Week 47: Education

Song: Seek the Lord Early (CS. 108)

Thought: Education is an important part of our Heavenly Father’s plan to help us become more like Him. Obtaining an education provides understanding and skills that can help us develop self-reliance. Education will also prepare us for greater service in our families, the Church, and the world.

Object Lesson:
Materials: A bowl filled with wheat or other whole grain.
Presentation: Ask what would happen if this grain was left in a dry place. Ask what would happen if it was planted and given water. Discuss.
Give a definition of wisdom (ability to judge what is right or true). Explain that the grain is like knowledge. To become wise, experience and time must be added. Ask what kind of experience can help make knowledge into wisdom (education).
(Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, More Power Tools for Teaching, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991], p. 102. from Deseret Books' Website)  (The Value of Wisdom)

Video: (There is no video available for this topic)

Lesson Activity: Assign each family member to read individually one of the five paragraphs from the “Education” section of For the Strength of Youth or the statements by President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson at the beginning of the talk “Seek Learning: You Have a Work to Do.” Ask them to explain to the family what they read, and discuss why it is important to work diligently now to gain a good education. Invite them to think about and share their goals to gain an education.
If there are family members who have received or are receiving a college education have them share with the family their experiences in preparing for that education and the blessings they have received in their lives because of there education experience.

This Week's Challenge: Talk to your family about the LDS Church's Perpetual Education Fund. As a family decide if there is a way you can help others gain an education. For family members who are currently in school challenge them to set some goals for their education (i.e. improving grades, work ethic, preparing for college). If there are family members in need of more education challenge them to make a plan to receive it.

Week 46: Work Ethic/Financial Responsibility

Song: I Have Work Enough to Do (H. 224)

Thought: Learning to work begins in the home. Help your family by willingly participating in the work necessary to maintain a home. Learn early to handle your money wisely and live within your means. Follow the teachings of the prophets by paying your tithing, avoiding debt, and saving for the future. (For the Strength of Youth: Work and Self-Reliance)

Object Lesson: Plug Into the Power is a good option for highlighting the amount of energy that can and should be put into work and what the outcome will be.

Video:
Review the following statement by Elder Robert D. Hales: “The three most loving words are ‘I love you,’ and the four most caring words … are ‘We can’t afford it.’” Invite your family to watch the video “Becoming Provident Providers.” Ask them to think about and share possible reasons Elder Hales says “We can’t afford it” are the four most caring words. What blessings come from living within our means? How can we follow Sister Hales’s example? How can her example help us when we are tempted to live beyond our means?


Lesson Activity: Using the Work site on LDS.org, choose statements about work that you think will be meaningful to the your family. Give each family member a copy of one of the statements. Invite them to read the statement silently and pass it to the person sitting next to them. Have them continue until everyone has read each of the statements. Invite each person to select one that is especially meaningful to them and share why they finds it meaningful. What do they learn from these statements about the importance of work? How will learning how to work bless them and their families, now and in the future?

Alternatively, consider playing a board game together like "Life" or "Monopoly" and have an ongoing discussion with your family as you play about the role of work in earning money and making wise choices with our finances.

This Week's Challenge: As a family decide if your family could benefit from being focused on increased work ethic (possibly through employment outside the home or simply the work done in and around the home) or if the focus should be more on the financial aspect. If you choose finances, parents should decide what role to include children in the family budget and actually discuss your family's method for budgeting. What works? What doesn't? Communicate with your children about needs verses wants and reiterate the concept of "we can't afford it" being a means of demonstrating caring.

Week 45: Setting Spiritual and Temporal Goals

Song: Today While the Sun Shines (H. 229)

Thought: “I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”
–Elder M. Russell Ballard
Talk given to Salt Lake Area young adults, Oct. 18, 1981

Object Lesson: Domino Effect by Kimberly Thurston is an awesome lesson to use for setting goals.

Video:

As you watch the video encourage your family to look for the way that Tyler set and achieved goals. After the video invite them to share their thoughts with the family. Why did Tyler choose to pursue his goal to serve a mission, even though it meant interrupting his goal to play basketball? Ask your family to think of something they are passionate about. Have they ever had to choose between that thing and another worthy goal? What do they learn from Tyler’s example?

Lesson Activity: Have half of your family read President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s story about learning English (from his talk “The Power of a Personal Testimony”), and have the other half read Elder L. Tom Perry’s story about his son practicing high jumping (from his talk “Raising the Bar”). Ask them to summarize their assigned stories for the rest of the family and explain what they learned from the stories about setting goals. Invite them to share any similar stories from their own lives. How will they apply what they learn from these stories to be more effective in setting and achieving their goals? (Come, Follow Me)

This Week's Challenge: Encourage your family to make a list of goals for their lives and to post those goals somewhere that they can see them daily to remind themselves what they are working towards.

Week 44: Finding Answers to Gospel Questions

Song: Search, Ponder, and Pray (CS. 109)

Thought: Part of becoming spiritually self-reliant is learning how to answer our own gospel questions. Revelation often occurs when we earnestly seek answers to sincere questions and have faith in the promise made by the Savior: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). We can find answers to our own gospel questions as we pray, study the scriptures and words of the living prophets, and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost. (Come, Follow Me)

Object Lesson: Have your family sit in a circle. Using a single die take turns asking yes or no questions and then rolling the dice. If the number is even then the answer is yes, if it is odd then the answer is no. After a few rounds stop and ask your family if this is a very accurate method for getting answers to important questions. Ask them for ideas on how we can receive answers to gospel questions. Talk about how Heavenly Father will answer our questions. Consider sharing the story of the brother of Jared. He had two questions about their journey across the ocean in barges: how would they have air? and how would they have light? Heavenly Father answered both of those questions, but in different ways. (Ether 2:18-25)

Video:

Lesson Activity: Ask your family the following questions: Why does the Lord want us to be a question-asking people? What is the difference between asking questions about the gospel and doubting its truthfulness? Invite them to look for answers to these questions in the section titled “Is It True?” from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk “The Reflection in the Water.” What else do they learn from this section of President Uchtdorf’s talk?
Use this handout to help facilitate this lesson on seeking answers to gospel questions.

This Week's Challenge: Encourage each of your family members to think of a question that they have about a gospel topic. Have them write that question down on a piece of paper or post-it note then place that question in their scriptures. Challenge them to spend the next week studying and praying about that topic in search for an answer.