Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Baptism Talk with Kit Kat Reminder

This afternoon I am speaking at the baptism of a sweet nine-year old son who was just adopted into our friends' family.  They asked me to speak at his baptism this afternoon so I wrote this talk this morning.  Our main audience will be children so I know this object lesson will hold their attention and that they'll remember what is said.  Feel free to use this talk.  By the way, I didn't think of the concept of using the Kit Kat, it is "out there" on Pinterest.  I just made the graphics and wrote the talk which was inspired by the Pinterest pins.

There are links listed to access these graphics in PDF format.  PS My son with a sweet tooth will be thrilled with the handouts ;)

This poster can be placed by a basket of Kit Kat's as handouts for after the baptism.  Click HERE to get the PDF.
These signs can be used during the talk as visual reminders to hold the kids' attention.  Depending on your stake, you may or may not be allowed to use visual aids during your talk.  Click HERE to get these pages in PDF format.


These are little handouts that can be printed on a sheet of cardstock at home and then attached to Kit Kat bars.  Click HERE to get the PDF.

Here's the actual talk (feel free to cut, paste and edit if desired):

Do you know that you are just about to participate in your very first saving ordinance and make your very first official promise to Heavenly Father?

Today when you are baptized you will make some promises to your Heavenly Father.

See this Kit Kat bar?  It may look like an ordinary candy but it is a symbol that will help you remember your baptism covenants.

K is for KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. 

When you are baptized, you promise to do your best to follow Jesus and keep all of His commandments.   When you make a mistake, you repent and try to do better.


A is for ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM.

We can remember Jesus as we stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places even until death (Mosiah 18:9).  Wherever we are we can be good examples and share the gospel with others.

We can also bear one another’s burdens that they might be light (Mosiah 18:8).  When someone is sad or struggling, we help them and love them.

T is for TAKE UPON YOU THE NAME OF CHRIST (D & C 18:21-25). 

You will be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  When you are a missionary someday you will wear a name tag with your name on it and also Jesus’ name.  But even before or after you’re a full-time missionary, you can pretend that you have an invisible name tag on.  As a member of Jesus’ church, you do things that Jesus would want you to do to build the kingdom of God and to help others.

Have you heard some of these phrases before at church?  Keep His commandments?  Always remember Him?  Willing to take His name upon you?

These ideas are in the Sacrament prayers that we hear each Sunday.  Every Sunday at church when we take the Sacrament, we renew our baptismal covenants or promises. 

That is what people do when they bow their heads during the Sacrament. We remember the promises that we made to Heavenly Father and the promises He made to each of us. We think about what kind of person we were during the week between Sundays and make a decision on how to do better the next week. But most importantly we remember that Jesus suffered for our sins and sorrows, and He died and was resurrected that we all might live again someday.

Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that whenever we make a promise to Him, He makes a promise right back to us.  A two-way promise with Heavenly Father is called a covenant. Heavenly Father NEVER breaks His covenants. We need to try every single day never to break our promises to Him.

Today Heavenly Father also will make you some promises.  We know about these promises from the scriptures. 

He promises to accept you as a member of His church.

He promises you that He will forgive you if you make mistakes and do something wrong - if you are sorry for what you did and repent.

He also promises that you can have the gift of the Holy Ghost with you and that you can obtain eternal life someday.

All of Heavenly Father’s children need to be baptized.  Being baptized, and then receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, washes away guilt and makes you completely clean.  We need to participate in these ordinances so that we can be prepared to live with Heavenly Father again someday.

Even though you are young, you know how hard it is not to make mistakes, don’t you… mistakes like not telling the whole truth, or being unkind or teasing someone. It is hard for everyone to choose the right every single minute of every single day. Heavenly Father knows that. So on this day He gives you another great gift - the gift of the Holy Ghost. Someone else will talk about this wonderful gift after you are baptized. The Holy Ghost will help you choose the right.

Remember that this is the first day of the rest of your life. After you are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, you will be absolutely clean in the eyes of your Heavenly Father. I hope that you will always remember your promises and do all you can to keep yourself spiritually clean like today.

(After the baptism, you can have a bowl of mini Kit Kat bars out so everyone can have one.  Depending on the size of the group, you could either attach a little handout to each candy bar or for a larger group you could print out a little sign to go next to the baskets of Kit Kats to pass out after the baptismal services.  Or if that is not allowed, you could give some Kit Kats to the child/children who were baptized sometime after the baptism event.)

35 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a great talk, everything I was looking for to teach my 7 year old about his upcoming baptism. Thank you!

Shanna said...

This is so great. Can I plagerize and read the whole thing? :)

Pam said...

You can totally read the whole thing or use whatever parts you'd like to. It is only plagiarism if you copy without permission. This is sharing :)

Pam said...

