Always Dating

When I first heard the idea of always dating your spouse, I thought it was so dumb, don't you get married so you don't have to date anymore? This week we learned about building a love map. This map that we build with our spouse helps keep us together through hard times, it gives us happy moments even when we are being dragged through the mud, they "enable a couple to adjust and adapt to changes or upheavals that may occur during the course of life." . We can make these maps by continuing to work on our relationship and friendship with each other.  

When my husband and I first got married, we were both still students. We had a tiny apartment in Rexburg Idaho and we loved it. We had a few classes together on campus and ate lunch together in between our jobs and classes. It was great, we saw each other all the time. That perfect semester only lasted for well, a semester, then life hit us pretty hard. I had to work almost full time to help support our family so my husband could finish school, he was taking 20+ credits so he could try and get done faster so I didn't have to work so much. It was rough, we hardly saw each other and when we did we were so tired we would sleep. 

We thought life would get easier when my husband's schooling was done, but we sure were wrong. Things like new jobs, kids, moving and family struggles hit at us left and right. I will admit my husband and I haven't gone on a real date together in a long while, but we still have our mini dates every day. After our daughter goes to sleep, we will play video games or watch youtube together. We laugh together, talk and just be together. I think that these nightly moments are what have helped keep our marriage so strong through our trials. We always put each other and our relationship first. 

As we build our love maps, we need to set aside time with our spouse to make sure we still know them and their interests. We need to spend time together that isn't just sitting on our phones. As we build on those small little love moments, eventually we will have love so big, its unimaginable. 

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” - The Fault In Our Stars

The Gift of Life

This topic is sensitive to me. We struggled with fertility and were blessed with our one little girl. I know that God intended for us to love everyone and to help everyone have a chance at life. I know that the family was created for good and that children aren't an "inconvenience". I love my child and am grateful for the opportunity to be a mother. 
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Topic: Defending the sanctity of life (27)

Scripture:

"We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan."

Lesson:

Why are we hear on Earth? Sing "I lived in heaven a long time ago". Talk about the plan of salvation and how Heavenly Father sent us here to learn and to grow. If you take another persons life, you take away their chance to learn and to grow.

Object lesson, give everyone a bowl of ice cream. Take someones away. Ask them if it was fair to take their ice cream? Heavenly father gave everyone a life, just like the ice cream, and it isn't fair if we take it away. Everyone should have the opportunity to live just like everyone should have the opportunity to eat their ice cream.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U3LD_6cX-k

Activity:

Object lesson above

Faith

Faith has been a hard topic for me in the past. I have struggled believing in things that I can't see. I have come to learn that you can see things in more ways than just your eyes. I recently lost a lot of my eye sight, so seeing anything has been hard for me. I think that it has helped me to recognize the Spirit and realize that it's ok that I can't see everything, but it's still true and it's still there. 
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Topic: Faith in Family life (18)

Scripture:

Alma 32:21 "And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

Lesson:

Faith is like a little seed, when planted it will grow... What does that mean? When we are taught something, it is like planting a seed. With a seed do we just forget about it? No, if we did it would die. We have to water it, feed it sun light and care for it. We have to do the same for faith. We have to feed it and care for it with prayer and reading our scriptures.

Do you know what faith is? In the scripture we read, it says it is hope in things not seen. Do you have faith in mom and dad? You do, you have faith that dad will come home from work and that mom will make you breakfast. We also have to have faith in our Heavenly father, we have faith that he will take care of us and guide us and help us know good from bad. 

Video:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/topics/faith?lang=eng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3B8Uj24ZRY

Activity:

Give everyone a few paper leaves.  Ask them to write or draw things that they can do to strengthen their faith.  Draw a trunk on a piece of paper and glue everyone's leaves on, creating a tree of faith.  

You can also plant seeds and watch them grow. 

Activities

I always loved the opportunity to play games and spend time with my family as a kid. Now that I am a parent, I realized that these were times are great opportunities to share the gospel with our children in a way that isn't necessarily gospel related. I think that work is important, but I also think that play is just as important when it comes to our children. 
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Topic: Wholesome family recreation: building strong families (22)

Scripture: 

"Vacations and recreational activities, also family work projects, give parents a good opportunity to teach the importance of developing a good work ethic. Doing things together gives a child and parent an opportunity to share their attention in a common objective. Provide opportunities to learn how to be independent and responsible. " - Ben B. Banks

Lesson:

Do activity first for this one (This will be the bulk of this lesson). After chosen activity, talk about how you feel. Was it fun, are you happy? Why did it make you happy to spend time doing fun things with your family. Heavenly Father gave us our family so we always could have best friends with us. We like to do things with our family and we have the great blessing to do fun things with them. 

Activity:

Spend time doing something your family loves ie. soccer, playing video games or board games, bike ride, playing at the park. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

I liked this quote from the reading, "Family work provides endless opportunities to recognize and fill others’ needs. It thus teaches us to love and serve one another, inviting us to be like Jesus Christ. " I also liked "sharing an everyday task can dissolve feelings of hierarchy, inviting light-hearted or intimate conversation that binds us together." I think that we sometimes forget to work together. We always have something going on, but working together provides us a time to connect and serve one another. 
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Topic: The meaning and blessing of family work (21)

Scripture:

Alma 9:28 "Therefore, prepare ye the way of the Lord, for the time is at hand that all men shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been—if they have been righteous they shall reap the salvation of their souls, according to the power and deliverance of Jesus Christ; and if they have been evil they shall reap the damnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil."

Lesson:

Why do we work as a family? ( make a list together). We do work together not just to clean the house or plant the garden but to learn from each other, to love one another and to serve the family. What are chores that we hate doing? Is there any way we can make it better? 

Here is an object lesson. throw a pile of blocks on the grounds and have one person clean it up on their own. Do it again, but have everyone help. Read the story of the Little Red Hen. 

When we have tasks in the home, it makes work much easier for everyone if everybody helps out a little bit. How can we all help out better and do our part to keep peace in the home?

Video:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/standards-standards/work-and-self-reliance-standards?lang=eng&_r=1

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/principle-5-work-take-responsibility?lang=eng


Activity: 

Make bread like from the story and share the reward at the end. 

Repent and Forgive

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of . . . repentance [and] forgiveness." 
Stepping up and saying you did something wrong can be hard, but sometimes forgiving someone who does something to you can be even harder. God gave us a way to repent for our sins through the Atonement. For a young child, both forgiving and repenting seem impossible, but through love and respect both are achievable for anyone. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to repent and grow. 
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Topic: Repentance and Forgiveness (20) 

Scripture: 

1 Nephi 7:21 "And it came to pass that I did frankly ^aforgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for ^bforgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father."

Lesson:

In this scripture, Nephi and his brothers fight and Nephi gets hurt. He forgives his brothers and the pray and repent. In our family, we need to love each other and forgive each other. Even if someone does something to you, you can turn the other cheek and forgive them. Once you do something naughty or rude to someone else, you need to seek forgiveness from them and pray and ask for forgiveness from our Heavenly Father. 

As we watch the Adventure Time episode, Think about how they treat each other and how not forgiving is really just hurting themselves. See how when they do forgive, they are happy and have a more fun time. 

Video:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2014-02-005-bullied-let-us-be-kind?lang=eng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUF_AVKOUU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aEUjlxOK-Y

Activity:

Watch Adventure time episode about forgiveness and talk about how we need to not fight with each other and we need to love. 

They Cannot Be Lost

I love this quote from the book: "the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. " I think that marriage is one of the greatest gifts God gave us. I am so grateful for my marriage and my eternal companion. 
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Lesson: They cannot be lost: temple covenants save families (16)

Scripture: 

"There is no ordinance connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ of greater importance, of more solemn and sacred nature, and more necessary to [our] eternal joy … than marriage." -Joseph Fielding Smith

Lesson:

How can we have a successful marriage? What things make marriage work? (make a list together of what things make a marriage happy). We need things like faith, prayer, forgiveness, patients, love, compassion, work and lots of listening to each other. When we are married, we promise to help each other no matter what and to work on things even when we are sad. Who can you think of who have been married a long time (prophet, nana and papa). How can you prepare now to have a happy marriage in the future? 

Video:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/why-is-temple-marriage-important-young-women?lang=eng

Activity: 

Have a show and tell. (it is hard for little kids to sit and listen) Learn to listen to another person and their interests. Try and sit quietly and wait our turn to share. In a marriage, you need to listen and be patient with each other.