Tonight for Family Home Evening we wanted to give a little more attention to celebration of July 24th. Of course, the challenge is then to incorporate a General Conference talk within our lesson.
No talks in April’s 2010 General Conference were spoken specifically about the Mormon Trek westward. But, after careful searching - we did find!!!
Topic: Faith and Miracles
Objective: Apply a pioneer experience with an experience we can relate to today!
Lesson: I "found" a book at the library entitled Eliza’s Field of Faith by Rachelle Pace Castor and illustrated by Dixon Leavitt. Actually, I think the book "found" me because I wasn't looking for it. Because the moment I saw the cover, I was immediately drawn to it and felt so strongly that I needed to incorporate it into Family Home Evening.
So I did what the Spirit told me and checked it out!
Because of this feeling in my heart about this book, I decided NOT to read it beforehand. This allowed the whole family - even me - to discover the principle of this book together.
Before reading the book we took a little picture journey. The illustrations in this book are AMAZING. We took as much time talking about the illustrations as we did reading the book. It allowed all of us to try to figure out the plot and the story line before reading the actual words. Our younger children became immediately captivated and were interested in what the story was really about.
After reading the story we talked about what happened. The whole faith and miracle formula. Then we read an excerpt from Elder Wilford W. Anderson’s talk entitled “The Rock of Our Redeemer.”
There are a few paragraphs in his talk that mention the broken hearts and strong spirits of the pioneers of 1846 as compared to the faithful Saints of Haiti who suffered deeply the earthquake in January of this year. After reading this excerpt from a conference talk, we began the connection of pioneer experience to a today experience.
As usual, I was amazed at the connections and discoveries my children were able to make. I believe we ended Family Home Evening with a greater appreciation for the sacrifice and faith of the early Saints and a greater determination to follow the prophet.
And WOW! Using General Conference talks in Family Home Evening is SO possible!!!
Something I needed to hear today. It has been so hard to feel joy, enjoy life lately, to want to get up for the day, because until we sell the house, money is tight and there's not much room for other stuff. I know what I need to do; it just seems you have to hear it over and over again for it to become ingrained. Hope and faith precede miracles. Grateful for the little things.
ReplyDeleteSherri: You do a wonderful job posting the things in which you find joy! Aren't you glad that having money isn't the condition that the Lord sets for entrance into His kingdom! :)
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