Family Home Evenings and more....: CFM Teaching Resources for November 13-19, 2023 {James}

This blogpost features some resources and ideas to complement the Come Follow Me (CFM) reading for November 13-19, 2023. Click here for an index and links to my CFM blogposts for other weeks.

PRINTABLE ACTIVITY SHEET:

These 1/2 page activity sheets are designed to be printed double-sided and cut in half. They're geared for ages 8-14, but littler kids love the coloring pages and older kids/kids at heart often enjoy the activities. They're perfect to use as attention getters or as reviews in your classes or families. Our ward hands them out along with the sacrament program each week.

OUR WORDS MATTER OBJECT LESSON (James 3):

Items needed: tube of toothpaste, bowl, spoon

Start off the discussion by talking about how big things can be controlled by small things (James 3).

Some examples:
-Steering wheel helps the car go the right direction
-A small seed can grow into a big tree
-A tiny leak can be the start of a ship sinking
-Little babies grow up to be adults that can do many righteous or evil deeds
-Rudder of boat steers the ship (actual example from James 3)
-Tiny spark starts a big forest fire (actual example from James 3)

This doesn't need to take long; it's just a discussion starter that will lead you into reading James 3:4-6.

Springboarding off the first part of the conversation and the scriptures you just read, ask why our tongues can be so powerful.

Now talk about how our words matter.   We may have heard that "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us."   Ask if they think that's true.   Be careful here, as their parents may very well be teaching them this very message, but ask them how they feel when someone says something mean to them.   Does it help if they say they're sorry afterward?   Maybe, but those words can still hurt our feelings.

Now pull out the toothpaste and ask for someone to come squeeze it out into the bowl.

Now ask for a volunteer to come put the toothpaste back into the tube using the spoon.

Is this technically possible? Perhaps, but it would take a long time and be pretty messy. Tell the kids, that this is like when we say unkind things to another person. We can say we're sorry and try to be nice to them afterward and those are great things to do to heal the relationship, but we can't take those words back. Taking the time and going through the messiness is worth it, but it would have been much easier if we'd never said those unkind words in the first place.

Now relate this back to the power of our tongues. They can do a lot of good (ask the class for examples) when we bear our testimonies, speak kindly to others, and stand up for truth, but they have the power to do a lot of bad as well. And that's why we should be careful with how we use our tongues/words.

QUOTES:

"This pattern of dramatic change produced by small things is a pattern we see over and over again in the Book of Mormon. Please turn with me to Alma chapter 4 and look at verses 6-12. Here we find a description of a people descending into wickedness. It begins with small things, like the wearing of expensive clothes, and pride in “. . . all manner of precious things . . .” (verse 6), and gossip, and unkind words. Look at verse 8, “. . . the people of the church began to be lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and to set their hearts upon riches and upon the vain things of the world, that they began to be scornful, one towards another . . .” (emphasis added).

Later in verse 11 Mormon tells us that wickedness in the Church led “. . . unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people” (emphasis added). This great wickedness did not happen all at once. It began with small things, but these small things grew into great evil in the space of a single year.
We find this same pattern repeated many times. In the book of Helaman chapters 3 and 4, in Helaman chapter 6, in 3 Nephi chapter 6, we read of wonderful periods of prosperity and righteousness followed by a decline into wickedness that begins with small things. Describing the power of small things, Mormon writes that wickedness “. . . did grow upon them from day to day” (Helaman 3:36) until it hit a critical point and then, in just a few months, great evil almost exploded into the society.

The Book of Mormon also shows us how these epidemics of wickedness and evil may be stopped. Some are stopped by war and great destruction. But in some, intervention by the prophets of God works through small things to bring about great and dramatic repentance and righteousness, also in a very short time. (See, for example, Helaman 5:50-52.)" " Out of Small Things Proceedeth That Which is Great," Kim Clark, BYU-Idaho Devotional, January 2006

"We observe vast, sweeping world events; however, we must remember that the purposes of the Lord in our personal lives generally are fulfilled through the small and simple things, and not the momentous and spectacular.

Alma, teaching his son Helaman about the importance of the record written on the plates of brass, said:
“Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
“And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” (Alma 37:6–7.)" "Small and Simple Things," M. Russell Ballard, April 1990

VIDEOS:

James 1: Doers of the Word https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD1YX8tsCiI