Where is the Pavilion? - President Eyring

What an awesome talk to review.  I don't know if this is the first year that the church has put out these Conference Highlights, but they are perfect for kids. 



As we were watching the movie clip I had to stop it several times to ask the kids questions to make sure they were understanding the background and the details.  Some of those details included: Who is Pres. Eyring talking about? and where is this person?  After we answered these basic questions, we discussed what a pavilion meant.  When we think about a pavilion, the first thought that springs to mind is of course what shown in the Sound of Music (Ok, maybe that is just what I think about) . . .like this . . .

I wish I was still 16 going on 17

When I reviewed this talk earlier, I asked Weston if he thought that a pavilion in Joseph Smith's time is the same as it is now.  We thought that it might not be so we took that thought to the dictionary and we found this definition: "A large often sumptuous tent"

So for our activity we took a sheet that I purchased at DI and we wrote some of our desires that cover us from God's view like we are in a tent. 

God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time.
- President Eyring

 

Afterwards, we placed the sheet on top of the kid's train table and had the boys crawl underneath.  I held a picture of Jesus Christ in front of the covered opening in the train table and asked if they could see who was in the picture.  After hearing a chorus of "No's" I took scissors and cut out some of the words that we had written.

 

The boys had fun peering through the holes and they could easily identify the picture of Christ that I was holding.  Both of the boys seemed to get the point that if we cut out certain bad choices or worldly desires from our lives then we begin to remove the cover of the pavilion that impedes our view and understanding of Jesus in our everyday lives.

It was a lot of fun doing this activity and the payoff was later that night when Hunter prayed that he "could cut out whining from his life so that he would be able to see Jesus".  Ironically, I think that if he could actually cut out whining from his life, I could probably see Jesus a lot easier too.  Consider my fingers crossed that this prayer becomes reality.

Here is a picture of Presient Eyring with the card to remind us of this talk and activity:

 

 

Earlier last week I added vinyl to the wall, I think it adds a nice touch.



Here is the whole talk: