the little ones focused on the gospel during sacrament meeting!  If you can find pictures of ordinances, especially, it will remind them of the covenants they will be making one day!
• There's a neat spinny wheel kids' craft at the bottom of the page HERE that you cut, color, and use a brass fastener--it helps your kids focus on the Savior more during Sacrament especially.
• You could make these super-cute white dress hankies to give out as reminders. :)

 

TREATS:

• Hardboiled Eggs (especially if you did the object lesson above!)
• Homemade bread and flavored water
• Something/anything "white" to represent purity/worthiness
• Anything pig-shaped (for the pig food in the parable)--you can cut a small watermelon INTO a pig (instructions HERE) and have melon balls!
• Baptism KIT KATS! (Idea from HERE)

I love the challenge Elder Hales gives us: "I challenge each of us to follow our spiritual desires and come to ourselves. Let’s have a talk with ourselves in the mirror and ask, “Where do I stand on living my covenants?” We are on the right path when we can say, “I worthily partake of the sacrament each week, I am worthy to hold a temple recommend and go to the temple, and I sacrifice to serve and bless others.”  I know I have some things to work on after reading this talk; I could be better, much better, about keeping my covenants and understanding the Sacrament.  But I will work on it, because I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and answer well.

Gospel Study

I'm curious, how do you do your gospel study in your own home? 

• Do you read chronologically?  Cover-to-cover?  Topically?
• For a certain amount of time or a certain number of pages/chapters?
• Do you only read the Book of Mormon?  Standard works?
• Do you study conference talks/other Church-approved lit (like "Daughters in my Kingdom" or Priesthood/Relief Society manuals)?
• Do you use Preach my Gospel?
• Do you journal what you study?  Do you ponder and pray? 
• Morning or night?
• What about your family scripture study--chapters or length of time?  From the actual books or from the Children's illustrated/story-based versions?  Do you just read, or do you discuss?  Do you ever act it out or do other challenges with what you read? 

I'm asking because I don't really have "one way" I do it.  Sometimes (like right now) I read the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover because I haven't in a while.  (Or I listen to it on my iPhone. :)  Sometimes I use Preach My Gospel to guide my study, and sometimes I study topically like I'm preparing a talk.  Usually once or twice a week I study from general conference talks now instead.  When I feel SUPER busy, I want to scripture mastery cards and just focused on thinking about that one scripture passage whenever I can throughout the day for 100 days (I kinda want to do this after I finish the Book of Mormon this year, because I forget most of them now).  I rarely journal what I study (unless I feel the need to) but sometimes it REALLY helps.  I like studying in the morning, when I'm fresh and ready to "put on my armor" for the day, but I tend to have more time in the evening, or need the comfort of the scriptures to be able to fall asleep at night.  Paul and I don't read together right now, because we didn't really get much out of it when we read cover-to-cover together, but we try to take time to talk about what we're studying.  I guess I'm trying to figure it all out myself and just wanted to have your input.  :)

FHE 5/14: God's Grace

This week's FHE lesson ideas stem from Elder Holland's talk, "Laborers in the Vineyard."  This is one of those talks that was just for me.  I always love Elder Holland's talks, and this isn't even his first parable talk, either.  :)  Anyway, I remember taking a parable class in institute a few summers ago and this parable, of the laborers in the vineyard, still didn't jive with me even after class discussion--I just didn't "get" it.  I was grateful to know that if we labor all day we're entitled to everything the Father has--which is more than we really deserve even with all our best efforts--but I think it's just hard for us, in our society, to consider it "fair" that someone could come in last minute and "deserve" as much as someone who worked all day.  I love how Elder Holland explains the parable as a parable of the Savior's mercy and grace, to ALL the laborers, because no one "deserved" the grace of the master of the vineyard.  It just makes sense, and is filled with lots of lessons from the parable, and I urge you to read the whole thing as you prepare to teach your families about it.  If you do it with a prayerful heart, it will change you.  The grace of God does that. 

It was difficult to find kid-friendly ideas about this parable or the all-encompassing doctrine of *grace* online, so once again you'll have only a few of mostly my own thoughts this week...I think maybe it's because grown-ups need to hear this talk more than kids.  While kids certainly have strong feelings about what is "fair," they also get the "love" and "mercy" better than the rest of us.  :)

POINTS TO PONDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• How do you react to others' successes or unexpected blessings?
• Do I believe in God's grace?  Do my thoughts and actions--especially towards others--prove it?
• "What lack I yet?"  Do I have the commitment to endure to the end of the day?  What wages are in store for me if I do?

