This blogpost features a printable activity page and some of my personal thoughts to complement the Come Follow Me (CFM) reading for February 24-March 2, including Doctrine and Covenants section 18. You'll find the activity sheet AFTER my thoughts. Click here for an index and links to my CFM blogposts for other weeks.
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THE WORTH OF SOULS
From their earliest days, we teach our children that they are children of God. In nursery each week, they sing, “I am a Child of God”, while the kids wiggle, jabber, and sometimes even poke each other. Later, they have a lesson time that would make any gospel doctrine teacher squirm. Not only do nursery leaders pare the lesson time down to a generous sixty to ninety seconds, but it’s also not uncommon that someone ends up in tears by the end of the lesson. And not the kind of tears that means their heart is touched.
In all seriousness, though their lessons are short, repetitious, and sometimes involve off-key singing about melting snowmen, in essence each lesson boils down to the simple concept that Jesus loves them. He loves us, so he wants us to share. He loves us, so he wants us to be reverent. He loves us, so he sent us families.
Really, isn’t that what the gospel is all about?
Granted, I don’t know that the young men and young women would necessarily get much out of a lesson geared for the nursery kids, but I do believe that everything important we learn in our gospel studies, from our earliest days as a toddler in nursery to the slightly more aged crowd in the Elder’s Quorum, is based on the simple concept that God loves us, knows us personally, and wants us to return to Him.
Nearly thirty years into this whole parenting gig, I believe that one of my goals of parenthood has been to make sure our kids not only “know” that they’re children of God, but that they believe it; that they know in their very cores that they have deep worth and that through Christ, they can find wholeness, peace, and redemption.
There was a time early in my parenting that I used to truly believe that consistent gospel actions on our part as parents--procedures like praying, reading the scriptures, holding consistent family home evenings and attending our church meetings, would yield happy, healthy kids with strong testimonies of Christ. Almost like a math equation. It certainly seemed like there were a lot of people raising their hands in Sunday School and bearing their testimony all about how they did all these things right and now they have 7 wonderful temple-going children. However this is NOT reality for most people (including us). Part of our mortal existence is our gift of agency. No matter how hard you work to instill moral principles in your children, each child still has to make a choice of what path they will take.
But that doesn't mean we don't try. We all struggle with our own weaknesses and distractions, but as President Nelson famously said in 2022:
“...The Lord loves effort. The Lord loves consistency. The Lord loves steadfastness. While we surely will come up short from time to time, our persistent efforts to hear Him and follow the inspiration He gives us will help us to 'wax strong in the Spirit' (Mosiah 18:26).”
It's taken me nearly three decades of parenting to recognize that walking the covenant path (or following the supposed math equation mentioned above) doesn’t promise me a certain ease of life...but what it does promise me is divine help and a personal connection with God, so I can be my best version of me and help my children be the best version of themselves. And I believe this counsel from President Nelson’s applies to raising children in the gospel as much as anything else we do: “in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
I’ll finish off my thoughts today with this quote from Elder Uchtdorf :
“by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” One home evening, one gospel conversation, or one good example may not change your child’s life in a moment, any more than one drop of rain causes a plant immediately to grow. But the consistency of small and simple things, day after day, nourishes your children much better than an occasional flood.”
That’s a beautiful promise. It’s the small day-to-day happenings of our family that make all the difference in helping our children recognize their own divine worth. We don’t need to beat ourselves up when we make mistakes; we keep doing the small and simple things and never ever ever give up, because "the worth of a soul is great in the sight of God," and the effort is worth it.
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PRINTABLE ACTIVITY SHEET
These activity sheets are designed to print double-sided and cut in half.
They're perfect for reviewing or introducing the content found in the
Come, Follow Me reading each week and would be great used in a classroom
or home setting. I have no children at home, nor do I have a calling
working with youth, so I copy these to be handed out with the sacrament
programs each week. Kids, teens, and adults enjoy them...especially the word searches!
THIS WEEK'S ACTIVITY SHEET LINK (in case it's not showing below)
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Here's an FHE lesson from my files that might be helpful when teaching the topic as well:
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