Saturday, May 10, 2008

FHE Idea - Creating a Strong Foundation

FHE Idea - Creating a Song Foundation (based off a Sharing Time by Michelle Walton)

Have the mom or dad dress up as a builder. (Have a construction hat, tool belt and an apron that is orange. Have 2 long rolled papers as your blue prints.) Hi. My name is _______ the Builder. I’m an architect in your neighborhood. I have come to your home to find 2 builders to help with 2 homes I have to build.

Call up your 2 builders. (Give each helper a hat and an apron) Hand them each a bag with materials and the blue prints to build one of the homes you have for them. (Tell them they have 1 minute to build. Set the timer!)

Note: As the two houses are being build, talk about what the home might look like and how much fun it will be to live in it, etc.

Home #1: The first home will be built with toilet paper rolls. (Have an adult do this one) Have a 9 x 13 pan and put sand in it. Have the adult build this house on the sand.

Home #2: The 2nd will be built with bricks (Give this one to a child) Have a 9 x 13 pan and put a flat rock. Have a child build this house on a rock. After they are done building there home, talk about how nice it looks etc.

Note: Share with them, that in life we will have trials. These trials are like, a raging storm with wind, lighting and darkness.

Question: How strong is your home?

Turn on CD player with a CD that has sounds of a storm (or just make your own storm noises) and turn off the lights.

Discussion: As the CD is playing, share temptations that they might face: Listening to bad music, being immoral, having bad friends, breaking the law, being disrespectful, stealing, not coming to church all the time, drugs, alcohol, smoking, cheating, yelling, fighting, anger, watching bad movies, pornography on the internet, being in modest, dishonest, selfish, etc.

Demonstration: Turn on the fan towards the 2 houses and then pour water over both.

Question: Why did the first house fall?

Answer: Because it wasn’t build with strong material or a strong foundation. This house represents those of us who don’t live the commandments and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. (These are the temptations we talked about we might face)

Question: Why did the second house stand strong?

Answer: Because it was built on a strong foundation. This house represents us as we live the gospel and do all we can to be like the Savoir. (Going to church, paying tithing, living the word of wisdom, service, keeping the Sabbath day holy, being modest in our dress, watching good movies, scriptures, prayer, FHE, telling the truth. You might want to add if you want!) Share thought and scripture:

Let us be sure the spiritual foundation of each home is the rock of our Redeemer, as Helaman taught his sons: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12.)

Building our third home.

Today we’re going to build our Celestial home. We will need to find another architect.

Show a picture of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our Master architect of building our celestial home.

Start Building: Have the children pull out a piece of the puzzle from the bag and read it. Have the put it on the board. The rest of the children will do the same. When all the pieces our put together, it will be the temple.

Scripture: D&C 88:119
"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." (D&C 88:119.) A House of Prayer and Fasting - To make our homes become houses of prayer and fasting, we "pray always, that [we] may come off conqueror; yea, that [we] may … escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." (D&C 10:5.)

Have personal and family prayer.

Fast for a purpose

A House of Learning and Glory - Every home is a house of learning, either for good or otherwise. Family members may learn to be obedient, honest, industrious, self-reliant, and faithful in living gospel principles, or they may learn something else.Learning the gospel in the homes of Church members should be centered on the scriptures and on the words of latter-day prophets.
The Lord has commanded parents to teach their children. King Benjamin instructed parents: "Ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil. …
"But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." (Mosiah 4:14–15.)

The ideal way to transform your home into a house of learning is to hold family home evening faithfully. The Church has reserved Monday evening for that purpose. In 1915, the First Presidency instructed local leaders and parents to inaugurate a home evening, a time when parents should teach their families the principles of the gospel.

The Presidency wrote: "If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them."

A House of Order

To instill order in our homes, parents should be in charge and exercise parental authority in righteous dominion and establish acceptable standards of behavior for their children, setting limits and adhering to them consistently. They are to teach and guide their children "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness.”
Other safeguards of order in our homes include assuring that children are blessed, baptized, and sons ordained to the priesthood. In addition, they should be worthy to enter the holy temples, become missionaries, and receive the crowning blessing of an eternal marriage.

A House of God

If you will make your home a house of prayer and fasting, faith, learning and glory, and order, it can become a house of God. If you build your homes on the foundation rock of our Redeemer and the gospel, they can be sanctuaries where your families can be sheltered from the raging storms of life.

TESTIFY

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