I Can Be a Missionary Now

I will first walk into the room eating a bag of M&M's. Ignoring the primary kids as I emphasis how WONDERFUL this candy is. Mmmm these are so good! I just looove chocolate. I could eat these all day. Mmmm...blah blah blah. You get the idea. After I finish the bag I turn to the kids and say, "Oh, you didn't want any of these did you?" Of course they did. Tell them sorry, and that you will share with them at the end of the class as they exit to go to their next class. (Hand them a mini bag of M&M's)

? If you had something so amazing, so wonderful, wouldn't you want to share it with others?
Everyone in this room has something wonderful. Something so special that we should want to share it with EVERYONE we know.

? Does anyone know what it is?
-The Gospel!
? But how do we share it?
- missionary work

We have some special visitors with us today. Do you think you can spot them out? (Have the missionaries sit in the back of the room)Once they have found them have them come to the front. Let each Elder/Sister tell a few things about themselves. -Where they are from?
-How long have they been out on their mission?
-Why did they decide to serve a mission?
-How do they feel when they are able to share their message instead of holding it in for themselves?

? As the missionaries stand there ask the kids if these Elders/Sisters are the only ones that can be missionaries to share the Gospel?
- No we all can
Have each missionary tell the kids one thing that they can do now to be a missionary.

Read Matthew 5:14-16
"Ye are the light of the world. A City that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

? What does it mean to "let your light so shine?
-testimony & knowledge of the gospel
? What does it mean to "put your light under a bushel?
-to hide yourself and not share
? What could be the "good works" of primary children?
-being nice to friends, inviting friends to church, obeying the commandments, bearing your testimony
(You could bring a flashlight for a visual ex. Have it shine than cover it with your hand (bushel)then unreveal again)

Cut out paper candles for each child and tape under chairs (bushel) After lesson tell kids to get their candles from under the bushel and write on their candle a way they can be an example to others. Then as they exit the room you can hand them their M&M's and tell them that everyone can be a "Member Missionary" (thats what M&M's stand for)

I would like to thank Little LDS Ideas and Sofia's Primary Ideas for helping with my lesson. I love their sites.

Media and Keeping a Clean Mind

Today in Sharing Time the lesson is "Reading, Watching, & Listening to wholesome things keeps my mind clean."
This time my lesson will be the same for Jr. & Sr. Primary.

? What are some things in our society today that may have a bad influence on our thoughts & speech?
(write answers on board)
-TV shows/ movies
-magazines/ books
-video/computer games
-friends
-internet
-school
*For visual experiment have a clear glass of water and for each bad example add a drop of food coloring.
  Explain: That our minds become clouded like the water when we let vulgar & impure thoughts & language into our minds.
?What should we do when an unclean thought enters our minds?
-Dismiss it immediately!
*Visual Experiment: Wrap a volunteers hand once with string. Have him try to break the string by pulling his hands apart. Explain: That the string represents a bad thought. Now wrap the string around several times to where you think he can't break it. Have him try to free himself again. Explain: That the sooner we can free ourselves of unclean thoughts the better. When there is just one bad thought it is easy to get away, but as we let ourselves become immersed with bad media it is harder to get away. We want our minds to be clean and sharp. We don't want to keep ourselves clouded like the glass of water. Get out as soon as you can

 ? How Can we keep our thoughts clean so that the Lord's spirit can dwell in us?
-We have cleaning agents to help us stay pure.
(write answers on strips of paper and tape under random seats. After each reading drop a dab of "Mind & Language Cleaner"[bleach] in the cloudy water. Eventually the water will be clear again)

Answers:
Sacred Music: Choose a favorite church song and memorize the words. Use this hymn as your emergency channel. Use this as the place for your thoughts to go. It will change the whole mood of your mind. Because it is clean and uplifting and reverent, the bad thoughts will leave.
Earnest Prayer: Through the exercise of self-control and by engaging in earnest prayer, it is possible to learn to govern one's speech
Savior's Example: A person who is striving to pattern his or her life after that of the Savior will be pure in thought and action. His or her speech will then be clean, dignified, and worshipful
Good Company: Choose your company so you will not be tempted. Good choices and self-control are often influenced by those whom we associate.
Mental Control:Visualize your mind as a big televisions screen or theater stage. When an evil thought enters, mentally change channels or change the scene or set, and think of something uplifting.
Memorized Scripture: Pick a favorite scripture that has special meaning to you and memorize it. When the temptation to think evil enters your mind, quote the scripture over and over until the thought leaves.
Avoid Evil: Avoid pictures, books, magazines, movies, or anything else that would bring evil thoughts into your mind.

If time permits You can move on to my next Object Lesson (have a cupcake on display)

Many of us try to rationalize bad media. A lot of times we say, "Oh there is just ONE bad scene in this movie I'll be ok to watch it. There is only ONE curse word, ONE nudity scene, ONE fight scene, etc" How many of us do this?
One parent had a solution to this problem. After the kids begged and tried to rationalize their decisions the next day the Dad cooked a lovely batch of cupcakes. He went on and on talking about how good these cupcakes were. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to eat them. Right before the kids took a bite he made them stop. He proceeded to tell them there was just ONE thing that was bad in it. What you might ask? DOG POOP! The kids were disgusted and threw the cupcakes down. The Dad was confused. He thought it was just ONE thing. All the rest of the cupcake was good. Why couldn't the kids look past just this ONE bad thing.
I thought this was a wonderful comparison. Probably one the kids will never forget, because it is so dramatic. ONE bad thing really can ruin something no matter how good it is.

Let us stay strong and keep ourselves away from bad media & company. We need to remember our Cleaning Agents to help us keep our minds clean and pure.
Read Scripture: Proverbs 23:7 "for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."
 

Modesty

I know this is a craft blog, but I thought it would be nice to jot down my ideas that I have for my Sharing Time Lessons too. I love object learning. It seems when you have a visual to your lesson it helps the learning process. Well, at least it does for me. So 2 weeks ago my lesson was, "Dressing Modestly Shows Respect for Heavenly Father and Myself.

For the Junior Primary:

I had a large laundry basket filled with clothes. I taped a label on each article of clothing; short sleeve, tank top, short skirt....etc. I had good & bad examples. I had volunteers come up one by one and pick something out of the basket. They then had to decide if it was a good or bad piece of clothing. If it was good we hung it up in our closets to keep (I just hung ours on the bulletin board ledge with a coat hanger) If it was bad we threw it in the trash. We also had a little discusion about why each one was appropriate or why not. I closed by saying how our bodies are like temples. Just as temples are sacred we keep them clean and pure and so do we keep our bodies.

For Senior Primary:

I kept the clothes that the Jr. Primary sorted out and hanging. Since the Sr. Primary are older kids I thought they would have enjoyed something a little more hands on. Most of the older kids already know what the standards are. So we just did a quick recap of what they were by pointing to the clothes hanging up and in the trash. The big problem today is finding modest clothes. We talked about how we could modify immodest clothing to make it wholesome. For example: wear a tshirt under a tank top, or a tank top under a low cut shirt, etc. I then told them that they were going to be the fashion designers and had to make a modest outfit for their teachers. The catch....? It had to be made out of toilet paper. After the kids were done dressing their teachers up I had them walk down the red carpet runway (long red plastic table cloth) while I had the pianist play "I love to see the Temple" The kids had a blast doing this. I will have picture coming soon