Wednesday, July 31, 2013

FHE: Pause for Prayer

We've been having issues with our kids not pausing during the prayer, whether it be coloring during the sacrament prayer or sneaking bites during the quick dinner prayer, so I thought I would just point out that this isn't reverent and we talked about what is reverent: fold arms, close mouth, close eyes, bow head, open ears.  I made up a "game" called "Pause for Prayer" so that we could practice.  We would pretend to be in certain situations (Okay, we're all in church coloring.  Oh look!  They're about to bless the sacrament! Pause for prayer!  ... Amen!  Okay, we can color again.  Now we're all sitting at the table, about ready for dinner... Now we're getting ready for bed...)

They did a good job AND i've been using that catch phrase "Pause for Prayer" before all our prayers and they seem to be responding!!  Score!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Scripture Spotlight- Alma 24:30

This scripture kind of scares me... It makes me fear for friends and family who have fallen away, and it makes me weary of sharing the gospel with others...  At the same time, it makes sense- like children who cannot sin because they do not know any better, one who has never heard of the gospel is not culpable in the same way as one who has.

"And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than thought they had never known these things."

Scripture Spotlight - Alma 22:18

I just love this verse, for some reason.  I admire King Lamoni's faith and humility and I love the idea of trading sins for knowing God.  It seems like an obvious trade...

"O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day."

Monday, July 22, 2013

FHE: 5th Article of Faith

I had us all sit in a circle so we'd be ready for the activity portion of the lesson.  (which was a huge challenge for some reason.  The kids were super hyper tonight!)

I started off by reviewing the first four articles of faith.  (I quickly recited them from memory) and then while I recited the 5th article of faith, I had them repeat after me.  Then I went through the words slowly and tried to explain each phrase, or words that they wouldn't know.   We talked a bit about the priesthood, and if they knew any ordinances- giving hints to get them to think of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (as mentioned in the 4th article of faith).

I asked them if they knew of anyone who was "called of God" i.e. was God's helper.  My 4-year old said Jesus, and then sort of led him to think of the prophet.  Finally, I said we can all be His helpers and every adult usually has some sort of calling at church, and we told our kids what our callings were.

Then I said, we don't get to choose who is called or what we are called for, God does that, and I taught them how to play "duck, duck, goose" because we take turns getting chosen.

Not sure how much they got out of it- as I mentioned earlier, they were sooooo hyper.  They loved playing duck, duck, goose though :)

Scripture Spotlight- Alma 18:35

Before I spotlight, I just want to say how much I've enjoyed reading The Book of Mormon in larger chunks.  It just reads much more smoothly and the story is more cohesive and memorable when you don't end it at a mere chapter.  Try it!

This is Ammon teaching King Lamoni about where his strength comes from, and about God and Christ...

And a portion of that Spirit dwelleth in me, which giveth me knowledge, and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God.

Monday, July 15, 2013

FHE: Heber J. Grant

We've been out of town for 2 Mondays... Though I had the best of intentions of doing FHE while we were away, it just didn't happen.

So to catch up, we did the Portrait of a Prophet from the back of the July Friend and also used information from this lesson- mostly just what was in the Friend though.  It was chaotic because my husband was out of town, so I made it quick.

For those of you looking to do a family home evening on Heber J. Grant, I mentioned at an earlier lesson about charity that the movie I showed there would have also been great for this lesson, since it's a story from his childhood.