This week's theme: Miracles come to those who have faith
Once again, the official Sharing Time Outline is pretty clear and full of ideas/suggestions. I will pretty much be following that:
First, start of with D&C 63:9: “But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.” (Explain that the word signs in this scripture can also mean miracles.) Points to mention:
- miracles are not always dramatic events
- we must first have faith, and then we will recognize miracles
- even though we have faith, we will still experience sorrow, pain, and suffering, but God is aware of our needs and will care for us.
For the next part, the outline uses the story of Moses and Pharaoh and the plagues to illustrate the point that witnessing miracles does not make someone a believer. (It is suggested you can have the kids do actions along with the story to go along with the afflictions --- croaking, buzzing, scratching, moaning... but I figure I'll play that by ear depending on how wound up the kids are that day...) I figure I'll wrap it up by reading or having an older child read:
As an additional "bad example", I may mention Laman and Lemuel... I mean, how many times did those goobers see angels and yet they still did not believe... (Like Pharaoh, they only ever relented out of fear, not out of faith or any desire to repent.)
Contrast this story with an example where faith produced a miracle The Outline suggests Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, Daniel and the lions, the brother of Jared, or Nephi and Lehi in prison. I'm going with the story of the brother of Jared. I'll show the kids where the story is locates (Ether chapters 1-3) and give a little background --- it was the time of the tower of Babel, the Jaredites were spared the confusion of languages and told to build barges to sail to the Promised Land, etc. (I didn't come across any good "Jaredite barge" pictures so I'll probably just draw on the chalkboard). I'll explain the dilemna about light in the boats and I have some little glass "gems" to show what the stones the brother of Jared made might have looked like... I also happen to have a little LED "dome" light to set next to them as an example of a tiny light being sufficient in an emergency...
In the "Encourage Application" section of the Sharing Time Outline, it suggests asking a couple families to come in and relate stories of faith and miracles in their lives. I haven't been in town for the last two weeks to line anything up, but our Bishop may come in... If he's not available, or gets held up with other things, I'll fill in with a story of my own or with a couple more scripture stories. (Probably Daniel & the Lions' Den for the Junior Primary, maybe Nephi & Lehi in prison for the Senior Primary).
So, hopefully this will do!
P.S.
My preview shows my fonts on this post are acting weird and I can't seem to figure out why or fix it... Ah, well --- Sorry!
