Sharing Time - June Week 2 - Holy Ghost

This weeks focuses not just on the Holy Ghost, but more specifically that He helps us choose the right as we live worthily. 

Opening
To introduce the topic of the Holy Ghost, there are a bunch of fantastic object lessons to choose from.

1. The Sharing Time Outline has a great one!  Put a coin (or something metallic) into a jar and shake it around.  Ask the kids how well they can hear it.  Tell them the coin in like the Holy Ghost, we can only hear Him clearly when we are being righteous (you could mention keeping our baptismal covenants that we spoke about last week) and wrong choices make it harder to hear.  Ask for examples of wrong choices and each time someone gives one, add something to the jar, dirt or sugar or cornmeal (or anything you'd like), shaking it after every few spoonfuls to show how the coin gets softer and softer until we can't hear it anymore.

2. A Year of FHE has you make lots of noise, turning on a TV, radio, playing the piano... and then whispering.  Ask if anyone can hear you (they shouldn't be able to).  Slowly lower the amount of noise by turning off each noise-maker one at a time.  Just as before, this demonstrates that we need to keep out distractions if we want to be able to hear the Holy Ghost in our lives.

3. This is a reverse of #2, where you start out with a whisper and slowly add noise.  I like the added dimension of Parenting in the Latter-days both because it involves more child interaction and the noise makers are labeled with specific distractions.  The "Holy Ghost" reads Moroni 10:5 in a whisper and then continues to read as you add one child at a time who beats a plate that has something like "skipped morning prayers" on it.  You could use her labels, or have the kids write their own distractions on their plates.  Keep going until you can no longer here the whispering.

4.  The simplest of all only involves you whispering commands to the kids.  To work best, I'd wait a minute until coming into the room so the kids are talking a little.  Once you walk in the room immediately quietly whisper simple commands like: touch your head, stand up, sit down, pat your stomach... until they are following along quietly.  Compare the whispering to how the Holy Ghost communicates with us and ask them to tell you what sorts of things might get in the way of listening.

Holy Ghost Attributes and Blessings
1. Last year I did a sharing time about the Holy Ghost where we sang the song "The Holy Ghost" from The Children's Songbook (pg 105).  I actually asked one of my counselors to sing the song so I could "rudely" interrupt her when we learned something about the Holy Ghost (I didn't tell the kids I was going to, it was a fun surprise).  With each thing we learned, I added a prop to my wonderful counselor and the kids got a kick out of it. 

Verse 1
comfort us = a blanket around her shoulders
whispers = very big ears I'd printed out and taped to a head band for her to better hear with
hearts rejoice = a heart with a smile-ey face on it

Verse 2
guide us ev'ry hour = a clock (I just took one off my wall at home)
with his light = a flashlight (or lantern, candle...)
choice = a CTR shield

2. I also like the idea of talking about the fruits of the spirit with an actual tree.  You could print one out or draw one on a board (no, you don't need artistic skills, a stick tree will totally work) and then either have the kids tell you what they think the fruits are (label as you go), pre-labeling them and talking about the fruit as they're put up or combining the fruit with the scriptures in one of the ideas below.  There are lots of cute ideas for trees and fruit of the spirit to put on them on this Pinterest board. 

3. I found two different activities that teach about the Holy Ghost through the scriptures.  The first one is on Chocolate on my Cranium and involves matching phrases with scriptures.  You could look the scriptures up as a group, read through it and see who can figure out which phrase goes along with it.

The second one is also on a family home evening site, this time it's Parenting in the Latter-days and they have you fill in the blank on a variety of scriptures that teach about the Holy Ghost.  I really like both of these ideas and love that they are, again, getting the kids in the scriptures!

Application
I love to talk about everyday use of the gospel principles we teach.  How are the kids going to use the gift of the Holy Ghost while at home, school, the grocery store and everywhere in between. 

1. Under Sharing Time Ideas, number 1 on LDS dot org there is a list of different ways the Holy Ghost can bless the lives of children everyday (about half way through the paragraph).  Have children come up one at a time to read through the situation and come up with a way the Holy Ghost could bless and help them in it.

2. One of the ways we feel the Holy Ghost the most frequently is as He testifies of truth.  I think it's important that the children realize while that is what the Holy Ghost does, He won't always do it right away, even if we're asking him to.  I LOVE this story from the Friend titled, Micahs Miracle.  With Micah, we learn how to gain a testimony through the Holy Ghost.  It teaches that Heavenly Father knows what's best even if it takes more time that we want. 

Testimony Challenge
Challenge the children to pray and ask the Holy Ghost to testify of the truth of: baptism or Jesus or Heavenly Father (or,through inspiration, choose your own subject) to them.  It requires faith (point to our shield from the Armor of God child) to keep the commandments and to listen to the Holy Ghost.  This is also the perfect time to bare your testimony of the gospel and help them to FEEL the Holy Ghost if you haven't done so already.

Good luck with your week!!