7-11 Summer Scripture Challenge

Since December, I've been the secretary of the Young Women's organization of my church.  We decided to try to challenge the girls (and ourselves) to read the whole Book of Mormon during their summer break- that is, reading about 7 pages a day for 11 weeks.  (starting Sunday)  I'm calling it the "7-11 Summer Scripture Challenge".

I remember when I was in seminary (in High School) and they always had "March Madness", where they would challenge you to read the entire Book of Mormon in 1 month.  (which I am ashamed to say, I never attempted)  I think this seems a lot more manageable (particularly since the girls have no homework now).

If you want to follow along, here's the schedule (though I'm starting today so I can share my in progress experience with the girls on Sunday when we issue the challenge) I made and printed out for everyone to use as a bookmark.  I just finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price again, so I'm glad to have a new scripture reading goal.

Each Sunday, during opening exercises, we are having "Scripture Spotlight" time where if any of the girls (or leaders, I suppose) have any scriptures that particularly stuck out to them or that they really liked, they can share them with each other. I'd like to keep track of my "Scripture Spotlights" here.

FHE: 3rd Article of Faith

First I reminded them of what the articles of faith are and then I quickly recited the 1st and 2nd (the ones we had already talked about) pausing before some key parts to see if my kids could fill in the blanks.  Surprisingly, my 4-year old could!

Then I told them we were going to talk about the 3rd article of faith and recited it to them from memory.

I had them watch this movie while we ate our treat and then I asked them questions about it such as "What is spiritual death?", "What is physical death?", "Who paid for our sins? and how?"

Even though they looked riveted watching the movie, they were unable to answer any questions, so we watched it again and I paused the movie after something important was said and would ask them what it just said and maybe explain it a bit more.  This seemed to be more effective than just watching the movie through.  Perhaps I should have asked them the questions before they watched it the first time to give them something to look for?

At the end, I had them repeat after me and recite the 3rd article of faith.

They requested watching another movie.... haha.

FHE: Revelation

We talked about revelation by asking these questions:

What is revelation?
Why do we need it?
How do we get it?
-prayer
-Holy Ghost
-dreams/visions (Lehi & Joseph Smith)
or our minds are enlightened when we read or listen to
-the scriptures
-conference
-church talks/lessons

I got my next idea from watching this lds.org video.  (though I didn't show it to my 4 & 2-year olds.  I knew it would be over their heads...)

I gave the analogy of revelation coming like a light switch (big and booming- rare), a dimmer switch (like the sunrise in the video), or like a flashlight (seeing only a few steps ahead or a small space)

Finally, we talked about listening to revelation.  I had my kids sing ABCs while I whispered where I hid our treats and asked them where they were.  They didn't know.  Then I had them be quiet and said the same thing.  I pointed out that the answer was there the whole time, but they only got it when they were listening.

I think this lesson was above my kids' heads. They really really liked the last part where they had to listen to know where to find the treat.  My son even said, "This time, I'll just sing quieter, ok?" but then he realized he had to stop singing completely to hear what I said.  Maybe I should have started with that part, and then talked more about revelation while we ate our dessert?

FHE: Lorenzo Snow

This week, we used the back inside cover of the Friend magazine to decide the topic- President Lorenzo Snow, but I really only used it for a picture and took most of my lesson from here.  (keep singing the Latter-day Prophet's song for opening hymn!)

I just read the highlights and the 2 little stories and stopped after each to talk about what we can learn from/about him.  I was sick and the hubby couldn't be home until late that day, so it was very low-key.  The game they suggest sounds fun, if you had more people....

FHE: 2nd Article of Faith

BTW, I found some cute, free Article of Faith Printables I don't want to forget about!  I won't bother with them now, since my kids can't read, but might be cute much later...

We sang the 2nd Article of Faith (Children's Songbook p. 122) for an opening song.

We read this story (while the kids ate their treat) from a past Friend article and then I asked the kids questions about the story, to be sure they understood what happened.  (mostly just my 4-year old son answered)  Then I gave made up scenarios asking things like, "what if your little sister hit the baby, and then I punished you (my son) by sending you to your room?"  etc.  And we talked about how that isn't right, and we are all responsible for taking the consequences of our own actions and nobody elses.

Then I asked if anyone knew the story about Adam, and my son told me as much as he knew, and I filled in the gaps.  I told him that some people believe that because Adam, the first man sinned, we are born sinners, but that we do not believe that.  We believe that we are only responsible for our own sins, and if we repent, then Jesus will suffer for them for us.

I also repeated the 2nd article of faith one more time.