June 2014 LDS Primary Sharing Time Helps and Ideas

For more pictures with quotes from General Conference click HERE

Monthly Theme: Priesthood Ordinances and Temple Work Bless My Family
Monthly Scripture: "Whatsoever shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" Matthew 18:18

Week 1 Priesthood ordinances bless and strengthen my family.

*HERE is a lovely and simple felt board story (from The Friend, by Karen Lofgreen) about the priesthood and how it blessed the life of one family.

* Write in large letters on the chalkboard, "MINE IS A HOME WHERE EVERY HOUR, IS BLESSED BY THE STRENGTH OF PRIESTHOOD POWER". (CS 190 Love is Spoken Here)
Have a 8-10 paper clocks hidden throughout the room. Choose a reverent child to look for a clock while your pianist reverently plays that song. Have different stories, scriptures, and questions about priesthood ordinances for each clock. After they answer the question or share the story, they get to play a game to see if they can beat the clock! Have about 10 plastic cups and see if a child can stack them in a pyramid in less than a minute. For older children, try 30 seconds.
Some questions could include:
What are some examples of priesthood ordinances?
Why do you think Heavenly Father gave men the priesthood?
Can you remember a family in the scriptures who were blessed by the priesthood?
How does it make you feel knowing that one day you might have the priesthood?(For a boy)
How does it make you feel knowing that you can ask any righteous man in our ward to give you a blessing from heaven? (For a girl)

* President Brigham Young taught, “The Priesthood … is [the] perfect order and system of government, and this alone can deliver the human family from all the evils which now afflict its members, and insure them happiness and felicity hereafter.” Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe (1954), 130.
Have about 6 children come up front and make a line. Then have them mix their order and sit down. Talk about a priesthood ordinance, show a picture, ask a few questions to the children. After, have another child come up front and try to put the 6 children in the original order they were in! Do this several times!!
Priesthood Ordinances to talk about:          

Baptism & Conferring of the gift of the Holy Ghost; also called confirmation

Conferring of the priesthood (for male members)

Temple endowment

Temple marriage and sealing for time and eternity

Blessing of the Sacrament          

Blessing and naming of children          

Blessing of the sick          

Special blessings          

Patriarchal blessing

D&C 132:8 "Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion." The Priesthood helps make sure our homes have order and happiness! Priesthood ordinances bless and strengthen families!

* Invite a few different people in to Primary to share "short" stories of how priesthood ordinances have blessed or strengthened their family! You could even invite the Elders Quorum President in to talk to the children about Home Teachers. Sometimes there is no priesthood in the home, and Heavenly Father knows that! But He always will provide a way for His beloved children to be blessed by the priesthood.

* HERE is one of the most beautiful stories ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's called The Right Key by Doris Monson (The Friend March 2000)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story because it makes a great point at the end!!! Do you have children in your primary who don't have the priesthood in their home?? We want to be sensitive and make sure they feel good at church. This story can do that!!
Share the story and then divide the primary into groups. Give each group a picture of a key with a priesthood ordinance written on it and a scripture to look up. Have them come up with a time where someone in the group or their family has been blessed by that priesthood ordinance. After 5 minutes, have someone from each group come to the front to share what they talked about in their group.

Week 2 Temples make it possible for families to be together forever.

* This was such a fun story from Conference:
        " Later, as I was about to graduate from the university, I fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Jeanene Watkins. I thought she was beginning to have some deep feelings for me also. One night when we were talking about the future, she carefully wove into the discussion a statement that changed my life forever. She said, “When I marry, it will be to a faithful returned missionary in the temple.”

         I hadn’t thought much about a mission before then. That night my motivation to consider missionary service changed dramatically. I went home, and I could think of nothing else. I was awake all night long. I was completely distracted from my studies the next day. After many prayers I made the decision to meet with my bishop and begin my missionary application.

Jeanene never asked me to serve a mission for her. She loved me enough to share her conviction and then gave me the opportunity to work out the direction of my own life. We both served missions and later were sealed in the temple. Jeanene’s courage and commitment to her faith have made all the difference in our lives together. I am certain we would not have found the happiness we enjoy without her strong faith in the principle" Elder Richard G. Scott (HERE is the full talk, April 2014)

        Have a picture of a temple on the chalkboard. Draw about 8-10 steps leading up to the temple. We need to set the worthy goal of going to the temple so that our families can be forever!! Have the children come up with steps/things we need to do to get to the temple. Have pictures and scriptures to go along with those steps too!

