Make sure to tag a friend to help spread the word. 

Week 9: Come Follow Me: Book of Mormon, Teaching Ideas and Free Resources

February 24th – March 1st

2 NEPHI 26 – 30

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 can you do as a member of Jesus Christ’s Church to be more Christlike in the way you treat God’s children?
• Why do you need to know about Satan’s lies?
  • What will you do when the adversary tries to deceive you?
• How does the Lord want me to feel about and respond to His word?
• Why are people sometimes “angry” about receiving more truth from God? (2 Nephi 28:28). Do I ever feel this way? If so, how can I become more receptive to truth?
• What does it mean to receive God’s word? How can I show Him that I want to receive more of His word?
• Why is the Book of Mormon of great worth to you?
• What are some of the “marvelous” works that God is accomplishing in the world and in your life through the Book of Mormon?
• What experiences could family members share with each other when their testimonies of the Savior were strengthened by the Holy Ghost?
• How is a flaxen cord like Satan’s temptations?
  • How might it become a strong cord?
  • How can we detect Satan’s lies?
• “I am able to do mine own work”?
  • How does this truth influence the way we serve in His Church?
• Why does God reveal truth to us “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” instead of all at once?
• What does the Lord intend to prove or show with the Book of Mormon?

Object Lesson: With a Flaxen Cord

An object lesson that illustrates just how strong a flaxen cord can become over time.

I feel like this week’s object lesson is one of the CLASSIC gospel object lessons. The suggestion for using the Flaxen Cord object lesson actually came right from the Come Follow Me Manual this week.

 2 Nephi 26:22

22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.

Again I felt this was the perfect object lesson this week because of how it seamlessly and naturally builds upon the lessons we’ve had the past couple weeks. Anytime you can link back to what you’ve been learning or discussing, you are facilitating learning. Real learning is all about making connections to what you’ve already known or experienced.

Week 8: Soda, Slushies, and Spiritual Consequences

Week 6: Agency is not Free

Week 3: Plain and Precious Truths

Materials:

• Spool of Thread (Flaxen Cord)
• Scissors

Flaxen Cord: Essentially, a fiber from a flax plant. When processed correctly these fibers can be made into a thread or a yarn, and then material or rope…etc. 

To learn more about Flax processing, click here. This is a wonderful visual of the entire cycle from growing to processing!

Instructions:

The Come Follow Me Manual uses a picture of jute when suggesting this object lesson. If you have jute on hand it is a great visual for the lesson, the picture from the manual will also work great. Point out the tiny fibers that together create a stronger rope or twine.

Now when it comes to the actual object lesson, I do not recommend using a jute-like twine. Jute is the “FINAL” result of flaxen cords|threads coming together to create a stronger material. The point of this lesson is to start with a very weak, thin, fiber that on its own is easy to break.

A spool of thread is perfect.

Begin by taking your student|child hands. Create a single loop of thread around their wrists and tie it off. Ask if the children can break the thread by pulling their wrists apart. They should be able to do so easily and with little effort.

If you need visuals for this process, FHE Lessons did a great job illustrating this lesson. Simply Click Here to view.

Next, wrap the thread a couple more times, see if they can break the thread this time. This time it should take more effort if it is breakable. Describe the definition of a Flaxen Cord. Look at the picture of jute, or examine some from your craft closet. If they were able to break the thread, try it a third time adding enough to make the cord unbreakable.

Take turns if other’s want to try or test their strength.

Now, head to the scriptures:

2 Nephi 26:22

22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.

2 Nephi 28:19–22

19 For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish;

20 For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

21 And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devilcheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

22 And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.

Application|Discusion:

Time to dive in. The Come Follow Me Manual provides the perfect questions to guide this object lesson.

• How is a flaxen cord like Satan’s temptations?
• How might it become a strong cord?
• How can we detect Satan’s lies?

Take is a step further by discussing what the single strands could represent in their own lives. If you did the chain object lesson this is the perfect time to connect back to that discussion.

You could also discuss why those single threads are so dangerous. Why are we tempted with things that are small and insignificant, instead of something heavy and binding from the beginning?

If you don’t watch this in its entirety… PLEASE, watch from 24:30 to 28 minutes   My husband and I are really enjoying these overviews from the Book of Mormon Central for Come Follow Me. This takeaway was HUGE for both Ben and I. Pay attention to the meaning of pacify, and apply this to the threads that can bind us. See the video below!

What are the pacifiers in your life… Are these pacifiers acting as flaxen cords?

If you do this activity PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take pictures and tag me! Post to the Facebook group, or tag @livingonlemonlane on Instagram! Don’t forget to pin these images to your Pinterest. This is a SMALL and SIMPLE way to support the efforts of Living on Lemon Lane and sharing these ideas with your friends and family.

 

To stay up to date, and show your support make sure to follow @livingonlemonlane on Instagram!

Make sure to tag a friend to help spread the word. 

 

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.)

Read:

Really sweet message from the First Presidency about taking action. It lists off great examples of kind things younger children can do. You can reinforce this by doing these small actions consistently to prevent dangerous small actions from becoming cords. 

Activity Suggestions:

By now you know I also LOVE Ministering Simply’s resources and beautiful illustrations. I especially loved this scripture puzzle that helps illustrates the idea of line upon line. Click here to view Ministring Simply’s Resources for the week!