Sunday, May 20, 2012
Reverence is more then just quietly sitting.....
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Parable of the Ten Virgins
A couple of weeks ago I was praying to know what specific things to teach my children. I was amazed when the thoughts and ideas started flowing! I grabbed my journal and started jotting things down. One of the things was to teach my children the parable of the ten virgins. It is found in Matthew in the 25th chapter. Right after I had this little “planning session” with my Father in Heaven, my general conference Ensign came in the mail. I had watched general conference, but I am always happy to go over every little word in print. I was so excited to see this particular parable mentioned in one of the talks.
I was even more surprised when I remembered that we had a kerosene lamp we use for emergencies and I could have an object lesson… super fun!
I was even more surprised when the sunday night before our FHE, we needed the kerosene lamp because we ended up with no electricity for almost 4 hours.
Heavenly Father was making things easy for me! I had the lamp out, the general conference Ensign, the scriptures marked and ready. Then my son asked if he could invite his friend who lives across the street from us. Missionary moment! So that monday night we all sat in the living room for a simple FHE that hopefully would be a good missionary tool also.
I was blessed to be able to share the highlighted portions from Sister Cook’s talk, and I was so impressed with the way the kids latched right on to the idea that we need to constantly be filling our spiritual lamps. Every good deed you do, every kind word you say, every prayer, every Scripture read, adds a drop of oil to your lamps. Drop by drop we add spiritual knowledge to our lamps. I was excited when my ten year old son started explaining to his friend….. “we need to be prepared for when Christ comes again.” I was blessed to listen to my son as he shared his testimony of Christ’s second coming and how he was ready to start adding more drops to his lamp! Then the boys got a big kick out of my husband putting the kerosene oil in the lamp and lighting it! In fact the neighbor boy said, “hey, you used that lamp last night- I saw it in your window!” We were able to tell him that we had been physically prepared in case of a power outage, just like we need to be spiritually prepared for when Christ comes. It was a wonderful, spiritual FHE and it only took about twenty minutes! Sometimes the most powerful lessons are the simplest.
While doing my own research into the parable of the ten virgins, I found so many things that I personally need to work on. But that will be a post for another day! Today , I share with you what we did for FHE…. maybe soon I will share my personal thoughts on how I can become a better person thru this parable. How thankful I am for Christ’s teachings and examples!
May Family Challenge : Show and Tell with your Family !
- Make an invitation/ reminder for your kids with the day and time so they can be preparing what they will share with the family.
- Invite grandma and grandpa or a neighbor family to your presentation.
- Film your show and tell night. This is going to be memorable. ( I am hoping my husband will give us a dance party at the end which we always love to catch on video)
- Have refreshments afterwards, or during if it is your talent.
- Write an introduction for each member of your family that can be read before they show and tell. Mention some good choices they have made this year or reasons you are proud of them. Make them feel special.
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