Faith In God

I have a tendency to think too big in pretty much all areas of my life.  I don't just want to have my cake and eat it too, I want to grow the wheat, harvest it, collect the eggs from my chickens (that I've previously hatched as chicks)...then not just make it, but make it cute and/or beautiful and finally, eat it in a beautifully decorated room.  Is anyone else laughing (or rolling their eyes)? 

I tell myself (over and over) that knowing is progress.  Actually, a lot of the time I am able to scale back if I stop and think about the big picture by asking myself what is really important.  Or what am I really trying to end up with and do I really have to "harvest my own wheat" to get there? 

Take, for example, my plans for Faith in God for next year.  In in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), we have a program for all children ages 8-11 called Faith in God. 

Our church's website describes the program like this: "The Faith in God program is designed to help each Primary child ages 8 through 11 become all that Heavenly Father wants them to become.  As they do so, girls will be prepared to continue their spiritual growth in the Young Women program and boys will be worthy and ready to receive the Aaronic Priesthood."

When each child turns 8, we give them a booklet with the program information in it and then they can work on it in their families or in programs they participate in during the week.  And while that might seem like good enough, recently I have been feeling that we need to incorporate it more in our Sunday lessons. 

My first plan was to read through the two Sunday manuals (46, 2 to 3 page lessons in each) and match different Faith in God activities with at least one lesson a month.  Not only that, but I wanted to make little handouts to give the teachers to give their students. 

Yes, I know, sort of time demandlingly crazy.  After thinking about it for a while, I decided that what I really wanted to do was provide the teachers with a simpler way to use the Faith in God activities as they are inspired to with their individual children. 

To accomplish this, I made a topical index of all the activities.  This was simple, didn't take much time and has already been super helpful to me at home with my own kids.

The first section is what I decided was the main topic the activity is on.  The second section is which section the activity comes from in the Faith in God booklet (Learning and Living the Gospel, Serving Others, Developing Talents).  The last section is a very short description of what the activity requires. 

I plan to talk with the teachers to encourage them to use the Faith in God booklets in their lessons and how they might do that.  I'll also stick this topical index in their lesson notebooks (along with their own copies of the Faith in God booklets) to make it easier to see which activities go along with what they are already teaching.  When we incorporate all the different programs of primary together it's amazing how well everything fits and builds on each other.

What are you planning to try out (work on) in your primaries or classes next year?