Preparing for the Feast

It is that time of year again when our thoughts should be turned to preparing for the feast. Not the physical feast that will happen at the end of November but the spiritual feast that will be at the beginning of October. General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint is one of my favorite times of the year and as a result I thought it would be appropriate to create a paper chain to countdown the days.

This idea started out as a simple paper chain that I could hang in the front room for the children to see and countdown the days until conference. My thought was that this would help them see that this is something that is important in our lives and something to be looked forward to. However, over the last few weeks it has evolved a bit and became a bit more significant.

Each link of the chain not only contains a quote from one or two of the talks given in the general sessions in April but it also contains a challenge related to that talk. My hope is that as we make a special effort to put what we learned last April into action we will be better prepared for the messages we will hear this coming October. I would like to invite each of you to join us in this journey as we count down the days until General Conference.

I created this free printable to hopefully make this a simple as possible for you to create and start. Today, September 12th, there are 24 days until General Conference. If you do not get the chain made up today, just include one or so less links once you do. Also, I will be doing this challenge in a digital format on my Instagram account @motheringamidangels so feel free to follow me there.

Click Here for Free PDF Download 

Coloring Outside the Lines

Preparation: Read Elder Lynn G. Robbins talk from April 2018 entitled Until Seventy Times Seven. 

Materials:

• Coloring Book Pages (Here is a great one of Nephi and here is one of Moses)
• Crayons or other coloring material

Opening Song: Choosethe Right

Opening Prayer:

Gain Attention:

Tell the children that today we are going to be working on staying in the lines as we color. If you have older children you can adjust this to be some other skill they could work on. Give each child a coloring page and tell them that you are going to show them how to do it. Start coloring the page explaining as you do so that this is the best way to do it. At some point you can allow them to hold the coloring instrument while you control their hand. Continue to do this until they have just plane had enough of you doing it for them. (You can also instruct the older children to be bossy teachers as well for the younger children.)

Instruction:

Discuss with your children how they liked coloring this way. Ask them how skilled they would become at coloring if you always did it for them or guided their hand.

Talk about Nephi’s experience trying to obtain the brass plates found in 1^st Nephi Chapters 3 and 4. Also discuss how Moses was faced with the task of getting all of the Israelites out of Egypt. After you discuss these two stories read this quote from Elder Robbins’ talk:

“Nephi’s unwavering faith helped him go from failure to failure until he finally obtained the brass plates. It took Moses 10 attempts before he finally found success in fleeing Egypt with the Israelites.”

“We may wonder—If both Nephi and Moses were on the Lord’s errand, why didn’t the Lord intervene and help them achieve success on their first try? Why did He allow them—and why does he allow us—to flounder and fail in our attempts to succeed?”

Discuss possible answers to this question. You may even want to direct children back to the feeling they felt as you did not allow them to color on their own so that they wouldn’t mess up. Following your discussion have each child read one of the reasons Elder Robbins listed in his talk. (We have each family member participate and simply whisper what to say into our children’s ears.):

•     First, the Lord know that “these things shall give [us] experience, and shall be for [our] good.
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•     Second, to allow us to “taste the bitter, that [we] may know to prize the good.
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•     Third, to prove that “the battle is the Lord’s” and it is only by His grace that we can accomplish His work and become like Him.
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•     Fourth, to help us develop and hone scores of Christlike attributes that cannot be refined except through opposition and “in the furnace of affliction.”  

Read Doctrine and Covenants 101:9 

Coming to this earth and expecting to never make a mistake is like expecting to play basketball without ever missing a basket or play the piano without ever playing the wrong note. Elder Robbins stated, 

“ Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the even we might fail. Repentances is His plan, knowing that we will. This is the gospel of repentance, and as President Russell M. Nelson has observed, it will be ‘a lifetime curriculum.’”

Close by bearing your testimony of the lessons that are learned as we make mistakes and of the blessings of Christ’s Atonement.

Activities Idea:

Learn and new skill together.

Go to a local art museum.

Treat Idea:

No Bake Cookies from Live Well Bake Often

You are a Child of God

Preparation: Read Elder Brian K. Taylor's talks from April 2018 General conference entitled, Am Ia Child of God?

Materials:

• ·        Pretzels (Optional)
• ·        Picture of Christ in Gethsemane 
• ·        Picture of Joseph Smith Reading the Bible
• ·        Picture of the First Vision 
• ·        Pretzel Object Lesson Printable
• ·        Supplies to Make Pretzels

Opening Song:

 I am a Child of God 

Opening Prayer:

Gain Attention:

If you have pretzels, take a pretzel and show it to the children. Break it in half and ask children if it will still taste just as good as before. (If you do not have pretzels, just ask the children if a broken pretzel would still taste as good as a whole one.) Explain to the children that our Heavenly Father loves us no matter what. He loves us if we are whole or if we are broken and what he really wants is for us to return to live with Him because we are his children.

Instruction:

Relate Moses’ experience found in Moses Chapter One where the Lord refers to Moses as his son. Then read and discuss Moses 1: 12-13 as a family.

Next read this quote from Elder Taylor,

“Coming to know these truths with certainty helps us overcome trials, troubles, and afflictions of every kind. When asked, “How can we help those struggling with [a personal challenge]?” an Apostle of the Lord instructed, “Teach them their identity and their purpose.”

Read this quote from President Russell M. Nelson:

“Something powerful happens when a child of God seeks to know more about Him and His Beloved Son.”

Show the children the pictures of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. Have children tell you what they know about what is happening in the pictures.  Explain that both the Savior and Joseph Smith are great examples of seeking to know our Heavenly Father.

Read this quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:

“With blood appearing at every pore and an anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sough Him whom He had always sought—His Father. ‘Abba,” He cried, ‘Papa.’”

Read this quote from Elder Taylor:

“As we follow the examples of the Savior and the Prophet Joseph in earnestly seeking God, we will come to understand in a very real way that our Father know us by name, that we are His children.”

Conclude by bearing your testimony of the fact that each of us are children of God.

Activity:

Make homemade pretzels as a family and use the Pretzel Object Lesson printable to direct you as you each shape your own pretzels. (You may want to make the dough before Family Home Evening so that all you need to do is shape them together.)

Treat:

Homemade Pretzels! A good recipe can be found on Salt and Baker  

Click here to download printable