My Sunday calling for our ward takes me to the Young Women. I have been blessed the last two lesson to find object lessons that go so well with my lesson that in my preparing for them my kids are asking me a ton of questions. So.......as with Young Women sometimes I feel like I am talking to myself because they are so quiet and other times I feel like my skirt is down around my ankles because they are so involved in whispering back and forth and I get really self conscious. Anyway, my lesson a couple of weeks ago was on Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and here was the object lesson that I rolled over into family home evening because my kids were dying to know why I was taking ice cream to church. It was such a great lesson for both age groups and I had their attention focused on me the whole time.
Ice Cream......Sabbath Day Holy
On the table I have YUMMY ice cream goodies. Ice cream, carmel, chocolate, whipped cream, sprinkles, and a cherry for the top. Behind me I have in a baggy some dirt and grass, a few pennies, and a bottle of bathroom cleaner.
So I began by talking about the Sabbath and listening to the primary song Saturday and then I ask ....... How can we make a Sunday our Heavenly Father would be pleased with. I then point to the ICE CREAM SUNDAY items. For everything they want on this monsterous Sunday they have to give one thing we can do to Keep the Sabbath Day Holy. So... We talking and chatting about ideas and I am adding the fun toppings. Now we have this great Sunday and our Father in Heaven can pleased very pleased with the ways in which we will keep the sabbath day holy. Now for the BUT......
But what if we forgot to buy our supplies for a project that was due first thing Monday morning and we HAD to go to the store. (drop the pennies around the delicious Sunday) Could you still eat the sunday? Was it ruined? watch the faces this is when it gets good. they think the sunday looks so good they may be willing to eat around the pennies. But thier is sure disappointed on their faces.
But what if we had been asked to play with an all star soccer team in tournament that took place on Sunday (drop the grass and dirt) Did this ruin your sunday? BUT wait
You hurry to clean up the house before your guests come even though you should have done it on Saturday. ( spray the cleaner all over the sunday) Did this ruin your Sunday?
Now with all the disppointed class members finish the lesson and tie in the ICE CREAM SUNDAY. SOOOOOO much fun and a GREAT attention getter.
2nd Lesson was on Scripture Study
I took two glass containers that held the same amount of water and two oranges.
The 1st orange I named Elsie and told the class that it represented the Youth just like them. Elsie does all teh daily things that they have been told will keep them safe or "afloat" in life such as daily prayer, scripture study, getting along with others, church attendance.......
Place the orange in the first container .....it will float to the top of the water.
The 2nd orange I named Sophie.
Sophie didnt' say her prayers this morning BUT she was really in a hurry.
Sophie didn't attend YW this week because she a test to study for.
Sophie had a HUGE fight with her Mom about going to the High School dance with a date , She know she is wrong because she's not 16 yet, BUT her mom should have let her go anyway.
Sophie told her geometry teacher that she'd lost her homework and would redo it BUT she knew she'd never finished it in the first time.
For each of those instances I am peeling off chunks of the orange peel.
With the orange half peeled, I ask the class How they think Sophie is doing? Is she staying afloat by staying true to the guidance and directors the Lord has given her? I then place the orange into the 2nd container of water and it willl sink but not all the way.
Taking the orange out and I finish taking chunks of the peel with more little situations that don't seem like a big deal to do JUST ONCE. Once all the small infractions have peeled away the entire orange .... I placed it back in the water and it sinks.
Wrapped it by telling them about the air pockets that oranges have that are barely noticeable and keep the orange afloat. We have small, routine directors in our lives (daily prayer, scripture study....)that keep our spirits afloat BUT if we "PEEL them off" we are sinking ourselves slowly but surely. BUT we can keep ourselves afloat by doing the small things. Then I continued on with our scripture study lesson and gave a couple of personal experiences. The lesson was so fun especially with my little ones.
I hope that my ramblings make sense and your family can have fun learning gospel principles.
We struggle being faithful with this because it seems unnerving to wrangle my little Puppies as a rude lady put it to me one day and try express the importance of the night and the lesson.
Happy Family Home Evening.
Our Neighborhood loves block parties. We decided to host the SUMMER BLOCK BASH and set out to deliver the invites. The day we delivered was so blasted HOT we hadn't even rounded to a different street before the kids were dying. With a lot of invites to go, luckily the store (my dad's parts store), and then Grandma Anthony's yard provided some much needed relief. The water in the pool was so REFRESHING and the cold water for once felt GREAT after this big adventure!
Love my guys and their shades. Mack is into everything around his neck which is so scary. These sunglasses are his fav because they can hang around his neck.
