FHE: "Doing Our Dailies" Teaching the effects of daily scripture study & prayers

This lesson popped into my head a few Sunday's ago. I was sitting next to my husband in church thinking about the way I feel in my Sunday School class. We have an incredibly wise and amazing Sunday school teacher. I told my husband that I feel like a dried out, thirsty sponge, in his class. I feel myself trying to take in every little bit of information, like it is water filling me up. Then I started to think about sponges a little more and this lesson came together. Please feel free to adapt it, along with any other FHE lesson on this blog, to fit the needs of your family!

I placed an old dried out sponge on a plate and had everyone feel it. It was not pliable. It was hard and rigid. 

We talked about and compared this to the scripture stories that talk about people being hard-hearted, or stiff-necked, and discussed how this happens when we aren't living our lives close to the spirit, following the prophet & keeping the commandments. 

We talked about how "doing our dailies" (Daily scripture study, serve others & prayer, etc), is what keeps us from becoming hard like this sponge. 

I also told them about how sometimes a sponge can become so hard that it requires a lot of wringing over and over to get it to let the water in, and sometimes that can be like trials that happen in our lives that can be used to remind us to turn to the Lord in all things. 

We poured water on the sponge little by little. Explaining that it was like each time we say our prayers, read scriptures or do an act of kindness. Those actions change us. 

They make us softer and more teachable. 

And when we continue to do these things each day, like a sponge that has pressure applied, we "ooze" those things that we have filled our selves with. We talked about the prodding being like missionary work or being asked questions by others about our faith. When our sponge was moist, but not full, nothing came out. We lacked the conviction in our testimony, or the knowledge, to teach. However, when we have "done our dailies" consistently, our testimony flows easily. 

Then we talked about how adding things to our dailies like going to the temple frequently, serving and looking for more opportunities to serve, being quick to forgive and kind to everyone, paying our tithing and fast offerings, etc, what we have put in cannot be contained. Everything we do or say is a reflection of our beliefs and conviction of the reality of our Savior Jesus Christ. It "oozes" from us, in our actions and words. 

  

THIS is the best place to be!

We brought another hard sponge into the mix and talked about how it could represent our friends, or people we meet or associate with. 

When we consistently, everyday, participate in scripture study and be sure to say prayers, serve, etc. In other words, when we fill our lives with the things of the Lord, our testimony cannot help but affect the people around us! 

As our testimony "oozes" the people around us begin to feel of the Lords love for them, through us, if we listen to the spirit! 

When we do everything that we can, each day, to fill our lives and minds with the spirit, the Lord can use us as instruments to reach out to our brothers and sisters around us and we can help bring them back to Him!