Hello, again! I'm trying to get ahead of the game and publish these Come, Follow Me activity pages a little earlier than Saturday night! We'll see how long I can keep it up. haha.
Here is the activity sheet to go along with the First Vision (the Come, Follow Me lesson for January 19th). Print them off double-sided and they make great 1/2 page review or introductory pages for the Come, Follow Me material for the week.
MODERN DAY APPLICATION In every lesson I teach, I try to find what the modern day application of that gospel topic might be and there are quite a few that can be gleaned from the First Vision. Clickhere for some life lessons we can learn from Joseph Smith's experience in the Sacred Grove.
Hello, again! It's been a crazy few weeks here sending off another missionary in the middle of the holidays and I'm just now attempting to get back to "real life". I've been super intimidated by creating these Doctrine and Covenants activity sheets, more than with any other book of scripture, so I'm hoping that posting them here will keep me on top of things.
This week is stake conference, so I won't be handing these out in sacrament meeting like I usually do, but hope you all can get some good use from them.
These activity sheets are great to use in classrooms and families to introduce or review the "Come, Follow Me" material for the week. They're geared for older elementary age kids and older.
Hope you have a great week sharing and learning the gospel together!
Long time, no see. I still make these 1/2 page activity sheets to go with each Come, Follow Me lesson. I pass them out to interested kids, teens, and adults each week along with the sacrament programs. It didn't seem like they were generating much interest here on the blog, so I haven't taken the extra time it takes to share any for a while. The people in my ward like them enough though, that I am going to try again.
In addition to being great for a sacrament meeting activity, they're perfect for home use and introducing a CFM topic, as well for classroom use. I switch off between word searches and crossword puzzles created from words and phrases from the CFM reading that week, so they're geared for kids that can read pretty well, so probably 8+ in age. Many adults love them as well...especially when it's a word search week!
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.
TRIALS CAN STRENGTHEN US OBJECT LESSON:
To demonstrate how trials can actually
make us stronger, hold up a flat piece of paper and try to make if "fly"
through the air. Point out how poorly the paper flies. Now begin
folding and creasing the paper into an airplane. Explain as you fold
the paper that each crease represents a trial (mention possible {or
current} trials as you fold). With each fold (trial) the paper becomes
strong until eventually it can fly through the air gracefully. Our
lives are very similar. Just like the folds make the paper stronger,
trials make us stronger. Some of our trials may seem at the time, but
Heavenly Father is always mindful of us. Each trial that we endure
brings greater strength and experience into our lives.
ACTIVITY: Pass out paper to everyone and have fun making
paper airplanes. Have a contest to see whose plane flies the farthest,
fastest, highest, etc.
QUOTES:
The attributes of the Savior, as we perceive them, are not a script to be followed or list to be checked off. They are interwoven characteristics, added one to another, which develop in us in interactive ways. In other words, we cannot obtain one Christlike characteristic without also obtaining and influencing others. As one characteristic becomes strong, so do many more." "Becoming a Disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ," Robert D. Hales, April 2017
"We comprehend more fully the exceeding great and precious promises and begin to partake of the divine nature by responding affirmatively to the call from the Lord to glory and virtue. As described by Peter, this call is fulfilled by striving to escape the corruption that is in the world.
As we press forward submissively with faith in the Savior, then because of His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, “a mighty change [takes place] in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”5 We are “born again; yea, born of God, changed from [our] carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Such a comprehensive change in our nature typically does not occur quickly or all at once. Like the Savior, we also receive “not of the fulness at the first, but [receive] grace for grace.” “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom."" "Exceeding Great and Precious Promises," David A. Bednar, October 2017
"This experience helped me realize that although our lives may at times be relatively smooth, the time will come for each of us when we will face unexpected challenges and storms that will push the limits of our ability to endure. Physical, mental, family, and employment challenges; natural disasters; and other matters of life or death are but some of the examples of the storms that we will face in this life.
When faced with these storms, we often experience feelings of despair or fear. President Russell M. Nelson said, “Faith is the antidote for fear”—faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (“Let Your Faith Show,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 29). As I have seen the storms that affect people’s lives, I have concluded that no matter what kind of storm is battering us—regardless of whether there is a solution to it or whether there is an end in sight—there is only one refuge, and it is the same for all types of storms. This single refuge provided by our Heavenly Father is our Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement." "Finding Refuge from the Storms of Life," Ricardo Gimenez, April 2020
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
