Memorize Articles of Faith 1:1, using visual shown right.
Song
Sing ΓÇ£I Know That My Savior Loves MeΓÇ¥ (p. 28-29 in 2010 Outline for Sharing Time or Friend, Oct. 2002, 46-47). The song is illustrated in the Sunday SaversΓäó Singing FunΓÇôI Know My Savior Lives book and CD-ROM, and in the matching theme
Sing-Along video.
Activity 1: Looking Through Spiritual Eyes
(Sharing Time Week 1: God is the Father of my spirit.)
OBJECTIVE: Remind children that God is the Father of our spirits and He looks at us through spiritual eyes. He sees our divine potential and value. He knows the intent of our heart. He wants us to look at others and at ourselves though spiritual eyes, looking for the good.
TO MAKE VISUALS:
Print and cut out the Spiritual Eyes Glasses that follow. Cut out the glasses part, then have the glasses laminated and cut around outside edges of glasses. Fold and attach sides to glasses.
ACTIVITY:
1. Tell children that it is easy to look upon the ΓÇ£outward appearanceΓÇ¥ of others and ourselves instead of looking upon the heart. Read 1 Samuel 16:7 (ΓÇ£man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heartΓÇ¥) and talk about the objective above. Sometimes we are tempted to call someone a bad name, or even call ourselves a bad name, saying something like ΓÇ£You are stupid.ΓÇ¥ But if we look upon the heartΓÇôthrough our spiritual eyes, like Heavenly Father doesΓÇôthen we would show kindness as Jesus did.
2. Lesson Help:Tell the storyΓÇ£Looking on the Heart,ΓÇ¥ by Lisa Ray Turner, found in the Friend magazine, Feb. 2005, 45 (see www.lds.orgΓÇö>Gospel LibraryΓÇö>Magazines).
3. Tell children the story of when Jesus saved a woman from being stoned to death for her sins. Looking at the woman with His spiritual eyes, he said to the people, ΓÇ£He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at herΓÇ¥ (John 8:7).
4. Have children make a circle around each of their eyes, using their thumbs and index fingers to form imaginary glasses as you talk about putting on their spiritual glasses. Tell them that in each situation we must see things clearly by looking on the heart, not on someoneΓÇÖs appearance or actions. Start with yourself. If you tell yourself, ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm not very smart,ΓÇ¥ are you looking at yourself with your spiritual eyes? No. But if you say, ΓÇ£I am bright and can do many things,ΓÇ¥ then you are looking at yourself through your spiritual eyes.
5. Show children the Spiritual Eyes Glasses and have children take turns coming up and putting on the Glasses and then drawing a card. Have them read it aloud through their Glasses, or have someone else read it for them. Then have them tell what they would do in that situation:
(1) If they are not looking through their spiritual eyes (take the Glasses off). What would you do if you were not using spiritual eyes?
(2) If they are looking through their spiritual eyes (put the Glasses back on). What would Jesus or Heavenly Father do if They were looking at this situation?
Activity 2: I Am Loved from Up Above
(Sharing Time Weeks 3 & 4: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me.)
OBJECTIVE: Help children learn ways Heavenly Father shows His love for us and ways we can show our love for Him.
TO MAKE VISUALS: Print and cut out the hearts that follow. Laminate and cut out. To attach hearts to a long horizontal string (as shown): (1) Tape one end of a short string to the back of each heart and tie the other end to the long horizontal string. Then lift the heart up and clip it to the horizontal string.
ACTIVITY:
1. Ask children, ΓÇ£How can you tell that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you?ΓÇ¥ Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ donΓÇÖt want us to be alone on this earth, so they have given us many blessings to show us that we are loved from up above. We can also show our love for Them.
2. Have children take turns coming up and following steps 1-4 to show-and-tell how they are loved from up above.
Step 1: Unclip a love note from the string displayed up high and let it fall (the string will catch it as shown). This catching symbolizes that we are loved from up aboveΓÇôHeavenly Father and Jesus love us very much and send their love in many ways.
Step 2: Read the love note, e.g., ΓÇ£Heavenly Father gave us a family.ΓÇ¥
Step 3: Tell how this shows that they are loved from up above, e.g., ΓÇ£Heavenly Father wants us to have a family to love and care for us and teach us the right way to live.ΓÇ¥
Step 4: Tell what we can do to show Heavenly Father we love Him because of this love He sent from up above, e.g., ΓÇ£Be kind to family members,ΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£Honor and obey my parents.ΓÇ¥
3. Continue until all notes have been read and talked about.
