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Week 2: Come Follow Me: Book of Mormon, Teaching Ideas and Free Resources

January 6th-12th

1 Nephi 1-7

Questions to Ponder:

Each Come Follow Me Lesson asks important and reflective questions. When I first began my individual study these questions threw me off. Simply because many of these questions required so much depth and individual reflection in order to answer honestly. My first approach to come follow me was to get in, get out, get it done, check it off. These questions simply didn’t allow me to do so. In fact, I felt a little sick when I would read a question like, “How does the spirit speak to you?” and I wouldn’t know the answer right away. After a time, and pondering on that specific question I realized IT’S OKAY. In fact, I think these questions were meant to be set aside, thought about, and pondered. When we try and come up with the quick easy, obvious, answer, we are depriving ourselves of an opportunity to reflect, ponder, pray, and RECEIVE REVELATION. Is this not the whole reason for Come Follow Me? Are we not trying to finetune and recognize how we, and how to receive personal revelation.

So each week I will list out some of the questions issued in Come Follow Me. Maybe you pick to ponder about all of them, maybe you pick just one. Whatever you do, ponder on this for the ENTIRE week. Pray about it, discuss it with loved ones, then at the start of the new week, take the time to write down your impressions or thoughts, share them with your family, testify of powerful insights.

• What do you learn about Jesus Christ from what Lehi saw?
• What are some of the Savior’s “great and marvelous” works in your life?
• When have you felt the Lord soften your heart so you could more willingly accept His direction and counsel?
• Has the Lord required hard things of you? How has he prepared you for them?
• What can you learn from Lehi’s family and interaction that can be applied to your own family?

Object Lesson: I Need my Own Testimony

To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. The difficulties will be of such character that the man or woman who does not posess this personal knowledge or witness will fall. If you have not got the testimony, live right and call upon the Lord and cease not till you obtain it. If you do not you will not stand … The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light . Each will have to be guided by the light within himself … If you don’t have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave to it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall.
-Heber C. Kimball

Object Lesson: I Need My Own Testimony

“The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself … If you don’t have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave to it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall.”   -Heber C. Kimball

One of the main messages from the Come Follow Me for Primary edition urges the need and necessity of having one’s own personal testimony and witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. This ties into one of my favorite verses from the Book of Mormon:

16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the ^amysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did ^bvisit me, and did ^csoften my heart that I did ^dbelieve all the words which had been spoken by my ^efather; wherefore, I did not ^frebel against him like unto my brothers.

Did you catch it… Did you ever think someone like Nephi would ever need their heart softened? Next time you are doubting, or struggling or need a witness, remember this verse. Remember Nephi.

Also pay attention to the word CRY. There is a sense of urgency, desperation even. There is also this idea of EFFORT. Belief and testimony don’t just come from a hope, that’s faith. I believe testimony is the result of a faithful action, that leads to other consistent actions.

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that ^afaith is things which are ^bhoped for and ^cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no ^dwitness until after the ^etrial of your faith.

So for this week’s object lesson, we are going to focus on the idea that we need our own “light” that borrowed light is not enough. The idea for this activity came from LDS Living. I love this lesson because it demonstrates the WHY of a testimony. If you are looking for a lesson that helps someone understand the WHAT of a testimony, click here! ***Scroll down to teaching idea #4

Materials:

• Objects that give off different degrees of light (Lamp, Lantern, flashlight, candle, light from your phone…)

Display the items on for you family. Ask your family to make observations about them. What are they? What do they have in common? What is their purpose? Ask which source of light they would want if the power were to go out, or if it was suddenly dark. Obviously their answer will be the object that gives off the most light. Take is a step further by discussing the practical reasons for wanting a greater source of light when it is dark.

“Explain that our testimony is like the light. We seldom appreciate or even look for it in the daytime (good times). We really depend on our testimony during the difficult time in our life. Discuss why it is important to keep our testimony strong during the good times so that we will be prepared for difficult times” (Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, More Power Tools for Teaching, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991], p. 99).

The next thing you would want to discuss is the need for your OWN light when things go dark. You can experiment with this by having one family member hold the different sources of light and try to move from one place in the house to another by following someone else’s light. *This helps illustrate the need for your own light.

You could also try the experiment above by using the different sources of lights that differ in brightness. *This helps illustrate the need for a STRONG testimony.

Make sure to discuss that everyone will experience figurative “Dark Times” in their lives. Discuss specifics of what these dark times could be. Discuss how to “turn on” the light if it seems dim or has turned off. Use Nephi’s example, his moment of doubt and darkness. What did he do?

Discuss this beautiful quote by President Harold B. Lee:  “Testimony isn’t something that you have today and you keep always. Testimony is either going to grow and grow to the brightness of certainty, or it is going to diminish to nothingness, depending on what we do about it.” He also said, “Testimony is as elusive as a moonbeam; it’s as fragile as an orchid; you have to recapture it every morning of your life.”

Watch or Listen To:

With a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, I understand the STRUGGLE and the attention span you are dealing with. Below are some of my favorite videos or audio recordings|podcasts you can listen to and watch with your children. My favorites right now are the Book of Mormon Story videos.**Different from the newly released B.O.M. videos. These are illustrated and READ stories to your children. THESE are PERFECT for when everyone is strapped in the car seat. My 4-year-old now requests these over the radio. Each segment is only 2-4 minutes long. This allows us to listen, review and discuss together, and listen again throughout the week.  Many of the videos I share can be found on the Saint’s Radio Channel App. (Formerly Mormon Channel App, If you don’t already have this, DOWNLOAD NOW.)

I’ve got 2 more FREE videos that  I’m SO excited to share with you. I stumbled across this one and I couldn’t love it more. This is a free sample of the type of videos David Bowman is creating for his Drawn In Series. Make sure to check this one out… My 4 year old LOVED it.

• Scripture Stories: A PODCAST created for children-Episode 2, The Brass Plates

Read:

• Book of Mormon Stories Chapters 2-5: Same text and illustrations used in the video above
• A Nephi Attitude: A cute story from the friend that illustrates how we can apply Nephi’s example. 
• Lehi and Nephi Learn about Jesus Christ: Article from the FRIEND that explains this weeks lesson in easy to understand language. 

Activity Suggestions: