Ideas for Teaching Children
The temple is the house of the Lord.
Isaiah described the temple as “the mountain of the Lord’s house.” Your children might enjoy pretending to climb a mountain as you read 2 Nephi 12:2–3. Help them find phrases in these verses that describe why we have temples.
To illustrate the phrase “we will walk in his paths” from 2 Nephi 12:3, you could make a path on the floor, leading to a picture of a temple. As your children walk on the path, they could name things they can do to walk in the Lord’s paths.
Here is an extra one if you want/ need to make your path longer.
You can put this temple at the end of your path, and go right into singing the song that the primary manual recommends. Or you can get your local temple picture from the library.
(This is only in color)
Perhaps your children could draw a picture of themselves going to the temple. They could also sing or listen to a song about the temple, such as “I Love to See the Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 95). Help them find phrases in the song that teach what the temple is and what we do there.
This is a good video for older children getting ready to go to the temple.
Click on the image to be taken to Etsy.
Jesus Christ is my Savior.
There are several names for Jesus Christ in 2 Nephi 11:4–7; 17:14; 19:6. Help your children find them and talk about what they mean. For example, “Christ” means “the anointed” and “Immanuel” means “God with us.” What do these names teach us about Jesus?
This has been fixed.
Show portions of the video “The Christ Child” (Gospel Library) that show different people seeing Jesus for the first time. Pause the video during these depictions, and ask your children about what these people might have felt. What would we feel if we were there? How will we feel when we see Him again?
Satan tries to confuse me about good and evil.
Show your children something bitter or sour, such as a lemon slice, inside a candy wrapper. Read together 2 Nephi 15:20. How does Satan try to make things that are evil look good? You could also show the first 90 seconds of the video “You Will Be Freed” (Gospel Library). Why does the fisherman disguise his hook? Why does Satan disguise sin? How does Jesus Christ help us avoid being deceived by Satan?
Object lessons:
Bring two cans of pop, one is full and one is empty. Put the two pop cans next to each other and ask the children if they can tell the difference between the two. Eventually they will figure out that one has liquid in it and the other one doesn't. Tell them that Satan disguises things like this, making us think that we will still have true happiness even when we sin. For example when we lie of steal. Satan tells us that we will be happy, or won't have consequence, but we really do. Have the children think of other ways Satan disguises sin.
Then ask the children to step on the can that has soda pop in it. It can't be smashed. Then ask someone to step on the can that doesn't have liquid. It gets smashed. The liquid represents the Holy ghost. Show them how Satan makes things look good, but when we have the Holy Ghost we can tell the difference. Read 2 Nephi 15:20
It is fast Sunday. I'm leaving the cookie idea for those teaching from home.
OR You can also make cookies, and add too much salt. When the children bit into them they can tell that something is wrong. Share the scripture 2 Nephi 15:20. Talk about how Satan disguises things to make them look good. Then give them cookies that are made correctly and bear your testimony that if we live righteously we can partake of true happiness.