FHE: I Came to Earth as Part of a Family

Feb 2009 Issue

By Alison Palmer
Scripture: “The family is ordained of God” (“Proclamation,” paragraph 7).

Song:“How Firm a Foundation” (Hymns, no. 85, verses 1 and 3)

Preparation: Gather a children’s puzzle with less than 100 pieces, pictures of each family member as a baby or young child.

Lesson:
Divide the puzzle pieces among your family members and ask them to try to put together their part of the puzzle without sharing or trading pieces with any other family member. After everyone has had a chance to work independently and join as many pieces as they can, bring the puzzle together in one place and work as a family to complete the entire picture. Ask the family to share their observations about what made it harder to work alone on the puzzle. Remind them that each person had pieces no one else did, but they didn’t always work, some people may have worked faster or slower, etc.

Remind the family that Heavenly Father has blessed each of His children with unique talents and gifts that can help them get back to live with Heavenly Father again, but he also knew it would be very difficult for us to live here on earth and make the best choices we could. He wanted us to be happy, to remember how much He loves us, and to do our best to choose the right.

One of the gifts he gave everyone to help them have these things was to give us families. When we recognize these blessings of being a family we can learn to work together and help each other return to Heavenly Father. When we do this we are working to become a forever family. It takes every member of the family, sharing all of their best qualities to make a happy family, just like everyone had to work together and share their pieces of the puzzle to get a complete picture.

Show the pictures you gathered of each family member one at a time. Take a moment to discuss the blessings that each person brings to the family and how you can show love and support to them as a family.

Remind everyone that Heavenly Father planned for us to be together in families so we could love and support each other.
Challenge each family member to look for ways they can be more loving and closer to one another during the coming week.

Activity:

Younger Children- Divide the family in two or more groups and play “The Rest of the Story.” Use paper lunch sacks and other handy craft items to create hand puppets. Each group will decide on a scripture story about a family that they would like to tell. They will prepare the hand puppet characters and any other props they would like. When both groups are ready, one group will be given a 5 minute time limit to tell the first part of the scripture story. After 5 minutes, the other group must come up and finish the story for them. They then present the first 5 minutes of their chosen story.
The first group comes back up to finish the second story.

Older Children- Practice giving creative compliments. Divide the family into pairs and provide a box of conversation hearts (pre-filtered is nice if you have time!). One person from each group will choose a random candy heart without looking at what it says. They must then read what their heart’s message and come up with a way to use that saying in a creative compliment or expression of love to the family member they’ve been partnered with. It can be as silly or sincere as they like but must not be hurtful in nature.

The partners will then reverse their roles to repeat the process. Come back together as a family and share the compliment each person got with each other, talk about how important it is to see the best in each other and show our love even when it seems silly or awkward to do so.

Refreshments:

Your choice of a favorite recipe that features the same number of ingredients as you have family members. Each person is responsible for gathering, measuring, and adding one ingredient to the mix. Spend the required cooking time talking about other ways your family cooperates and works together to create something wonderful. Emphasize that it does sometimes take time to see all of the rewards that come from trying to build a strong family.