Kindness

Topic:
Being kind to others

Songs:
Jesus Said Love Everyone (CSB 59), Kindness Begins With Me (CSB 145), I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus (CSB 78), and many more

Materials:
Gosopel Art Book, page 44, picture of the parable of the Good Samaritan

Scripture:
Luke 10:25-37 (Story of the Good Samaritan)

Lesson:
Talk about how Jesus said to love everyone (goes well if you have sung Jesus Said Love Everyone first). Mention that in the scriptures Jesus teaches us with a parable (story) how to be kind to others. Depending on your child's age, read or tell the story of the Good Samaritan and show the picture from the Gospel Art Book. Talk about how Jesus wants us to be kind to other people.

Activity:
-Role play ways to be kind
-Do something kind for someone else (make and take cookies, write letters to missionaries/those who are sick, etc)
-Talk about how to be kind to siblings

Closing:
Sing another song about being kind and help them remember that Jesus wants us to be kind to everyone.

Kindness

Articles of Faith

We have spent a few lessons recently focusing on the Articles of Faith. My daughter is only 28 months, so we aren't getting too deep, but we've had some good lessons from it.

For each Article of Faith, we start by singing the song from the Children's Song Book. Then we say it aloud and have my daughter repeat back to us the key words. For example, in the 4th Article of Faith, we just had her say "Faith", "Repentence", "Baptism", and "Holy Ghost" not all the descriptive words. This could of course be adjusted depending on your child's speaking ability.

I used the document "Articles of Faith Helps" from this site which has a few clip art pictures for each Article of Faith to help illustrate the principles in each Article of Faith.

Then we sang the song again! My daughter loves music!

Articles of Faith

Follow the Prophet

My daughter comes home every Sunday from Primary singing “Follow the Prophet”. If your primary kids like to sing that song too, I thought it would be a fun lesson to learn a little more about why we have prophets and that following their teachings will bring us happiness!

Materials: if you can find them, pictures of Noah, Isaiah, Lehi, Daniel, Samuel the Lamanite, and President Monson

Activity: have your children take turns holding up the picture of each prophet. Identify the prophet, talk about him and what he did. Proceed similarly with each picture.
1. Noah: told people to repent and live the commandments of Heavenly Father (Genesis 6-8)
2. Isaiah: saw the birth of the Savior
3. Lehi: preached to the people and old them to follow the commandments or Jerusalem would be destroyed
4. Daniel: Interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream when no one else could
5. Samuel the Lamanite: Foretold the birth of Christ to the Nephite people
Tell the kids that these prophets were very close to the Spirit and were very good men. They loved the Savior and tried to help people learn about him. Sometimes the people listened to what the prophet said, sometimes they didn’t. The prophets have the gift of revelation.

Discussion:
1. What does a prophet do? (receives messages form Heavenly Father)
2. Who can be a prophet? (a man who has lived righteously, obeys Heavenly Father, holds the Priesthood, and is called of God)
3. Why does Heavenly Father want us to have prophets? (Following the prophet will help is choose the right, will make us happy, will help us to follow Christ.)
4. Who is our prophet today? (Show Pres. Monson’s picture)
5. What has he asked us to do?
6. Why would Heavenly Father want us to do these things?
When we hear a prophet speak to us it’s as though Heavenly Father is speaking to us. If we obey the words of the prophet we will be safe, healthy, and happy.

Songs: “Follow the Prophet” CSB110, “Stand for Right” CSB 159

Follow the Prophet

Prayer Topics

Sometime this last April, I noticed that my oldest child, then four, was getting very repetitive in his prayers. I reminded him of the purpose of prayer and that we are supposed to offer sincere prayers.

"You shouldn't says the exact same thing at every prayer," I reminded him.

"Well, you and Daddy do!" He replied.

Oops.

Apparently, the entire family could use a Family Home Evening lesson on prayer.

As I studied my Gospel Principles book (the book being used by Priesthood and Relief Society this year), I happened to be reading the lesson on Prayer, chapter 8. Funny how that works out, right? I found it to be an excellent lesson guide for our Family Home Evening lesson. You can prayerfully read that and pull out what you think would be best for your family.

I wanted to share an idea I had while reading this. I had the idea to create a prayer paper for our family. Since my children are all young and don't really read yet, I did pictures. On this paper, I put pictures of things we should pray about. Here is a list from the manual:

• Strength to resist temptations
• Confess sins
• Ask for forgiveness
• Our families
• Our friends
• Our neighbors
• Our crops
• Our animals
• Our daily work
• Other activities
• Protection
• Express love
• Feel closer to Him
• Thank Him
• Strength to live gospel
• Keep on strait and narrow path
• Be righteous in thoughts, words, and actions
• Blessing on food
• Pray before meetings that we may worship in a manner that pleases Him
• Not in manual, but for our prophet

I didn't do a picture for everything here. I put a picture of our immediate family and our extended families. I put pictures of friends and neighbors. I put a picture of our garden and a picture of our dogs. I put a picture of our son playing soccer. I put a picture of a heart for love and a picture of Christ.

We don't look at this before every prayer we ever say. We try to remember to say it before family prayer at night. That way, once a day, our children (ahem--and their parents) are reminded of the things we are to pray about and we can hopefully avoid repetitious prayers.

Another idea for you if you have only younger children is you could make a page of how we should look when we pray. With our young toddlers, we teach them to close their eyes, fold their arms, and bow their heads. Then of course for some prayers you also kneel.

This was a great lesson to read to teach our family about prayer.

Prayer Topics

Fathers

When I was a teacher in primary last year this lesson was given about Fathers. I thought it was fun and the kids loved it.

