Sharing Time - The Sabbath is a Day of Rest and Worship

This week's lesson is from Week 4 of the August 2014 Sharing Time Manual.

I love the ideas in the booklet. To supplement the ideas, I found a great article, "Doing Good on the Sabbath," by Julie Wardell, from the September 2007 Friend.

I'd like to take seven paper plates (because they are the shape of the world), and on each one, draw a picture that corresponds to the six days of labor and seventh day of rest to build our world. Children can either choose from a bag, or identify from pictures stuck to the chalkboard, images that represent what is and is not appropriate to do on the Sabbath Day, and then we'll put it next to that particular paper plate.

Sharing Time - Pray in your families - August - Week 1 Lesson on Family Prayer

Lesson 1 this month is about Family Prayer. I love this topic, and all the beautiful teachings from the Savior and the Lord, taught at General Conference and in the scriptures. The tough part of this lesson is to remember to focus on the "family" aspect of prayer, and not on prayer itself. I talked about ways to incorporate this lesson into singing time but I also found a great lesson plan from Sharing Time Idea #1 in the July 2009 Friend, called "Our Family Will Be Strong." I cut out pieces of cardboard, then used a hole punch and yarn, to create a word necklace for each word of the sentence "Family prayer will strengthen my family." Unscrambling that word, and looking up 3 Nephi 18:21, will engage the children, before leading them into a group discussion where I hope and plan to encourage a lot of participation.

I also love the aspect of family prayer that this is a special opportunity to be the mouth piece for your family to Lord. The church provides a great cartoon that teaches this, that I would like to print out for the children to take home. You can find it here.

I also feel I am so much better prepared to teach this lesson because I read this Family Home Evening guide, particularly the story about Sue and Tim.

Also, do yourself a favor and read this talk from Elder John E. Groberg. I loved his books about his mission. In this talk, he talks about his mission and how his family's prayers sustained him in a distant land. I love that he points out that whether single or married, we are part o some family, somewhere, in some way, and that we can share our love for our family by having them know that we are praying for them.