Plus everything I put on my blog is okay to be used. I just don't want people to copy it and then sell it.

Jenny Spilker said...

Thank you so much!! This is exactly what I have been looking for for my sons baptism. I can't thank you enough!!

Chad & Danica said...

This is terrific! Thank you!

Unknown said...

Hello, great idea, will definitely use it, thank you

Andrea said...

This is perfect for my son's baptism. I wanted something simple enough for him to understand, yet keep the attention of others. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

Lei said...

Thank you so much for sharing I was asked b my sister a couple days ago to take her place and I was getting nervous becuase I've never done a baptism talk before and this is perfect!!! Thanks again for sharing :)

Lei said...

Thank you for sharing...it's such a wonderful talk!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank ups so much for your kindness in sharing your beautiful talk. My son has learning challenges and I think he will understand and remember the talk with the very cool visual!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I have a talk in a few hours and have never done the baptism talk before. This was a lifesaver!!!

Grammy Jeanne said...

Thank you for sharing. This is beautiful and simple. I plan on using it this Saturday. You have saved me time.
Hope I can find some mini kit kats.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Your talk shall be put to good use for an 8 yr old boys baptism. Ive never done this before so Im glad you have this here.. =)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!;)

Anonymous said...

I have been looking for some inspiration while writing my talk for my grandson's baptism. Thanks so much for the idea, the talk, and the visuals, they are perfect for what I wanted to do! I hope it's okay that I use them. Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. It totally helped me with my talk for my brothers baptism. I really love the Kit Kat idea. Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

Really fun talk on baptism. Great info and kids LOVE candy and the points will help them remember the importance of baptism.
And by the way.. what font do you yse?

Rebecca said...

Great talk! Thank so much for sharing!!

Liz Odle said...

Thank you so much this is perfect for me to use at a little boys baptism today when I had no idea what I was going to talk about!

Sue said...

Thank you so much for this creative idea. I think baptismal talks should be interesting, short and to the point. Yours is perfect! I appreciate it so much. Thanks for sharing.

Ron Tranmer said...

I love the "Kit Kat" idea, and took it a step further. I wondered what happened to the KIT part of KIT KAT,
and made KIT a part of the object lesson.

Know it is
Important
To

Keep His commandments
Always remember Him
Take His name upon you

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your talk! I love this idea and your beautiful message.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for doing this all those years ago :) My sweet nephew called me up yesterday and asked me to talk at his baptism on Saturday. Of course I told him yes but inside was screaming NO!! I am scared to death to give talks. Your talk will help me a ton. I probably wont use the whole thing, but I am for sure using the Kit Kat portion....who doesn't want to eat a Kit Kat? Thank you again for helping to ease the internal stress I am feeling right now. Merry Christmas!

Pam said...

So happy to lighten your load. Merry Christmas!

Jewel said...

What a perfect piece of inspiration hit you while you were snacking on some chocolate! (J.K.) I really do love this creative way to remember baptismal covenants. I heard it about a year and a half ago and have remembered it since. Now I will be using it at my nieces baptism.
Love it.
Thanks.

Madison Marrott said...

Hi I wanted to know what font this is!! I love it. If you could let me know ASAP that would be great! Thanks

Anonymous said...

Thank you Thank you Thank you. When my husband suggested my name to our son to give a talk and our son agreed, I glared at him! He still doesn't understand why I don't want to do it! I knew that there would be a lot of prep work. A LOT. We don't have stake baptism days, which sounds like a blessing at this point! I asked him to take care of the program and I would do the rest. THANK YOU for making it so that I can move on to everything else that needs to be done, like the program. *sigh*

Denise said...

Thank you so much. I know the Kit-Kats will get the children's attention and your talk will help me too.

Kim said...

Thank you so much for this cute handout. I plan on using it tomorrow as I speak about baptism at a Stake baptism and play the piano. I don't know which one make me more nervous...the piano or the talk.

Melony said...

Thank you so much! My twin grandson's will love this addition to the baptism talk!!

Crystal said...

Thank you!!!!! I needed a last minute talk for a baptism tomorrow.

Unknown said...

Thank you. Like many people I tend to procrastinate. I teach CTR 7 in primary with my wife and one of our primary kids is getting baptized tomorrow morning. This talk has great ideas which I really appreciate you sharing. I will change it a little bit for my talk if thats okay. Keep on posting.

Doug Porter

Mom said...

Thank you for sharing this fun way of helping our children/grandchildren to understand and remember the covenants they are making

Mom said...

Thank you so much for sharing this fun way of teaching our children/grandchildren about the covenant of baptism. So excited to give my talk at my grandson's baptism next week. Blessing to you, Grandma Johnson:)