Week 2: Heavenly Father

Song: I am a Child of God (CS. 2)

Thought:

Who is Heavenly Father?

• The Father is the one true God. Nothing will ever change the relationship that we have with Him
• Spiritually you are of noble birth, the offspring of the King of heaven. Fix that truth in your mind and hold to it.
• You are a child of God. He is the father of your spirit.
• He is the Father. He is God. We revere our Father and our God; we worship Him.
• Just as all life follows the pattern of its parents, so can we grow toward the image of our Heavenly Father if we will live righteously and be obedient to His commandments.

Object Lesson: 

Have a member of your family pick up a stick at one end and lift it in the air. Did the other end of the stick lift up? Can they lift up one end and not have the other end come with it? Let other family members try too. Have older children look up Psalm 82:6 and Acts 17:29. See if they can figure out what those scriptures have to do with the stick. No? Share this from Pres. Boyd K. Packer "We are the children of God. That doctrine is not hidden away in an obscure verse. It is taught over and over again in scripture. These clear examples are from the Bible: 'All of you are children of the most High' and 'we are the offspring of God.' Doctrinal truths are interrelated. There is an old saying that if you pick up one end of a stick, you pick up the other end as well. If you concede that we are His children, you must allow that God is our Father." (Idea taken from here.)

Video:

This one works well for young children and this one works for the whole family.

Lesson Activity:

Primary Age- Give children some play dough and instruct them to create something unique and wonderful with it. After a few minutes ask them to share what they created. Ask them if it was hard to create something and explain that Heavenly Father created us and this world because He loved us. Creating each of us differently and with unique talents and strengths must not have been easy, but together we can learn and bless each other. Have them look in a mirror so that they can see one of Heavenly fathers marvelous creations. (Idea taken from here.)

Youth-

There are some really good activities using the lesson outlines for the YM and YW that you can adapt and use with your family. If you have family members in each of these categories (given that time and circumstances allow for it) consider having each of them work on these individually or with a partner and then take turns sharing/teaching what they have learned.

The following comes from the outline: How can I know my Heavenly Father? (Aaronic Priesthood)

The following comes from the outline: Who am I, and who can I become? (Young Women)

Pres. Uchtdorf's talk can be found here.

This week's challenge: Find opportunities to point out to each other ways that you are like Heavenly Father and how amazing we all are. Highlight the talents of family members and find ways to connect those talents to God's plan for us.