September Sharing Time - Weeks 3 & 4

Weeks 3 and 4 both talk about how we are only in the service of our God as we serve others.  Seeing as they are both the same topic, I thought I'd share a few different ideas all on one post.  That way you can pick what you'd like for each week.

This past week I came across a fantastic idea that I wish I'd heard about earlier (so I could have posted it here for you earlier!).  Challenge the kids to serve others by doing secret acts of service; the secret part just makes it more fun.  In our primary, we've passed out tiny little hands that the kids can leave at the scene of their secret service act.

Aren't they cute (you can download ours from Google Docs)?  Then comes the fun part.  As they come into church the next Sunday, we ask them if they've completed any secret service, those that did get to write what they did on another hand (a bigger one) that we'll put up in the primary room.  That way everyone gets to see how much service we can do and how each act adds to all the others.  I love it when they get to DO!

I also really like scripture memorization, I've mentioned before that I keep hearing Elder Scott's words in my mind,

"Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and inspiration from on high."

The Sharing Time Outline asks us to help the kids memorize the ending of Mosiah 2:17, what a great idea!!  After introducing the secret service idea, tell them the key to serving God is really just to serve others and then help them to memorize the scripture.  To encourage them to really get it in their minds (instead of the in and out that happens with me too often), tell them that you're going to "test" them next week and see who still remembers it.

The first activity you can do (for one of the two weeks) is a matching game with the pictures I first shared in week 1.  The pictures are a variety of people the kids might come across during their day (you'll have to print two copies to make it a memory type matching game).  After a match is found, encourage the kids to come up with a unique way they can serve each person.  By unique I mean that each act of service should be different, but it can still be something small.  Giving someone a hug (if appropriate) or a smile can brighten and lift a dark day.

Pictures

The second activity focuses around Elder Uchtdorf's talk "You Are My Hands."  I would suggest showing a YouTube video of him telling a story about a statue of Christ damaged during World War II.  While I know that sometimes turning on a video can lead to ears turning off, I love letting the kids listen to their prophets.  I think that even if they do not understand exactly what is being said, they can feel the spirit that comes with these great leaders.  To help with comprehension, you can ask a few questions or highlight the main points of the video after it finishes.

After talking about (and listening to) Elder Uchtdorf's talk, bring up this months theme, "I Will Serve God with All My Heart, Might, Mind and Strength." The Friend magazine has a fantastic section on how to bring primary home (and even if some of your kids do this activity at home, they'll still think it's fun to do it at Primary because now they'll get to help everyone else)!  To learn what it really means to serve all those different ways, play a game where they get to match an act of service to one of the topics from our monthly theme.  Both the Friend and I put might and strength into one category.

In the Sharing Time Outline, it tells you to go to the Primary 4 manual to get more ideas on service, and do they ever have more ideas.  The lesson links to a calendar with 30 different ideas for service!!  These work perfect for our match up game.  Each day on the calendar has a picture depicting an act of service along with a short written description.

They're a little small in the one page calendar format, so I made each square a "little" bigger, about a quarter page size, and then put all the pictures into one pdf for you to download if you'd like to use them in your sharing time.

Topics and Acts of Service
(It will say "No Preview Available" because the file is to large to preview, but there's a box just under that says "Download." If you click on it, you'll still be able to download the file.)

It doesn't matter if one category is much heavier in the picture department than the others.  The main point of this game is to get the kids thinking about all the different ways they can serve everyday.

As you finish up (each week), challenge the kids to do an act of service (or re-challenge if you've introduced the secret service game I mentioned at the beginning of the post).  You could even take a minute to call on a few of them to ask what they plan to do during the week.  Both weeks give plenty of examples of how they can serve everyday and so they shouldn't have any trouble coming up with some good ones.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, "Do you love me?" And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, "Yea, Lord, we do love thee."  And having set our "hand to the plough," we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world."

Service is work, but it is also love.  It's amazing how it both expresses love for those we are serving and helps that love to grow.  And our love doesn't just grow for those we're serving, it also grows for our Heavenly Father (which makes sense as you learn that we are serving Him by serving others).  It's wonderful and fantastic and I could keep going with the positive words for a very long time before I expressed how full it makes my heart to think about.

Make sure to bare your testimony to your kids each week in primary, they will feel your love!

Leah

I plan to give some ideas for a General Conference Sharing Time for the 5th week, so check back next week if you're interested in heading that direction for your 5th Sunday.