Gratitude: a primary lesson

Its's my turn to teach primary this week and my topic is:

I can be grateful for what the Lord has given me

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, what we would refer to as the middle of nowhere (helps that we are in Australia and I could explain it was basically the same as wandering around in the desert, cause we have plenty of that!), it was over the space of 40 years! That’s longer than I have even been alive!! It’s a really long time. During this time they became sad and upset, complaining because they remembered the good food the Lord had provided them when they used to live in Egypt. They started to complain, even though the lord had GIVEN them food, it wasn’t what they wanted. (Numbers 11:4-9) 

How often do we look at what we have and are not happy with it?

Going around the room. If you could have anything you want. What would it be?

Oh my goodness the answers here. A Mustang, a Lamborgini, a comfortable pair of shoes, children who listen... 

Now. How many of these things couldn’t we live without? What is really important? Let’s focus instead on what we are grateful for! 

Watch gratitude video. (This cracked Doug up when I was preparing this lesson and one of the ladies says she is grateful for thrift shops and garage sales. Me in a nutshell)

 

Go and write on your paper 5 things you are grateful for. We are happy to help those of you who need help! When you’re done you can come and sit down again. 

Your list is 5 things you can tell Heavenly Father you are grateful for this week. Each day when you have prayed and thanked him, you can tick off the day! 

With our pianists help, I’d love to sing a song for you. “Count your many blessings.” I have so many blessings in my life and one of them is being a primary leader. 

I’m grateful for all of you! So here’s something to show you! (I'll be getting up early Sunday morning to make cookies.)

merry christmas primary lesson

today in primary, we did something a little different for our lesson. i spotted this merry christmas program on one of the many primary pages i follow and thought it would be really fun to do with the kids. each of the letters of merry christmas had a reading as we stuck them to the board and spelt them out with a few songs in between. (you can locate a copy here!)

took only a little prep in the hours before church started as i decorated each letter then stuck them up one by one as we went through.

the kids loved it because it was interactive and i loved it because it was easy and kept them entertained.

christmas countdown is on... 20 days to go! ❤

family history: a primary lesson

today i taught the primary lesson - about family history. i attended a relief society activity yesterday that was focused on our heritage and when i got home i felt really inspired that was what we needed to focus on today. here's alex for an attention grab - looking less than impressed with our family tree.

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we started by watching this gorgeous video about a family's record - or their book of life, which you can find here and asking some questions:

what was that video about?

what did you learn from it?

what was the book the girl was holding?

before having a quick game of hangman, with the mystery word being ancestors. 

what is genealogy? another word for that is family history, which is learning about ourrrrr? ancestors!

here's a little about my ancestors:

william and mary goodlet (my father's grandparents) - immigrated from scotland and lived in a tent for two years in koorow on scrub land. my great-grandmother was a small and timid lady, but big in personality when she needed to be.

stanley and violet marshall joined the church in england after meeting the missionaries and purchasing a book of mormon, then moved to salt lake in the 1920's. my grandfather roy was born there, on the same day and in the same hospital as president nelson! (there was a lot of wows from the primary kids at this one hahah) he was a builder by trade and also kept bees!

joseph goodlet was my grandfather, he was a painter and glazier by trade but was also very skilled with wood and much to my mother's horror (but not surprise) made slingshots for all of his grandkids. he also made rockinghorses and stools and i still use mine in my pantry as a step, it was made more than 30 years ago! he fought in wwII in a placed called morotai that is between indonesia and papua new guinea.

(my little display at the relief society activity yesterday - including wedding photos of douglas and i - my parents and both sets of my grandparents, my blessing day photo with my mother, hand written recipes from my grandmothers, quilts made my mother and grandmothers, the book of mormon my great-grandparents purchased in england and the shell my grandfather brought home from morotai for my grandmother.)

his wife phyllis goodlet became the cub commissioner for perth in the scouting association. her favourite flowers were roses and geraniums which she grew and she also loved carnations. she loved to crochet and made a blanket for each of her grandchildren along with many other things. she was an great cook and loved to feed people. she had a beautiful alto voice and was often asked to sing for occassions, such as weddings and as the entry voice in the perth production of the saturday's warrior musical. she was a staunch and faithful member of the gospel and raised two sons in the gospel after one died when he was younger. she also lovingly raised foster sons. she was the only person that drove in their family, my grandfather never got his license. she had a little green car with no seatbelts in the back.

my mother's mother - was gwendoline madge marshall. we realised a few months after madeline was born that we had accidentally named our daughter after her. ma-deline! she was a tea lady at the perth lawcourt. she enjoyed spending time with her grandkids, kintting, embroidery and going shopping at the garden city shopping centre. they lived on reynolds road which is one street down and she would take the bus from her door to the shops, because although she had her licence, she never drove! she was a well presented and softly spoken brit who lived for her family and loved them all fiercely. she passed away reasonably young and left behind her husband who never really got over it and spent years mourning her. 

both of my grandmothers joined the church in the 1960's. they had lost a child and felt the pull of eternal families in the gospel.

