I am excited that you decided to stop by and am so grateful to be able to share a little bit of my love for the Savior and His gospel with you. Before jumping into today's family home evening lesson I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging to me. It truly means so very much. I want to make your experience here as beneficial as possible. My objective is to come up with family home evening lessons that are meaningful yet simple in regards to the amount of effort and preparation necessary to make them happen.
In addition to family home evening lessons, my goal over the next few month is to write more material, more frequently in regards to scripture study, family history, family traditions and ways to incorporate, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, into our families. If there is something in particular you would like to see more of please comment below and let me know.
Preparation:
Read Elder Echtdorf's talk from the April 2018 general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entitled, Behold the Man!
Materials Needed:
An item that you can hide.
Opening Song:
My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Opening Prayer:
Gain Attention:
Hide an item of some sort somewhere in the room or house before family home evening starts. We hid our youngest child's doll. Explain to the family that there is an item hidden someone and that we are going to play, Hot or Cold, to find it. You can play the version where you simply say hot, hotter, hottest as the near the item or cold, colder, freezing as they move further from the item. Or, you can play the singing version where you singer louder the closer they get to the item and more softly as they move further from the item.
Instruction:
Once the item is found, ask the children if any of them knew where the item was? Ask them, who knew where the item was the whole time?
Read 3 Nephi 17:4 as a family.
Explain that just as the item that was hidden was not lost to you because you knew where it was, none of us will ever be lost to our Heavenly Father because he knows where we all are and what we are all going through.
Ask the children what we should do if there is a time that we feel lost. (It is okay if they answer this question for being physically lost as well as spiritually lost. It may even provide a chance to make sure our children do know what steps to take if the are physically lost.)
Discuss as a family that there may be times in our lives when we have done things wrong that make us feel bad and feel that Heavenly Father does not love us. There might also be times where we have done nothing wrong yet feel distant from our Heavenly Father and uncertain what we should be doing. Explain that in this past general conference Elder Echtdorf talked about this and he said,
"When you feel lost or forgotten, behold the Man.
When you are despairing, deserted, doubting, damaged, or defeated, behold the Man.
He will comfort you.
He will heal you and give meaning to your journey. He will pour out His Spirit and fill your heart with exceeding joy.
He gives 'power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.'
When we truly behold the Man, we learn of Him and seek to align our lives with Him. We repent and strive to refine our natures and daily grow a little closer to Him. We trust Him. We show our love for Him by keeping His commandments and by living up to our sacred covenants.
In other words, we become His disciples.
At this point you may want to take out a piece of paper and write or draw a plan, depending on the ages of your children, of what to do if we are lost spiritually based off of what Elder Echtdorf taught was necessary to do to behold the Man. (You may also want to write down a plan for what to do if you are lost physically on the back side of the paper.)
Remind children that even if at those moment we do not feel lost, there are others who probably do. Discuss as a family ways you can help others who feel lost know that they are loved and that our Heavenly Father loves them and knows where they are.
Remind children that even if at those moment we do not feel lost, there are others who probably do. Discuss as a family ways you can help others who feel lost know that they are loved and that our Heavenly Father loves them and knows where they are.
To conclude bear your testimony of a time where you felt lost and how turning to our Savior helped you or simply bear you testimony of the fact that our Heavenly Father loves each of us and will always be there for us.
*I feel like this lesson could easily be changed to focus on quite a few different topic, such as missionary work. So if you feel that another topic would be more beneficial for your family that is always an option by simply shifting your discussion about 3 Nephi 17:4 towards the topic you would like to cover and substituting the quote by Elder Echtdorf with a quote about your chosen topic.
Activity Ideas:
Play Hide n' Seek as a family.
Play a few more rounds of Hot and Cold
Treat Idea:
Brownie Batter Puppy Chow (Or Muddy Buddies) from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
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