Sharing Time March 16, 2008
Mar 10th, 2008 by Bethany
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I’ve had a specific request (thanks for asking!) for sharing time ideas for the third week of March, so here goes…
The theme for the week is: Jesus Christ showed me how to do the will of Heavenly Father (Luke 22:42; 2 Nephi 31:7; Articles of Faith 1:3; “Obedience,” TTF, 108-9; GP, chapter 35; Primary 3, lesson 16).
The sharing time suggesting from the Friend magazine for that week is as follows:
Show GAK 208 (John the Baptist Baptizing Jesus), and briefly share the account of Jesus’s baptism. Teach that Jesus Christ is our example and that He showed us how to do the will of Heavenly Father. Prepare stations for the children (see “Stations,”TNGC, 179). At each station, invite a teacher to relate the story of a scripture hero who was obedient and did the will of Heavenly Father. (Examples: Nephi, Esther, Daniel, Ammon, etc.). Sing the chorus to “Nephi’s Courage” (pp. 120-21) to signal to the children when it is time to move to the next station. Following the activity, remind the children that Heavenly Father wants all of His children to do His will. Show GAK 618 (My Gospel Standards), and invite children to come up and take turns reading the standards. If time permits, have the children explain ways they can live the gospel standards by making good choices. Help the children understand that when they make good choices, they are doing the will of Heavenly Father. Sing the chorus of “Nephi’s Courage” once more. Bear testimony of the blessings that come when we do Heavenly Father’s will.
I actually really like the idea from the Friend for this week. If having stations is too complicated, you might simplify by having a teacher just come to the front of the room and tell the story to the entire group instead. Or you could change it up a little and ask the teachers to tell stories about things that Jesus Christ did that the children can easily apply to their lives.
You could focus in on Jesus doing the will of the Father at his baptism if you have children in the ward who need to hear more and see more about baptism. In our ward we have a couple of children who haven’t been baptized yet for various reasons even though they’re old enough, and our Valiant 9 teacher took his class on a tour of the baptismal font in our building (we’re in a stake center) and asked the Bishop to come talk to the children about baptism and the bishop interview for baptism. If your group is small enough and you’re in a building that has a font, taking a tour might be an option for you. Make sure you get approval from your Primary presidency first.
Another idea that might work for Sr. Primary is to have the children read from the scriptures aloud sections about things the Savior did to obey Heavenly Father. Then have them brainstorm ways they can keep the commandments. Have them each write down something specific they can do this week to keep the commandments.
I think you may be able to expand the My Gospel Standards part of the lesson into the entire lesson itself. Since the person asking for ideas on this is a classroom teacher and her class is doing a class sharing time presentation, I’d suggest having each child in the class present one of the Gospel Standards to the group. Maybe assign one of the standards to each child during your class time and have them draw a picture representing the standard, then have them explain it to the group for their presentation. Then you could talk about how Jesus Christ was a perfect example of doing what Heavenly Father asked him to, and how we can follow his example by keeping the commandments and living up to My Gospel Standards.
I hope that helps! And I hope it all makes sense since I’m writing something else in the background and I’m not spending much time editing my work… 
