Readers Digest – August 2009

Swimming lessons for all four kids!

They passed!

Emma took an acting class, and had a great time in the 70s.

First Day of School!

Emma starts 4th Grade

Hunter’s in here somewhere. He was so fast I missed the picture of our 6th grader.

Hannah’s first day of kindergarten required lots of curls.

Sabrina also started a co-op preschool called, “Princess Academy.”

Also this month was a family reunion:

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FHE: I Can Repent When I Make a Mistake

Rob taught this lesson, and it was the best one I’ve ever seen on repentance. First he told a story about a child that was invited to a super delicious dinner by his mom and dad. (Rob is a great story teller, but I’ll do my best to convey the gist of it here.) When he came to dinner his mom said, “if you want to have dinner, you need to wash your hands.” The boy said, “I don’t want to wash my hands. They’re not that dirty.” The mom told him that even if they are a little dirty, he still needs to wash them. She said, “Please wash them. I have this dinner ready for you, and I will be sad to see you miss out on your favorite dinner.”

…So, what would you do if this happened to you?

Our Heavenly Father has promised us a joyful life with Him if we will just repent when we make a mistake. Some things will take more time to resolve than others, but in the end the reward will be worth the effort.

Then we went through each scripture on these visual aids to show the steps of repentance. We all took turns reading the scriptures out loud and then discussing what they mean.

Recognize our sins Alma 42: 29
Feel sorrow for our sins Doctrine & Covenants 20:37
Forsake our sins D&C 58:43
Confess our sins D&C 61:2
Make restitution Ezekiel 33: 15-16
Forgive others 3 Nephi 13:14-15
Continue to keep the commandments D&C 1:32

I think the lesson itself is good, but what really made it great was the spirit of love that we felt as we discussed how much our Heavenly Father wants to give us blessings. But to get those blessings, he asks us to be clean.

It seems like a pretty sweet deal to me!

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A Couple of Videos

First, I am loving this new Toyota Sienna. Very cool, except for the fake wood on the dash. Never been a fan of that…

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjH3h2jOLY&feature=related

Next, a commercial that strives to change the stigma of personal injury law:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoDNdTXx-7U

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FHE: I Will Choose the Right

This is the lesson I used for our latest lesson using  My Gospel Standards. The theme this week was “I Will Choose the Right.”

I found this lesson after a google search and it worked out great. It is called “Making Good Choices: Stairways and Superheroes.” There are several visual printouts that were very helpful in giving the kids an idea of how our choices can lead us upwards toward Good, or downwards towards Evil. I used two little Lego guys (one who made good choices, and one who made bad choices) to show how they moved up or down based on their choices.

Here’s a sample from the lesson:

… Show a picture of stairs going up and stairs going down. (See Visual Aid 1 for an example –
could be a poster or whiteboard – you will add onto it during the lesson as shown by the visual
aids).
Talk about how superheroes didn’t just start out by being at the top of the stairs or
supervillians at the bottom of the stairs, but they made small choices every day that led them
eventually up the stairs or down the stairs. (A good example of this is Anakin from the Star
Wars movies who became Darth Vader.)
We, too, have choices every day that either lead up, toward our Father in Heaven, or down,
away from Him.
Adding On – Name the Steps
Next comes a fun part. Giving names to each of the stairs. Ask the children, “What are
choices that we make that would make us go up a step?” (list them as shown in the example)
“What are choices that we make that would make us go down a step?” (See Visual Aid 2.)
Adding On – Repentance …

We also played the optional game at the end of the lesson on our own stairway. The kids started in the middle and had to work their way up based on the choices they drew from some choices I wrote on some index cards. (I used 75% good choices so that the kids would eventually make it to the top and not be discouraged.) After the game we had some ice cream. It was a fun lesson and the kids were all interested an engaged the whole time!

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Conversation with Brina

Sabrina: Don’t you wish you could be me mommy?
Amy: Sometimes. I think it’s so fun to be three.
Sabrina: It’s fun to be a mom too, because it’s your decisions.
Amy: You like to make decisions?
Sabrina: ‘Cause I like to make some decisions. It’s fun to be a little girl, and a mom.

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