Saturday, January 24, 2009

Faith in God Requirement: Joseph Smith Family Home Evening Packet

This is part of the religious award for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The requirements can be located here at the official site for the LDS church.

We made Family Home Evening Packets. First I conducted a sample Family Home Evening to show the boys how to do it. I told them to pay close attention so they'd know what to say when they did it with their families. For a link to a great sharing time with flannel board figures click here. After they listened to me, they colored and cut out their own figures. We put them in a ziplock bag with a copy of the lesson.

We used the flannel board figures from the above link and tweaked the sharing time a bit to fulfill the Faith in God Requirements better.


Family Home Evening
Heavenly Father Answers Our Sincere Prayers

Opening Song
: I am a Child of God (see attached sheet for music)
Opening Prayer
Scripture: Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Lesson
Instructions: Pass out the figures to family members. Have them hold the figures up when they are mentioned in the lesson.

Did you know that you can pray anytime and anywhere and Heavenly Father will hear you and answer you? Sometimes you will receive an answer right away and sometimes it will take a while, but He always hears your prayer and will help you. He loves you and knows what is best for you.

Today we are going to talk about a person who had a big question and needed an answer. He really wanted to know the answer to his question so he studied it out, thought about it a lot and then prayed sincerely.

Joseph Smith lived with his large family on a farm. He worked very hard helping his father and brothers clear trees from the land, care for their animals, and plant crops. Because his help was needed on the farm, he rarely was able to attend school.

When he was fourteen years old, there was great excitement in his community about religion. Every preacher and member of the different churches were trying to get as many people as possible to join their churches. There were many churches, and each one thought it had the truth. Joseph thought and thought about the different churches. He attended many meetings of several different churches but still couldn’t decide which church to join. He was very disturbed because he could not decide.

He loved Heavenly Father and wanted to do what was right. He wanted to choose the right church to join. He said, "What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?"

One day while he was studying the Bible, he read, "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" (James 1:5). Joseph felt the power of this scripture enter into his heart. He decided if anyone lacked wisdom it was him. He decided to ask Heavenly Father which church was right and which he should join.

On a beautiful spring morning, he went to a grove of trees and knelt to pray. As he began to pray, a frightening, evil power came over him. He felt that he was going to be destroyed. As he called out to Heavenly Father to save him, a pillar of light came from heaven and rested upon him. The evil feeling vanished, and he saw two bright and glorious Beings standing above him in the air. One of Them spoke to Joseph, calling him by name, and said, pointing to the other, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (JS——H 1:17).

Joseph saw Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ; he listened carefully as Jesus told him not to join any of the churches.

Joseph wanted to choose the right. Heavenly Father and the Savior were pleased with his desire and helped him understand what was right. Because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knew that Joseph Smith would always strive to choose the right and be obedient to whatever They asked him to do, They chose him to restore the true church to the earth.

Heavenly Father answered Joseph Smith’s prayer. He will answer your sincere prayers. If you want to know if something is true you can pray about it. If you have a concern or a question or a problem you can pray about it. Study the question out in your mind. Think about it. Read the scriptures for answers. Then pray. Heavenly Father will help you feel peace, or give you thoughts or ideas to help solve the problem or strengthen you so that you can deal with the problem better.

Heavenly Father loves all of his children and wants us all to be happy and return to live with Him again.

Closing Prayer
Refreshments

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