January 2013 LDS Primary Sharing Time Helps & Ideas

Christina, a child of God. One of the most beautiful He ever created!

Of course, I am pretty partial!

  

Monthly Theme: I Am a Child of God, and He Has a Plan for Me
Monthly Scripture:  "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" Romans 8:16

Week 1 God is my Heavenly Father. He knows and loves me.

* Have a child pick up a stick at one end and lift it in the air. Did the other end lift up too? It sure did! Flip it and lift up the other end.

“We are the children of God. That doctrine is not hidden away in an obscure verse. It is taught over and over again in scripture. These clear examples are from the Bible:

“‘All of you are children of the most High’ (Psalm 82:6).
“And: ‘We are the offspring of God’ (Acts 17:29).

Doctrinal truths are interrelated. There is an old saying that if you pick up one end of a stick, you pick up the other end as well. If you concede that we are His children, you must allow that God is our Father” (President Boyd K. Packer, in Conference Report, Oct. 1984, 82; or Ensign, Nov. 1984, 66–67).

* Have a volunteer come up front and start counting the number of hairs they have on their head.
Ok. If they can't count how many they have, at least tell us how many they have. They don't know?
Yet Heavenly Father knows!

D&C 29:25 "And not one hair, neither mote, shall be lost, for it is the workmanship of mine hand."
Matthew 10: 30 "30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

He knows us better than we know ourselves!!! Isn't that love... He wont even let a single hair of ours be lost!! Have a basket of things we use to do our hair- brush, comb, blow dryer, mousse, hair spray, bows, pins, gel.... Invite children to come up and choose an item. On it have questions, scriptures & songs about Heavenly Father for them to answer.

* Have some pictures of space. Ask the children if they have ever been star gazing. Invite a few to share their experiences. How did they feel? What was it like? Where did they go?

President Uchtdorf wrote a fabulous talk found HERE.
This quote especially applies:
"My dear brothers and sisters, it may be true that man is nothing in comparison to the greatness of the universe. At times we may even feel insignificant, invisible, alone, or forgotten. But always remember—you matter to Him! Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love.

God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him. "

Invite children to draw pictures of themselves with Heavenly Father. Invite older children to write down things they would like to do with Heavenly Father or things they would like to talk with Him face to face. Remind the children that while we might not see Him face to face in this life, He will surely answer our questions we bring to Him in prayer!

* Write the following numbers on the board:

7,056,966,724

311,591,917

91,195

Does anyone have any clue why I'd write these on the board? What do you think these LARGE numbers might mean?
Well, according to google, the first number is how many people live on earth right now.
The second number is how many people live in America.
The third number is how many people live in Sparks, NV. (You can easily replace this number with how many people live in your city)

Is that a lot of people? If everyone in the world had a bottle of root beer and we sang that song backwards- 7,056,966,724 bottles of root beer on the wall... how long would it take for us to sing until we hit 1 bottle of root beer on the wall?? Probably a gazillion years!!!!! It's a huge amount of people on earth!!! And yet Heavenly Father knows EVERY SINGLE one of His children. Not to mention all those that have passed away before us!!!

Alma 26:37 "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

Week 2 & 3 Heavenly Father’s plan is a plan of happiness.

* What is the purpose of life? You can adapt THIS IDEA by taking a life cereal box, filling it with certain colored pom-poms and then having the children choose one from the box and talk about that part of the plan of salvation.
Blue- Pre Mortal World
Red- Earth Life & Repeat John 17:3
Orange- Spirit World
Green- Judgement & Kingdoms of Glory

* Here is a great video. It is pretty fast paced, but the visuals are really fun and neat!

* HERE is a lesson from The Friend with visuals. I like the way it talks about maps. I would have a treasure map up front marked with hidden clues to the plan of salvation. I would cut up the pictures provided there for the clues. When they use the map and find the picture, we’d read the scripture and decide what part of the plan it is. Put all the pictures in order on the chalk board up front. What is the treasure? Our knowledge of the truth of the plan of happiness!