QUOTES (there are LOTS this week :):

• "May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another person? We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. We are not in a race against each other...The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those."
• "Be kind, and be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live."
• "My beloved brothers and sisters, what happened in this story at 9:00 or noon or 3:00 is swept up in the grandeur of the universally generous payment at the end of the day...So don’t hyperventilate about something that happened at 9:00 in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6:00 in the evening."
• "This is a story about God’s goodness, His patience and forgiveness, and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a story about generosity and compassion. It is a story about grace. It underscores the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it...It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."
• "His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there."
• "Please listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit telling you right now, this very moment, that you should accept the atoning gift of the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy the fellowship of His labor. Don’t delay. It’s getting late."

SONGS:

• "I Feel My Savior's Love"
• "My Heavenly Father Loves Me"
• "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus"
• "I Thank Thee Dear Father"

OBJECT LESSONS:

Nothing this week.  Really, parables ARE object lessons.  So it counts.  :)  But if you think of any others, let me know!

GAMES & LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

• Read together and have your family act out the parable!  (Matthew 20:1-15)  You can show them this picture.  Reword or explain it with the words of Elder Holland's talk and discuss what it means. Liken it to them--like if they've been picked last for a team, how did they feel?  That's how the 11th hour laborers felt.  That sort of thing.
• For older children/youth: Elder Holland talks about 3 lessons we can learn from this parable.  Give each family member a copy of the talk and have them hunt for the three lessons, putting each into their own words.  For an extra challenge, have them sum up each lesson in only ONE word!
• Parables mirror eternal truths.  Use THIS WORKSHEET with older children/youth to help draw parallels between the story of the vineyard and the doctrinal truths of the mercy of God. (It's just one of those "draw lines to match" kinda worksheets...nothing fancy, but effective.  Prints off 4 "worksheets" to a page).
• Have family members lay out the Plan of Salvation pictures.  Focus attention on the Celestial Kingdom--discuss what it means to inherit that kingdom.  (Read D&C 76: 55-70 for a refresher.)  What more can you ask for than to be gods and to have all that God has?  Discuss how if we love everyone we want that for everyone else, too.   
• Honestly, with this talk, you could just watch/listen to it online and discuss how you feel afterwards!

HANDOUTS & FREEBIES:

• There's a coloring page of a man working in a vineyard HERE.
• There's a beautiful painting (although the .jpg is small) of the workers receiving their wages HERE--sorry, I couldn't find any more info about it, it linked back to a blog when I found it.

CRAFTS & MORE:

• Using generic Bible clip art (HERE), [or, if you're really artsy, draw your own] make some popsicle stick puppets for you & children to color and glue. You could use it to retell the parable in the lesson, or mid-week as a refresher and have the kids color and retell the story.

TREATS:

• Chocolate coins (make sure everyone gets an equal amount :)
• Grapes (for the vineyard)
• If you have anything growing in your garden, have the kids help harvest that and enjoy the fruits (or veggies) of your labors!  :)

I know *I* struggle sometimes with being jealous of other's successes, because I really *do* feel like it somehow negates my own blessings or hope.  And I know that I OFTEN hold myself to Celestial standards (which we ought), but I don't always realize that I have many more miles to travel and much to learn.  Something that struck me a lot as I re-read and re-listened to this talk is that maybe I'm not in that "entitled" first group as much as I think sometimes.  It's really not about the age we came to the gospel, but rather the level of our continued commitment to the gospel, in its fulness, and the person we are becoming.  In that sense, maybe I'm more a 12:00 or a 3:00 laborer; in which case, I am even MORE grateful that the Lord's grace is infinite and sufficient.  I know He *REALLY DOES* love us, and if we come unto Him, He will give us everything there is to have.  What more can we ask for than *everything?* God is good, people.  And He is good to us all.

FHE 5/7: Faith through Adversity

This week's FHE stems from President Henry B. Eyring's talk entitled "Mountains to Climb."  There are also a few quotes from Elder David S. Baxter's talk, "Faith, Fortitude, and Fulfillment: A Message to Single Parents."  I loved President Eyring's talk--it is such a *BEAUTIFUL* affirmation of our faith and what the hope of Christ can do for us in the hardest of times.  We can do hard things!  We can do ALL things, through Christ who strengthens us.  :)  And Elder Baxter's talk, while especially meant for single parents, really speaks to having faith through our times of adversity, and of enduring to the end.  Faith in time of adversity is a BIG topic to teach small children, but the best way to do it is to share your own experiences through testimony and teach by example.  Below are a few ideas to help you get started.  :)

POINTS TO PONDER BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

• What can you proactively do to strengthen your foundation of faith?
• What trials have you passed through in life that brought you closer to the Savior?  In what trials did you feel further from Him?  What was the difference?

