I'm going to share, what I think, was a wonderful FHE lesson. We did this last night and it was a great success. I retold the story of the Anti-Nephi Lehies, found in
The Book of Mormon, Alma 24.
15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.
17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.
18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands.
I explained to Maddie and Will that these righteous people would rather die than sin so they buried their weapons in the earth. I really emphasized their desire to be free from sin and to be clean. I likened their weapons to weapons we have today: anger, name-calling, using bad words, telling secrets, teasing, ignoring, impatience, gossip & rumors, etc. I laminated pictures of weapons and wrote these things on the back. Maddie and Will took turns choosing a weapon and we talked about how we could "bury" these weapons as a family. This lesson is perfect for all ages and for all families (unless you have one of those perfect ones). It would be great in Primay too as a Sharing Time. I love the lessons that use stories from The Book of Mormon.
I have been impressed with how both of the children responded to this lesson. It really "clicked" with them. And today, when Will starts to do something undesireable, he says "I'm sorry Mom, I'm burying it." Sooooo cute. We finished the night with Neopolitan Shakes-YUMM-0!