can anyone tell me something fun about their ancestors? do you know your grandparents first names? why do we focus on family history? (so our family can be together for eternity)

now. i want to know about yours! when you go home today, i want you to fill in one of these! get your parents to help you fill in the names and then find out about the people and learn their stories, our ancestors can live on when we tell them again and again.

family tree for junior kids available here

and senior primary here 

it was a great lesson with lots of laughs and questions, we really enjoyed it.

honesty: a primary lesson

my turn for the primary lesson again this week - and after having a look at the options in this weeks "come follow me" i decided on honesty. such a good topic and it was so fun to do with the kids.

we started with the letters h o n e s t on the board, each on a different piece of paper, all in a muddled up order and picked children at random to come and unscramble them. we ended up with some pretty funny almost words and had a good laugh. eventually two of the older girls worked it out and we moved on. 

first of all, we talked about what honesty is: an honest person loves truth and justice. he is honest in his words and actions. he does not lie, steal or cheat. then we read the 13th article of faith together: 

we believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of paul - we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. 

honesty is so important. telling the truth and living the truth are important. but during this lesson i said to the kids, i am going to let you do something your parents would never allow you to do, which definitely got their attention. i then asked the kids to tell me a lie. like a straight out big unbelievable lie. i said that if they told me one, they'd know exactly what not to do - and they looooved it. i got things like "i gave alcohol to a baby" (what the heck?!), "i hate cats" and from the teachers who had me laughing so hard "i am 21 years old" "i'm not married" and my favourites - madeline "i hate bts" (her current favourite band) and mine "i can't stand dominique pinker" joseph was very put out at that one.

my favourite part of the lesson though, was building a tower from upside down plastic cups (5 across the base) and asking a volunteer to pull out the base. to put it basically, when we continue to be dishonest, everything falls apart.  

lastly we went back to the letters on the board and thought of some people who started with each letter that were good and honest.

h - helaman

o - president oaks

n - nephi

e - enos

s - samuel 

t - teancum

i loved how much the kids got into the lesson and participated. definitely a good choice for the lesson topic. 

(some great ideas were found here!)

the first vision: a primary lesson

 

**all artwork found on google images, used simply for this post. if you are the owner of an image and wish to have it removed, please contact me so that i can do so**

in our religion, we believe that god the father and his son jesus christ appeared to the boy joseph in the spring of 1820. we believe they appeared in response to his fervent plea to know of which of the religions of the day was the right one and which one would lead him to his father in heaven. there are so many artists depictions of this moment and over the years i have loved so many of them, but none have ever had quite the effect on me as seeing this one. i don't doubt joseph would have been overwhelmed and likely afraid. seeing this version where he is being held by his heavenly father gave me chills. knowing he was loved and that he was no doubt comforted by them in that moment was incredible to me. what a wonderful feeling it gave me.

i was scheduled to teach our primary lesson today and really wanted to teach something that the children needed (and would want) to know. all week as i considered the options, i kept coming back to the first vision over and over. it's been a long time since we had classes in person after covid came along and ruined everything, but we are back - with an all in primary set up. nursery through to 11 years old - and it's loud and messy, but a lot of fun. 

a lot of the really junior kids have probably never seen a lesson on the first vision, because the doctrine and covenants/ pearl of great price along with the other standard works are only covered once every four years. so we watched a kids video of how it went down here, read the scripture that prompted joseph to offer that first prayer in james 1:5 "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

then we all recited the first article of faith together: "we believe in god, the eternal father, and in his son, jesus christ - and in the holy ghost."

before we taught them the first verse of the hymn joseph smith's first prayer to finish up. it went really well and i was so pleased with my choice, especially when i learned that the "come follow me" theme for this week was the restoration. coincidence? i think not. haha.

oh how lovely was the morning!

radiant beamed the sun above.

bees were humming, sweet birds singing,

music ringing through the grove.

when within the shady woodland

joseph sought the god of love.

when within the shady woodland,

joseph sought the god of love.

you can listen to a beautiful version of the song in full here.

it goes on with further verses as so:

humbly kneeling, sweet appealing,

'twas the boys first uttered prayer

when the powers of sing assailing

filled his soul with deep despair

but undaunted still he trusted

in his heavenly fathers care

but undaunted still he trusted

in his heavenly fathers care

suddenly a light descended

brighter far then noonday sun

and a shining glorious pillar

over him fell, around him shone.

while appeared two heavenly beings

god the father and the son

while appeared two heavenly beings

god the father and the son.

joseph this is my beloved,

hear him! oh how sweet the word!

joseph's humble prayer was answered,

and he listened to the lord.

oh, what rapture filled his bosom, 

for he saw the living god.

oh, what rapture filled his bosom, 

for he saw the living god.

it will never cease to amaze me, the incredible things that took place that day. that a teenage boy had enough faith to be ready to see god himself and his son jesus christ and be the one chosen to restore their gospel to the earth in the latter days.

how very blessed i feel to know the truth and to be able to raise my family in the gospel.

d&c 76:22-24 

and now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: that he lives! for we saw him, even on the right hand of god; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the father- that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters of god.