QUOTES:
FROM PRESIDENT EYRING:

• "If the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure will crumble...the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity."
• "It is serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength."
• "When hard trials come, the faith to endure them well will be there, built as you may now notice but may have not at the time that you acted on the pure love of Christ, serving and forgiving others as the Savior would have done."
• "I cannot promise an end to your adversity in this life. I cannot assure you that your trials will seem to you to be only for a moment. One of the characteristics of trials in life is that they seem to make clocks slow down and then appear almost to stop. There are reasons for that. Knowing those reasons may not give much comfort, but it can give you a feeling of patience. Those reasons come from this one fact: in Their perfect love for you, Heavenly Father and the Savior want you fitted to be with Them to live in families forever. Only those washed perfectly clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ can be there...We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word."

FROM ELDER BAXTER:

• "Although you may at times have asked, why me? it is through the hardships of life that we grow toward godhood as our character is shaped in the crucible of affliction, as the events of life take place while God respects the agency of man. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell commented, we cannot do all the sums or make it all add up because “we do not have all the numbers.'"
• "Although you often feel alone, in truth you are never totally on your own. As you move forward in patience and in faith, Providence will move with you; heaven will bestow its needful blessings. Your perspective and view of life will change when, rather than being cast down, you look up. Many of you have already discovered the great, transforming truth that when you live to lift the burdens of others, your own burdens become lighter. Although circumstances may not have changed, your attitude has. You are able to face your own trials with greater acceptance, a more understanding heart, and deeper gratitude for what you have, rather than pining for what you yet lack."

SONGS:

• The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock
• Faith 
• I Know My Father Lives
• Keep the Commandments

OBJECT LESSONS:

• The Savior can carry our burdens if we have faith.  Have a backpack and several rocks or blocks or books (big but not TOO big).  Also have paper and crayons.  Each family member writes or draws a trial they are struggling with--"school is hard," "I'm sick," "I'm sad when..." that sort of thing.  Wrap each paper around a rock or block or book, tape it in place, and put it in the backpack.  Pass it around so everyone knows how heavy the burden is.  Then discuss ways that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ help lift our burdens when we have faith in them. Take out a few rocks with each idea until they are all gone and have children carry the backpack now, burden-free.  (Adapted from the Friend 2006 September issue.)
  
• "We walk by faith, not by sight." Blow on a feather or a pinwheel.  Ask the children if they can see the wind that is moving the feather.  Ask them if they know that the wind is really moving it.  Explain that we do not have to see something to have faith and know it is there.  (Jan 2007 Friend)
• Trials make us stronger, if we have faith.  Show a diamond and a piece of coal/graphite.  Discuss how these are made of the very same things--carbon atoms--and how what made them different is what they went through.  After a long time of intense heat and pressure, the diamond became strong and brilliant.  The graphite/coal, however, is weak and brittle.  Liken this to trials--we can become bitter from them, and become weak/brittle like the coal/graphite, or we can have faith and Christ will help us to shine like the diamonds!  (You could pass out fake diamonds as part of a handout here.)
• Rising above the trials.  Place a lightweight ball (such as a table tennis ball) in the bottom of a large glass jar with a lid. Fill the rest of the jar with uncooked wheat or rice, and put the lid on. Shake the jar up and down. As you do so, the ball will gradually rise to the top of the jar. Explain that though the ball started at the bottom of the jar, it rose to the top because it is lighter than the wheat that surrounds it. Similarly, if we keep a positive attitude about our trials, we can rise above them instead of being kept down by them.
• Polishing away the outside to get to the good stuff in the middle: We're like a pencil: the useful part is inside of us, and in order to be useful, something sharp has to wear away the outer covering.  Compare it to a humble heart that is found in each of us--in order to be of the most use to the Lord, we have to scrape away the bad parts, such as impatience, pride, disbelief, or ignorance, and that is exactly what trials do for us.

