If The Savior Stood Beside Me LDS Primary Song Help Ideas

 

Do we all know the following poem?

 

One night a man had a dream.

He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Scenes from his life flashed across the sky
and he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life had flashed before him,
he recalled that at the lowest and saddest times of his life
there was only one set of footprints.

Dismayed, he asked, "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
I don't understand why, when I needed you most,
you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious child.
I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering
when you saw only one set of footprints...

That was when I carried you."

Read the poem to the children. What do they think about it? The following are ideas to use in correlation with this poem and the song.

In D&C 78:18 The Savior says, "...Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours."

* Have footprint shaped visuals with pictures to represent the words.

* Have a little box of sand with parts of the questions from the song on a piece of paper, children sing the missing part ( ):
If The Savior stood beside me, would I do.... (the things I do?)
Would I think..... (of His commandments and try harder to be true?)
Would I follow... (His example?)
Would I live.... (more righteously, if I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me?)

* Have 1 child up front with a blindfold. Invite 3 others up. Have them sing part of the song. Invite the blindfolded child to guess who is standing beside them by their singing.

* Have a path of footprints, invite children to pick a footprint with a way to sing the song:
standing with heels touching
sing on tippy toes
stand shoulder to shoulder with a neighbor and sing
sing with hands making a wave motion on the beach
sing with fingers (pointer & middle) walking in the air together

* Have a walking stick. Invite a child to come up front and share a place they'd like to walk with Jesus and have Him stand with them. Have them lead a verse of the song with the stick.