The Role of Father

Fathers preside over, provide for, and protect the family with love.

Have a bunch of different types of shoes that show the different things fathers participate in (athletic shoes, casual shoes, Sunday shoes, work shoes, and slippers).

Show the family a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" (Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). Teach and discuss the responsibilities of a father found in paragraph 7 of which reads:

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.

IDEA: If you have a collection of men that can come and participate in your FHE, that would be great (dad, Grandpa, uncle, home teacher, ect.). Each gentleman would bring a pair of shoes that tells about one of their roles of which they would take about.

IDEA: To show that fathers have many responsibilities, have children stand in the shoes they think are best for a father to wear when exercising, going home teaching, going to church, going to work building roads, and comforting a child in the middle of the night.

IDEA: Have all the boys in the family go get some of their own pairs of shoes and tell the family which shoes represent which sort of activities.

IDEA: Take the statement from the Family Proclamation about fathers and write each work on a separate word strip. Jumble the words. Have the children see if they can unscramble the words to make the correct sentence.

IDEA: If Dad is present, as him to leave and get refreshments ready. Encourage the children to write a note expressing their love for their fathers and to put it in one of his shoes

IDEA: Write the Family Proclamation and/or other statements as though they were “Mad Gab” sentences. See if the family can guess the sentence.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE: Read and discuss 1 Nephi 1; 2. Talk about Lehi’s role as a father in his family. Bear testimony that one of the most important responsibilities a father has is to lead his family.

If Dad is present, as him to leave and get refreshments ready. Have the children write a note expressing their love and something they appreciate about their father and have them put the note in one of his shoes.

Have a happy Father's day this month!

Fathers

Family Home Evening Builds Unity

These are some quotes by President James E. Faust from the June 2003 Ensign. He speaks of how we need to build unity in our families by having consistent and planned family home evenings. If you're like me, you'll read this, feel bad, repent, and then resolve to do better. :)

Go to this link for the full talk.

Family Home Evening Builds Unity

May I suggest ways to strengthen our commitment to God and build unity and love during our family home evenings:


1. Pray. The source of our enormous individual and family strength is no mystery. It is an endowment from God. We need not consume addicting chemicals found in drugs and alcohol to make us capable of meeting life’s problems. We need only draw constantly from the divine power source through humble prayer.


It often takes a seemingly superhuman effort to get everyone together for family home evening. You may not always feel like praying when you finally do get together, but it will pay great dividends if you persevere.


2. Sing or listen to sacred music. Church hymns and children’s songs can invite the Holy Spirit into family home evening. The Lord has said that “the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads” (D&C 25:12).


3. Study the scriptures. All of us need the strength that comes from reading the scriptures. Parents must obtain a knowledge of the standard works to teach them to their children. Those who lead family home evening discussions should be adequately prepared to use the scriptures in the lesson. A child who has been taught from the scriptures has a priceless legacy. We are all fortified when we become acquainted with the heroic figures and stories of the scriptures, such as Daniel in the lions’ den, David and Goliath, Nephi, Helaman and the stripling warriors, and all the others.


4. Work together and serve others. Children need to learn to work. Every household has routine daily chores for which children can be responsible. Meaningful service can be given during family home evenings through well-planned home or community work projects.


5. Focus on developing discipline and obedience. If parents do not discipline their children and teach them to obey, society may have to discipline them in ways neither the parents nor the children will like. If adults do not discipline themselves, setting the proper example for others, the consequences can be devastating for themselves and society. Without discipline and obedience in the home and in our personal lives, unity within a family collapses.


6. Place a high priority on loyalty to each other. The dictionary defines the word loyal as being “faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due.” If family members are not loyal to each other, they cannot be loyal to themselves.


7. Build self-worth. One of the main problems in society today is that we spend less and less time together. Some, even when they are together, spend an extraordinary amount of time in front of the television, which robs them of personal time for reinforcing feelings of self-worth. Family home evenings give individuals and families important time to talk and listen as parents and children, brothers and sisters, spouses, and friends. Time together is precious—time needed to encourage and to show how to do things. Less time together can result in loneliness, which may produce feelings of being unsupported, untreasured, and inadequate.


8. Develop traditions. Some of the great strength of families can be found in the traditions they have established. Traditions can include making special occasions of the blessing of children, baptisms, ordinations to the priesthood, or birthdays. Traditional activities such as fishing trips or skits on Christmas Eve can help create fond memories of times together. Weekly family home evenings can also be a time for traditions. Home evening groups of any kind can likewise establish traditions by the activities they choose to continue on a regular basis and the way they celebrate special occasions and accomplishments.


9. Do everything in the spirit of love. Elder LeGrand Richards (1886–1983) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared a tender relationship with his father. Said he: “I walked into my father’s apartment when he was just about 90 … , and as I opened the door, he stood up and walked toward me and took me in his arms and hugged me and kissed me. He always did that. … Taking me in his arms and calling me by my kid name, he said, ‘Grandy, my boy, I love you.’ ”



I wonder if having unplanned and infrequent family home evenings will be enough to fortify ourselves and our children with sufficient moral strength to meet the complexities of our day. Infrequent family scripture study may be inadequate to arm ourselves and our children with the virtue necessary to withstand the moral decay of the environment in which we live. Where in the world will we learn chastity, integrity, honesty, and basic human decency if not at home? These values will, of course, be reinforced at church, but teaching them in family home evening can be particularly consistent and effective. To combat the world’s evil influences, we need the strength that comes from family home evening.

Family Home Evening Builds Unity