GAMES & LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

• Just as the primary song "Faith" listed above teaches, faith is like a seed that needs planting and nourishing to grow.  Show a seed and discuss what it needs to grow as you plant it in a small pot.  Then ask what things faith needs to grow.
• Build your own houses out of LEGOs and put them in two dishes--one with sand and one on a rock (taped down with a "foundation" [duct tape] of integrity, as President Eyring suggested).  Try to wash away the houses!  Talk about what our foundation of faith is that our house must be built on.  
• If flannel board stories/puppets are more your thing, HERE is a link to the flannel board drawings for the Wise Man & the Foolish Man.
• President Eyring talks about his mother's 10-year struggle with cancer and how she needed to "be polished a little more."  If you have access to a rock polisher, show family how it works and discuss the ways this relates to our trials.
• Mini-lesson on what faith is: Show picture of Prophet.
  Q: Who is this?
  A: Prophet/President Monson.
  Q: How do you know?
  A: Can see it
  
  Close eyes. Clap hands.
  Q: What is this?
  A: Clapping hands.
  Q: How do you know?
  A: Can hear it.
  
  Blindfold a girl. Give her a handful of coins.
  Q: What is this?
  A: Coins/Money.
  Q: How do you know?
  A: Can feel it
  
  Blindfold child. Put vinegar (or something with a strong, familiar smell) under her nose.
  Q: What is this?
  A: Vinegar.
  Q: How do you know?
  A: Smell
  
  Show salt/sugar shaker. Blindfold a girl. Have her taste.
  Q: What is this?
  A: Salt/sugar.
  Q: How do you know?
  A. Taste
  
  Show picture of Christ.
  Q: Who is this?
  A: Christ.
  Q: How do you know?
  A: Faith...

• For older children/youth: there are several scriptures in President Eyring's talk that relate to faith.  Assign a different scripture to each family member (come up with more if you need to) and have them find that scripture and teach the rest of the family what it says about faith in the Savior, especially as it relates to our trials.  If your children are a little younger, you could use pictures of different prophets in the scriptures and just have children retell the stories in their own words.
• For older children/youth: print off/laminate the Plan of Salvation Illustrations HERE.  After having family members assemble the Plan in order, discuss what role adversity has in this Plan.  How does faith in Christ help us through that adversity?  Read and discuss quotes from the talk that apply to this.  You may even want to actually list some of the ways you've grown/things you've learned through previous trials, or, if you're really brave, through the trials you're right in the middle of today.
• Watch the DVD "Finding Faith in Christ" or any of the new Bible videos released by the Church.  Talk about what faith in Christ can do for you.

HANDOUTS & FREEBIES:

• There is a coloring page about faith as a seed/plant at the bottom of the page HERE.  There's also one about faith HERE (have to click on the image under "faith") and a few about prayer (a big part of faith) HERE.  There's one about building a testimony HERE.
• There is a free "seed pouch" HERE to print/glue that holds seeds and likens faith to a seed.
• I've made a bookmark (prints off as a 4"x6", but splits into two) with my favorite quote from President Eyring's talk, available for download HERE.

CRAFTS & MORE:

• There's a cute little trials survival kit idea HERE...you could adapt it easily, make it as a family, and pass out as a handout/reminder at the end of your lesson or sometime during the week.
• You can stamp a dog tag, like the one found HERE, with any quote about faith in Christ.
• Find a way to cuten-up a copy of "The Living Christ" and display it in your home.  
• For the littler ones, find some LDS clipart related to faith (check out HERE or HERE), and print off/laminate the pictures.  Punch holes and buy some cheap shoelaces, and you have lacing cards to keep your children focused on the Savior even as they play!  :)  (Idea and picture from HERE.)

TREATS:

• If you've gone with the seed/plant theme, make dirt pudding--chocolate pudding, crumbled Oreos, and gummy worms.  Or have sunflower seeds.
• If you taught about the wise and foolish man or about building strong foundations of faith for your home, build rice krispy treat houses!  (Lay rice krispy treats in a thin layer and cut into blocks for walls/roofs, can decorate with other candy and icing if you want or just leave it as-is).
• If you've talked about trials, have "rocky road" ice cream.  :)
• If you've talked about being "polished" or did the object lesson with rocks, have edible rocks (they're chocolate-filled, you can usually find them in cake decorating stores or online) as a special treat.

I love that every talk I study for this blog becomes so much bigger than just a few words or a simple message.  I am always challenged to do more and become better, to be proactive in my building of a firm foundation of faith.  I'm grateful that I have a Savior that loves me enough to let me struggle from time to time, but who also is with me in the fight.  I am never truly alone.  I know this, but feeling it, BECOMING it...that's a lifetime process I've really only just begun.  I'm grateful for the journey, though.  As President Eyring said, it's really why we're here--to be polished a little more and build the endurance to climb those mountains until our very last breath.  And I appreciate that it is built on a foundation of consistent obedience and integrity.  That is the "terrestrial safety net," as Sister Lili Anderson put it, that a celestial life MUST be built on.