a view of the moon - I took this picture with my iPhone looking through a telescope in Idaho during my last semester there
Today was my first Sunday teaching Sharing Time in primary. I was pretty nervous because I had never done it before & wasn't sure how my lesson would turn out. It went pretty well & I really enjoyed preparing & studying for it. We are learning about how Heavenly Father has a plan for His children this month. I got to teach a lesson about the Plan of Salvation and it was fun having the children participate with the activity. It is always fun to hear their sweet and humble answers.
my Plan of Salvation cutouts - I got the idea from this lesson on lds.org: http://www.lds.org/friend/print/2008/01/my-life-is-a-gift-my-life-has-a-plan?lang=eng&clang=eng
Anyways, I started preparing my lesson for next Sunday after I got home from church - btw, I've been enjoying 9 am church and having the rest of the day to prepare lessons, do some gospel study... & nap :) Next week, the lesson is about how Heavenly Father commanded Jesus Christ to create the earth as a home for His children. I searched on lds.org for some ideas on how to describe the creation & incorporate participation & an activity for the lesson with the kids. I ended up making a chart of the 7 days and writing down what happen on each day with the scripture reference. I was going through Genesis & then through Moses to fill out the chart but I was having a hard time figuring out what exactly was being described on some of the days of creation - so I searched lds.org for a talk or lesson that would describe and explain each day.
I found an amazing, powerful talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson - given as a General Conference address in 2000, entitled "The Creation." He describes each day of the creation I found day 4 so interesting because I had never realized what truly happened in that period:
"Period four was a time of further development. Lights in the expanse of the heaven were organized so there could be seasons and other means of measuring time. During this period, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth were placed in proper relationship to one another. The sun, with its vast stores of hydrogen, was to serve as a giant furnace to provide light and heat for the earth and life upon it."
How neat! How great is the plan of our Heavenly Father. He created all
things so perfectly and precisely to make all things possible. I found this
attention activity in a primary lesson during my study that helps explain the
perfect nature of Heavenly Father:
"Show the children the container of puzzle pieces. Ask one of the children to shake the container and try to dump the pieces on the table so that all the pieces fall into place to form a complete picture. Point out that a puzzle cannot fall into place by chance—it requires an intelligent being to organize the pieces and carefully put them together.
Show the picture Creation—Living Creatures and discuss some things that show that the creation of the earth was carefully planned. For example, the earth has to be the right distance from the sun or everything on it would burn or freeze. Without the right amount of oxygen, humans and animals could not breathe.
If there was too little gravity, we would float off the earth. Help the children understand that the earth did not come about by accident or chance. A loving Heavenly Father directed Jesus Christ to organize this beautiful earth for us."What a blessing that is to have a knowledge that our Creator is perfect and that He has a divine plan for each and everyone of us. He has prepared a way for us to return to live with Him again and has created a beautiful world for us to live in. Makes me think about how everything I see around me is a testimony that God is real & that He created all things. Elder Nelson also says in his talk:
"I testify that the earth and all life upon it are of divine origin. The Creation did not happen by chance. It did not come ex nihilo (out of nothing). And human minds and hands able to build buildings or create computers are not accidental. It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We are His people! The Creation itself testifies of a Creator. We cannot disregard the divine in the Creation. Without our grateful awareness of God’s hand in the Creation, we would be just as oblivious to our provider as are goldfish swimming in a bowl. With deep gratitude, we echo the words of the Psalmist, who said, 'O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.'"I have a testimony of Heavenly Father & of our Savior, Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for God's creations! It is such a blessing to be able to teach these beautiful concepts to the primary children in my ward and to help them understand that they are loved & that they are individually known by a great Being - their Father in Heaven. I encourage anyone who reads this post to check out the rest of Elder Nelson's talk. It is powerful and it is full of truth. I am so grateful that we can know our purpose here in earth & though we may not be able to comprehend all things, the mysteries of God will be unfolded to us someday.
