LDS Sharing Time May 2014 Week 1: God speaks to us through prophets.

May 2014 Sharing Time Topic: Families Are Blessed When They Follow the Prophet

May 2014 Scripture: “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets” (2 Peter 3:2). 

May 2014 Week 1 Topic:  God speaks to us through prophets. 

Preparation:
Prayerfully study and think about what the specific needs of your primary are and how you can teach them this doctrine.

Identify the doctrine:  God speaks to us through prophets. Prepare to play the telephone game: gather two cups. Poke a hole into the middle bottom end of each cup.  Cut a piece of yarn to desired length, mine is 4-5 feet long. String the yarn through the hole and double knot the yarn so it can not be pulled out. Do this on each cup. It should look like this: 

Help the Children Understand the Doctrine: Divide into classes and give each class an article to discuss.  Print and cut out the below printables.

Help them apply the doctrine in their lives: Invite someone from each class to come up and teach the rest of the primary what they have learned and how to apply it into their lives.

Free Printables: (Printing Tip: Click on image to open and then save image to your computer.  You can then print the image from your computer.)

Sharing Time Instruction:

Begin, sharing time by inviting two primary children up to the front of the room. Hand each child a cup. Explain to the primary children that one of the children is going say a message into the cup and the other child is going to listen for that message.  Whisper, "God speaks to us through prophets.", into the first child's ear. Then ask him to say what you had said into the cup. The two children will need to hold the string so it is tight. Have the other child listen into the cup. When he/she hears what the other child says, have them say it out loud to the rest of the primary.  Explain that our Heavenly Father tells the prophets the direction and information that we need to hear, he speaks to us through the prophet. 

Ask the children to tell you some ways that the prophet gives us direction from Heavenly Father?  Answers might include: Scriptures, General Conference, Ensign Magazine, Friend Magazine, New Era Magazine, Liahona Magazine, etc.  Thank the children for their participation.

Explain that you are going to give each class an article from the Friend Magazine. In these articles are direction that Heavenly Father has given to our latter-day prophet and apostles through revelation, this direction is for each of us.  Give each class one of the following messages (see printables above):


Why am I here on earth? BY ELDER RUSSELL M. NELSON. March 2014 Friend Magazine

 What is a testimony, and how can I get one? BY ELDER DAVID A. BEDNAR. April 2014 Friend Magazine

Heavenly Father Loves You. BY PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON. February 2014 Friend Magazine

At my age, what can I do to make the world a better place? BY ELDER M. RUSSELL BALLARD. February 2014 Friend Magazine

What does it mean to be a Christian? BY ELDER ROBERT D. HALES. January 2014 Friend Magazine

Why is it so important to spend time with our families? BY PRESIDENT BOYD K. PACKER. December 2013 Friend Magazine

A Grateful Heart. BY PRESIDENT HENRY B. EYRING. November 2013 Friend Magazine

Dare to Stand Alone. BY PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON. October 2013 Friend Magazine

Ask each class to read the article in their group, then discuss in their group what it is that Heavenly Father wants us to know and how they can apply that message into their lives.

Give them 5 minutes to do so. Then invite a teacher and a class member to come up and tell the rest of the primary what the direction or message was from our Heavenly Father and how we can apply it into our lives.  Do this one class at a time.  Thank each class for their participation. (The older classes, you could just have a primary child come up.)

Bear your testimony about God speaking to us through prophets. 

Click this link for past Sharing Time post: LDS Primary Sharing Time Ideas 

***Basic ideas for this sharing time came from the 2014 Sharing Time Outline, you can find a link here: 2014 Sharing Time Outline.