* In the October 2000 Friend (HERE is the link) Rachelle F.A. Dow writes a beautiful poem entitled What Lasts?:

 

"Ice cream melts,

Flowers wilt,

The leaves of autumn fall.

Sunsets fade,

Seasons change,

And children don’t stay small.

Balloons pop,

Snowfalls stop—

Do summers last? Never!

Weekends fly,

Today will die,

But …

FAMILIES

ARE

FOREVER!"

 

I would gather pictures to illustrate this WONDERFUL poem (ice cream, flower, leaves, sunset... etc.) and then have a picture of a temple on the back. Let a child pick one picture from the poem, then turn over the picture and answer a question or read a scripture or have the primary sing a song- having to do with temples and forever families.

Some examples of questions might include:
Has The Lord commanded that temples be built always, or just in latter days? Can you name some people that built temples in ancient times? (Nephi, Solomon, Children of Israel)

What do we need to do in our families to be worthy to go to the temple?

How can we prepare now to go to the temple?
What are some feelings you have when you are at the temple grounds?

Why do you think people wear white inside the temple?

What is something you would like to do with your forever family in the resurrection?

 

* HERE is THE BEST story!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Definitely a good one for sharing time or family home evening!!! Before reading the story (with lots of enthusiasm), have a canning jar to show the children. Have a bunch of red pom poms too. Ask the children, what does jam have to do with the temple? This story has some great ideas to answer that question!!
     After you read the story, play a game of toss the berry into the jar- the pom poms being the berries. Different jars could be worth different points. Work together and see how many points you can get!! But in order to toss a berry, you have to answer a question or read a scripture about temples and/or families.

* HERE (July 2011 The Temple is a House of God) is a fun look and find about families that are getting ready to go to the temple. Make copies and divide the children into pairs or groups of 3. Have them do the activity and come up with 1 thing they'd like to share with the primary about temples.

* I have a HUGE list of ideas under the label to the left - Temples. It's a lot of scrolling, but there are plenty of ideas if you are willing to look. The one with the fake camera picture made me chuckle. 10 points for you if you can find that idea!!

Week 3 I can prepare now to be worthy to enter the temple.

* HERE is a bingo like game from The Friend. If it had visuals it'd be perfect. It might just be my browser, but I don't see pictures. However, that doesn't mean you can't make your own version on power point. How do you play bingo with 100 kids? Give each class a board and have them take turns putting on a marker.

* HERE is a beautiful temple box children can make!! It also has ways they can prepare to go to the temple to put inside their creation.

* HERE is another game from The Friend. Excellent for Junior Primary! I like how in the story it talks about even if your family isn't sealed, someday you can go to the temple!

* HERE is a story about a preparing for the temple by being kind in our family. Share the story with the children. Sometimes telling it in your own words will help the children pay better attention. In the story the little girl decides to share her crayons and help her brother with a puzzle. Have hidden crayons and puzzle pieces throughout the room and invite children to find one while you sing I love to See the Temple. When they find one, have them share a way they can prepare to be worthy to go to the temple.

Week 4 Family history work connects me to my ancestors.

 

* Invite your ward Family History specialist to come in and talk with the children! Or even a Young Woman or Young Man who like to do family file work. Have them talk a little about why they enjoy it and share their testimony.

 

* HERE is a Family History ABC game. AWESOME!!!! The Friend really does make life so easy!! GOD BLESS YOU ALL WHO DO WHAT YOU DO FOR THE FRIEND MAGAZINE!!!!!!!
HERE are the pictures to go along with the game, just look on the left for Family History ABC's... click, and then since it's a PDF file, you'll have to click the arrow on the bar to 25 to get that page also. The bar at the top will look like this

 

 

* HERE is another blessed link from The Friend with a Family History Scripture Word Find. I bet the Senior Primary would love to do this!! You could have them race and see who could find the most words in 2 minutes!! Then have another sheet of paper (graphing paper works nicely so it's neat and tidy) where they make a word find with names from their own family history!!

* HERE Elder Bednar talks about WHY family history is important. Have a pair of silly glasses that the children can wear to "seek after" (as Joseph Smith said!!!) the reasons that Elder Bednar gives. There are 8 after you read the first one to the children, although one is technically an invitation. You can put his sentences on hearts and hide them throughout the room.