January Sharing Time - I Am a Child of God and Can Be Like Him Someday

Before I even start, I have a small confession to make.

I'm not giving this sharing time. 

We have Stake Conference in January and instead of combining two weeks together, I'm skipping the first week. 

Does anyone else get a sense of Deja Vu when they read it?  Not including the addition of comparing the different babies to their parents, it feels like the exact same lesson as the 4th week in December.  The one probably given by many of you the 5th Sunday (after giving a Christmas lesson the 4th Sunday). 

If you skipped December's 4th week in the Sharing Time Outline for some reason, this is a fantastic lesson and you can check out some of my ideas here.  I also found some cute printables of babies and adults, that fits perfectly in this lesson, in a downloadable Family Home Evening lesson (score!).

Remember, what you teach is up to you and perhaps this is a lesson your children (or teachers) need back to back (this is one of the amazing parts of being set apart for your calling, you are ENTITLED to receive that inspiration, so make sure and listen).  If you feel this way, you can read through this family home evening lesson on lds dot org to find ways to change it up.

OR you can take this week to introduce the new theme.  You could pass out your new spotlights (I made a spotlight for our primary that's geared towards the theme for the year), talk about your new bulletin board(s) and introduce any new goals you're working towards as a primary.

For example, this year our primary is working towards an ice cream/water party we have scheduled for August.  They'll get to add beans to our jar for bringing their scriptures on Sunday and for memorizing the monthly scripture (we started memorizing the scriptures a year ago and not only have we loved it, but we've had multiple parents come up and tell us how great it is that their kids are excited to memorize scriptures).

I also found a few fun ideas on another Family Home Evening lesson on Chocolate on My Cranium to help introduce 2014's new theme.  I especially love the object lesson she uses to illustrate that when families are sealed together, we stay together. 

You put a cut-out family into an unsealed envelope and shake it, the family falls out all over (it would be fun to shake it hard towards the children so the family members end up farther apart and on the kids) and then, talk about how when we are sealed, we have the opportunity to stay together forever while you seal the envelope (after putting the family back in) and shake it again. 

After the object lesson, you could talk about how not every family has gotten sealed yet and ask what they can do to get ready.  Go through all the different ideas and then ask if families who have been sealed have it made.  Are they now set forever without having to do anything else?

Hopefully they'll say no so you can ask them what they have to do to take advantage of those blessings...the same exact things they had to do to prepare to get sealed in the first place!!!

The family home evening lesson also has a fun game to play using some family dice.  As each family member is rolled (it's a die with pictures of different family members), have the roller tell how they can serve that person in their own family.

In a really great talk by Elder Robert D. Hales called "The Eternal Family" he says, "To receive the blessings of the sealing that our Heavenly Father has given us, we have to keep the commandments and conduct ourselves in such a way that our families will want to live with us in the eternities."


Did you ever think about it like that?  Not only do you have to keep the commandments, but your family has to actually want to spend eternity with you (although, if you were truly keeping them, they would)!  The whole talk is great and I highly recommend it!!

Whatever you decide to do for the first week, I hope you'll be able to help those in your primary "draw nigh unto [our Savior]."

Leah