July 2009 Sharing Time
Week 4: (Class presentation) Reverence and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy strengthen my family.
Advanced Preparation: Have each child in your class prepare a sign that explains one reason the Sabbath is important. Some children might be asked to make a sign from a scripture instead. Show older children how to look for scriptures in the Topical Guide to the Scriptures, so they can choose their own scriptures.They may decorate the sign as long as the words still show. (Examples: It's a way to show Heavenly Father we love Him. It strengthens our testimonies. It helps give us courage to face the week ahead.)
Song: Saturday is a Special Day
Teacher: Why do we work so hard to prepare for Sunday? What makes Sunday different from every other day?
Class: Have each class member show and read his or her sign. You might want to alternate scriptures with personal answers. Another way to do this is to have each child choose one scripture to put on one side of the sign and a personal answer on the other. Someone then says: Here is what God says. (Read the scriptures.) Here are some ideas we had also. (Read the thoughts.)
Tell the Primary chidlren your class is going to do a simple skit to help them learn about reverence and the Sabbath. Don't spend much time preparing for this. GIve instructions as you go. If your class is too small, invite other children to come up and participate.
Give two children a script. They will serve as the framework for the skit. Give them signs with fake names so everyone remembers they are just pretending.
Child One: I want to keep the Sabbath Day holy, but it's hard.
Child Two: I used to think it was hard, too. But my family has been talking about this at home and we've been practicing. Sundays don't have to be boring. They can be fun and spiritual at the same time.
Child One: You think Sundays are fun? Will you show me how to make them fun?
Child Two: Sure. Let's watch this family over here.
The other children in your class should approach. Give each one a sign representing a family member. (Father, Mother, child, etc.) Include a doll to serve as a baby and borrow a Sunbeam for a smaller child. The class members will simply listen to your instructions and act them out.
Child Two: Sunday really starts on Saturday in our house. If it doesn't here is what happens.
Teacher: Class, pretend you didn't get ready for Sunday the day before. Mary, you've lost your shoes. Look all over for them and act really worried. Jimmy and Micah, you didn't make sure you had clean church clothes and you're going to try to talk your mother into letting you wear play clothes. Mom, don't let them do that. Dad, you kept the baby and the Sunbeam up too late and now they're tired and fussy. Try to cheer them up.
(Give them just a moment to do this. Don't let it get rowdy. Explain in advance they need to talk fairly softly and remember it's the Sabbath.)
Teacher: I don't think this is how we want Sunday to be.
Child One: That's how it usually looks in my house.
Child Two: That's not how it looks in my house. On Saturday, we do these things:
Teacher: (Give instructions to each child in your class as to what to do to get ready: Iron clothes, clean room, pack a bag...)
Child One: That looks like a lot of work. I like to play on Saturday.
Child Two: When the work is done, then we play. But it's worth the work, because Sunday looks like this:
Teacher: Assign each child in the class to walk quietly to the center of the room and sit down, pretending to have breakfast. Tell them to smile and ask one child to tell of something happy that happened in school that week. After a moment, invite them to quietly pretend to get what they need for church and go sit down in their chairs.
Child One: That looks much more fun than our Sunday mornings. It feels very reverent. But at church, sometimes we're not very reverent. I wonder what I can do about that.
Have the narrators go sit down. Ask the entire Primary what reverence means. Most will say it means to sit down and be quiet. Tell the following story:
Mary is sitting quietly in Primary. She is not wiggling or talking. She is looking straight ahead to where the teacher is. Her hands are in her lap. Is she being reverent?
Well, let's see....She's sitting quietly, hands in her lap, looking at the teacher and not talking...and she's thinking, "When I get home I am going to hit my brother because he said something mean to me in church today."
Does that seem very reverent?
Explain that Mary was behaving, but she wasn't being reverent. Behavior is outside, and reverence is inside. Your teachers and leaders can see if you're behaving but only you and Heavenly Father know if you're being reverent, so you have to do it yourself.
Sing Reverence is More Than Just Quietly Sitting. Ask the children what this song tells them reverence is. If reverence is love, then how should they behave if they want Heavenly Father to know they love Him?
Finally, discuss Sabbath after church. Divide the children into mixed age groups and have them, with an adult, generate a list of ten things they can do at home on Sunday that is also reverent. Have each class read their list and turn it in. You may want to combine the lists to remove duplicates and hand it out the following week.
If you need to fill more time, have the children decorate hearts by drawing a picture of themselves being reverent at church or at home.
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