* HERE is another lesson from The Friend. It has a plan of happiness booklet the children can put together. Also a great idea of having stations to demonstrate the plan of salvation.

* HERE is a very simple diagram of the plan of salvation from The Friend. I really think children are capable though of understand a little bit more about the plan. For senior primary, a more in depth version of the plan can be found at scripturecompanion.com.
I really like it because it’s thorough, especially the scriptures on the bottom!! I feel like it’s important to teach children exactly what happens when they die. One thing to note is that the spirit world is actually located on the same world as mortality.
(President Brigham Young said: “Where is the spirit world? It is right here” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 376). And another tid-bit I added a box for the words partial judgement before spirit world. (Alma taught that when we die our spirits are assigned to a state of happiness or of misery (see Alma 40:11–15).)

I created a quiz version for children to fill out based on the scripturecompanion.com:

 Some recycled ideas from previous posts:

* HERE is an Ensign Article on how the Apostles suggest we teach our children about the plan of salvation. Definitely suggest you read it and pray over what they suggest to do!
 
* Have a small box of Lincoln logs. Invite a child to come up and build a house. Ask them questions like, why don’t you put the green roof sticks on the bottom? Why do you put long logs on the bottom and shorter ones on the side? How will you make room for windows? How long will it take you to finish? Thank the child and ask if anyone has ever built a real home or knows what goes into building a real home? Show a picture of a real house. Do they just stop by home depot with $100 and window shop for things that look good or do you think they make a list of supplies they need? When you build a real home do you need a plan? What is a plan? What is Heavenly Father’s plan for me?At the end of the lesson, come back to the idea that you are grateful Heavenly Father took the time to carefully think out each piece of our lives (hold up Lincoln logs). He didn’t throw us together and hope for the best, but He perfectly designed (hold up a picture of the real home) a plan that would bring us happiness.
There are actually a bunch more, all you have to do is click on plan of salvation on the left under labels.

Week 4 I have agency, and I am responsible for my choices.

 
* "There is a story told of an old Cherokee teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil: he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good: he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person too.”

Illustration by Allen Garns

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”By Elder Shayne M. Bowen (From the Sept. 2012 New Era)
 
Have 2 baskets. Put a picture of the wolf on each one, but label one “BAD” and the other “GOOD”. Have about 30 strips of paper cut individually. On them write things that would be either feeding the “bad” or the “good”. Pass out the strips of paper and let the children come up, one at a time, and share where they think it should go. A couple examples could include: “Dressing immodestly.” Or “Going to the temple often”

End with the question the grandson asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” and bear testimony we need to make choices that will always feed the good and help us return to Heavenly Father!!

*HERE is a crossword puzzle for the 2^nd article of faith. You could easily break into groups to do.

 

*HERE is a Sharing Time from The Friend on choices and accountability. I like the idea for younger children where they draw a picture of a smiley and frowny face. You then give them situations and they have to hold up what feeling you’d get in consequence to the choice.

*Take a piece of masking tape and make a road from the door to the front. At the front of the room, make a fork in the road with one piece of tape leading to one side and another piece leading to the trash can.

2 Nephi 2:27 "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.”

Using examples from the scriptures, let children walk the path and determine whether that example from the scriptures chose the path of liberty & eternal life, or the path of captivity and death. Examples could include:

Nephi gets the brass plates

Laman & Lemuel tie up Nephi on the ship to America
Enos prays for forgiveness and to know how to help his people
King Noah refuses to listen to Abinadi
The Nephites shoot arrows at Samuel the Lamanite

Invite the children to share an example from the scriptures you haven’t mentioned and then walk the path! What about in our own lives? Make up some scenarios and let the children follow the path. This could include:
I refuse to help out with family home evening

extra chores to help out my mother
I cheat on tests at school to get the best grade
I read my scriptures and pray daily

*Have a candle that is NOT lit. Ask a child to come up front. IF the candle was lit and they put their finger by the flame, what would happen? They would get burned!! Our choices always have consequences!! And we don’t want our choices to hurt us, we want them to help us!