By Alison Palmer
Scripture:Matthew 22:37-38
Song:“Love One Another,” Children’s Songbook, 136

Preparation:Gather a new red latex balloon and a magic marker.

Prayerfully read “The Love of God,” President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, November 2009, 21-24 and consider which thoughts and passages you would like to share with your family.

Lesson:
Ask someone to come to the front of the room. Have the family offer different ways that the chosen person could be described. Attributes could be physical, habits, traits, personality, etc.

Testify of Heavenly Father’s individual and intimate love for each of us as discussed by President Uchtdorf in the sections “Why Should We Love God” and “Why Does Heavenly Father Love Us?”
Remind the family of God’s ability to see within each of us, to know who we are and who we want to be. He knows us better than even other members of our family.

Discuss President Uchtdorf’s question, “. . . of all the things we want to be known for, are there attributes above all others that should define us as members of His Church, even as disciples of Jesus Christ?”

Work together to make a list of possible answers to this question before continuing. After you have created your own responses, share President Uchtdorf’s conclusion. “Let us be known as a people who love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and who love our neighbor as ourselves.”

Begin discussing how the things you identified would fit into the life of someone who was learning to love God more fully. Next, point out the following statement.
“. . . what we love determines what we seek.

What we seek determines what we think and do.

What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become.”

As you begin discussing what activities might increase your love of God, keep in mind President Uchtdorf’s discussion in “How Do We Become True Disciples of Jesus Christ?” concerning “shoulds,” “should nots,” and “good ideas.” Show the family your red balloon. Explain that the balloon will represent a love for God. Blow a few puffs of air into the balloon, then hold it closed. The more we find ways to love and serve God, making Him the center of our lives, the more our hearts swell with additional love. Pulling ideas from the conference talk, your family’s list, and personal experiences discuss the difference between things we do for love of God and things we do for other reasons.

For items that your family determines to be a worthy increase of love for God, blow an addition puff into your balloon. Items that may just be “good ideas,” things we do begrudgingly, to be seen by others, or things that take away from our love for God, get drawn on the outside of the balloon with the marker. Indicate that not everything we do reaches into our heart and increases love. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad, but they can detract from the goal of stretching our “hearts.”

Remind everyone that because Heavenly Father knows us, He can help us determine which things will help us grow, and which may need to be re-evaluated. We need to first learn how to seek out His voice and counsel in order to increase our capacity for love and obedience. The love we seek out will change how we feel about every aspect of our lives and make us into the disciples we would want to be.

Activity:

Young Children: Play heart charades. Cut out 10-12 paper hearts, label one side with things to be acted out. These should represent something spiritual or physical that could be done to “increase your heart” such as reading your scriptures or exercising. Choose a heart at random and read what to act out; the rest of the family must guess what the message is.

Older Children: Take a course or review a CPR video. Talk about the things that can go wrong with a physical heart, how we can protect it, and save it when it becomes “broken.” Relate this to the needs and care of our spiritual heart.

Treat:

Make stained-glass window heart cookies together. As you fill your hearts, talk about your goals to increase your love for God and the sweetness of the blessings these actions will bring.