FHE: Lehi's Dream

We've been reading in the Book of Mormon all year (1 verse a day) and we just finished reading about Lehi's vision in 1 Nephi 8, and I thought it would be good to go over what we just read.

I got some free printables for the kids to color during the day here so I could cut them out and laminate them for that night, though we didn't get enough time to color all of them with a doctor appt in the afternoon, so I probably should have just printed out the colored versions.

I went over the story with them and taped up the corresponding pictures as they were mentioned.  Then after we went through and talked about what the symbols all meant by asking the kids what they thought first.  I was surprised by how much my 5-year-old was able to figure out!

After that, I had set up some yarn all around the back yard (and it was night time, so it was authentically dark, like the mist), ending at a tree we have by our front door that has Christmas lights in it, and I turned it on and put a plate of brownies next to it so we could have some of the "fruit" of the tree of life too.  They really loved that!  This was super fun :)

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."

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.

Scripture Spotlight- Jacob 4:6-7

6.  "Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea."
7. "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things."

The power of faith is incredible!  Yet, we must humble ourselves or we will have the unfortunate experience of being reminded of why we should be humble.

Scripture Spotlight- 2 Nephi 10:16

There are always a lot of questions about who "the great and abominable church" that is "the whore of all the Earth" might be.  In this verse it says that anyone who "fighteth against Zion"... "are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me"

Perhaps it's not a particular church/religion, just anyone against God.  I always hate specific accusations.  Next time I hear one, I'll bring up this verse.

Scripture Spotlight- 2 Ne 9:28-29

This happens to be a scripture mastery.  I know myself and my tendencies, and this is a good one for me to keep in the forefront of my thoughts:
28. "O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men!  When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not.  And they shall perish."
29. "But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels fo God."

Scripture Spotlight- 2 Ne 9:23-24

To be saved all men must:
1) repent
2) be baptized in his name,
3) have perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel (Christ)
4) endure to the end

Scripture Spotlight- 2 Nephi 9

I just want to remember for myself, that for information about the Plan of Salvation (why we're here, where we came from, where we're going...) it's all in 2 Nephi, chapter 9.

Scripture Spotlight: 1 Ne 15:8-9

I'm noticing a pattern in 1 Ne (and I know I'm not the first).  Something hard happens, Lamen and Lemuel murmur/become stiff-necked/try to kill Nephi, but then are compelled to be humble by a long sermon from Nephi or some kind of miracle (angel visits, the power of God manifest through Nephi).

You'd think after witnessing miracles, there would be no doubting, but that is not enough.  They had not developed the habit of gaining a testimony through "Inquiring of the Lord" and perhaps had not tried to gain personal testimonies, but are riding on those of their father and brother.

We know, eventually, they fall away.

Note to self: help my children and others in my stewardship gain a desire to have a  personal testimony.

Scripture Spotlight 1 Ne 15:3

About Lehi telling of his visions to Laman and Lemuel:

For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord;

I think this can be generally true, but isn't it so great that we can personally inquire of the Lord and get answers for ourselves?  (As Nephi did concerning the teachings of his father)

Scripture Spotlight: 1 Ne 10:21

"Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever."

I'm hoping this means that even if you only "sought" to do righteously, you've got a chance :)

Scripture Spotlight: 1 Ne 10:19

For He that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost....

I will share this scripture on Sunday for our first "Scripture Spotlight" and encouraged the girls in Young Women to read with a question they desire to have answered, because I know the scriptures can answer any life question.

Scripture Spotlight 1 Ne 9:6

But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words.

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: Brass Plates

I recently decided that we should abandon reading out of The Book of Mormon with the kids, and go back to the illustrated version, because it just seemed like they weren't getting very much out of it, and my 2-year old might actually understand better with the pictures.  (my 4-year old did, perhaps glean nuggets but...)  So, even though we had made it to 2 Ne in the other, we started over in Book of Mormon Stories.

There is a lot of mention of plates in the first part because it starts off telling where The Book of Mormon comes from and then the second story is about Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates from Laban.  I thought it might be fun to try and make those feel more real and talk about what they are and why records would need to be kept on metal, instead of paper.

All I did was fold a piece of aluminum foil in half twice and give a "sheet" to everyone with a toothpick to "write" with.  While we talked about why the records were kept on metal, we all "carved" pictures and words into our "plate".

I also showed them some pictures from the Gospel Art Book where plates are shown, and a brief 2-sentence summary of what is going on in each pictures.  Pictures #73, #86, and #92.  (making sure to mention that Joseph did not actually translate The Book of Mormon as depicted in that last picture).

I was going to make a book out of them at the end, but my 2-year old decided to rip hers to bits after drawing on it.  We also talked a bit about how the bible was kept (Monks spent their life copying them by hand to preserve them) and I was surprised that my 4-year old knew about illuminated bibles.  (or that they had pictures in them)

I thought it went pretty well :)