Primary Lesson 19, Manual 5 - "The Saints Are Taught to Recognize Good and Evil"

Here's my handout for church this Sunday to go with Lesson 19 .  I'm posting it on Friday instead of waiting until Saturday night or Sunday morning LOL.

This is an object lesson that I will be using.  The basic idea of it is from the manual but I added the questions/examples in the beginning and also changed some of the wording so that my younger kids could better understand.

Which would you rather have— an imitation item or the real thing?

Would you rather have a cheap fake flower or a beautiful fresh rose? Would you rather have a valuable diamond ring or a fake ring that will fall apart soon? Would you rather snack on a real apple or a plastic one? Would you rather have a true friend or a person who pretends to be your friend?

Imitations are often of poorer quality or less value than the real things they imitate.  Satan is a counterfeiter. He tries to deceive us with bad imitations of good things Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given us. He does this because he wants us to follow him instead of Heavenly Father and Jesus.

Here are some examples of Satan’s imitations:

Things of God  vs Satan’s Imitations

Uplifting music or movies vs Degrading music or movies

Scriptures and good books vs Bad books

Love between husband and wife vs Immorality

Doing our best vs Trying to be better than others

Satan tries to convince us that his imitations are just as good as or even better than the things of God. While it may be easy to tell the difference between the imitation item and the real item at times, some of Satan’s imitations are more difficult to tell apart. We want to learn how to recognize some of Satan’s imitations to avoid being deceived.

Here’s a scripture reference from Moroni 7 to help you know whether something comes from Heavenly Father versus Satan :

 16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.