October 2012 Week 3 Sharing Time: I Can Receive Strengthening Power Through Priesthood Blessings

In my branch we alternate doing sharing time each week, meaning I get the opportunity to do it once every three weeks. This works out really well for us. I really like that once I'm done, I don't have to wait forever until I get to do it again. Usually when I finish, all I can think about is, "Man, I should have done this!" or "Oh, this would've been so cute!" So with the once every three week system, I don't have to wait very long to do it again. So I get to start planning right away. Like that day.

The only time this kind of backfires on me is in situations like this, because of General Conference and Stake Conference, I will not be in charge of another Sharing Time until November. Crazy huh! Well, I have been itching to get some stuff together, so I will continue to post helps to help people prepare here. It helps me feel like I'm contributing :)

This week is on the priesthood again, keeping with theme for the past few weeks. This week is about priesthood blessings and how they can strengthen us. This lesson has a lot of potential to be neat, because so many children have experiences with the priesthood. Before we dive in, I just want to stress, as the manual does, to be sensitive of any children in your primary that may not have a priesthood holder in the home, or maybe a child who has not had an opportunity to have any kind of blessing. You may be shocked at how many children this can apply to.

The guideline has us starting out discussing our hands and how they can help or bless. I like this way to introduce the material. Another idea is to have a speaker come in and talk about an experience they've had with the priesthood. You could do both if you'd like, start with talking about hands, and move onto the speaker. Kids love having a guest come in. They get really excited about it and it usually helps them to listen and take in what the speaker is trying to say. I would suggest using a priesthood holder and having him share an experience of when a particular blessing they gave or received helped to strengthen. If you can't think of someone, use a missionary. If I were doing sharing time this week, they would be my first pick, and here's why. The missionaries love to come into primary and to get to know the kids. They also have a lot of experiences with the priesthood and are young and fun to the kids. They usually love to listen to missionaries.

In the guideline it suggests for us to have them trace hands, cut them out, and place them by a type of blessing they've received and invite a few to share their experiences. I like this idea, but as I mentioned before you may be surprised by how many children have not had an experience like this. My fear is that you could end up pointing out children who do not have priesthood holders in the home, or who have not had an experience with the priesthood like this. For example, I was blessed when I was a baby, but other then that, my first blessing was when I was 12 at Girls Camp. It was not from my father. This is not because my dad was inactive, unworthy or a nonmember. I just had never received one. I share this to illustrate that you may not even be aware that some of your children may not have had this experience.

So my thought is this, after you open up, whether it is from the discussion on hands or from a guest speaker, I would ask the children, "When do we have the opportunity to be blessed or strengthened from the priesthood?" The answers you are looking for are baby blessings, baptism, confirmation, fathers blessing, blessing the sick, passing the sacrament, etc. I thought it would be neat to emphasize the "strengthen" part of this lesson. I think it would be really neat to go with a "armor of God" theme during the discussion that follows. You would clip up a picture of a person, and as you discuss each way that the priesthood can strengthen you, you add a piece of armor to the person. By the end they are covered in armor and protected. Here is a link to a printable person and armor you could use. The only thing I wish is that it were bigger. Maybe it can be enlarged though. You could even have a child come up and put the armor on the person, to keep them talking and involved. There a seven parts to the armor, so you can combine a few of them to make it work out so they are all up there when your done or you can add a few more ways the priesthood can bless us.

As they mention each answer, talk about it for a minute to help them understand how we this would strengthen us. You can also present a picture of each example for while you're discussing it. I've listed my thoughts on each topic to get you thinking. Feel free to use what I've written or add things in as the spirit leads you.

1. When the sacrament is passed. This can strengthen us by allowing us to be closer to our Heavenly Father. When we feel close to him and feel his spirit it encourages us to make better decisions. This is a spiraling effect, the more good decisions we make, the easier it is to make them and so on. This strengthens us against the powers of Satan.
A good quote for the sacrament is:
"As we worthily partake of the sacrament, we will sense those things we need to improve in and receive the help and determination to do so. No matter what our problems, the sacrament always gives hope." - John H. Groberg April 1989

2. When we receive a fathers blessing. This is a tool that we can use to receive help in a specific area of our life, or during a specific difficult time. The great thing about this is that it can be specific. You can get strength and guidance on a particular topic in your time of need or worry. This is an invaluable tool and should be used! Please emphasize that if a child does not have a priesthood holder in the house, a home teacher should be asked. If they don't feel comfortable they could ask someone they do feel comfortable with. You don't want children to feel they are a disadvantage for guidance because of a home situation.

3. When we receive a blessing for healing. This should be pretty straight forward. When we receive a blessing for healing it can help make us strong again. Being healed through the priesthood blessing combined with your faith will strengthen your testimony of Heavenly Fathers love for you and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

4. When we are baptized. When we are baptized we are making a covenant with Heavenly Father. By doing this Heavenly Father promises to give us certain blessings if we keep our end of the deal, so to say. When we see these blessings come into our life it can help strengthen our testimony. When Heavenly Father asks us to do something it is for our own good, it is to help us be stronger and better people, to keep us safe from things that could hurt us spiritually or physically. You could even relate back a month or so when we talked about keeping a baby safe, that we have rules for them just like Heavenly Father has for us.

5. When we are confirmed a member. When we are confirmed we also receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This can be a huge strengthening tool we receive from the power of the priesthood. We know the Holy Ghost can never lead us astray, so when it testifies to us, we can trust what were being told.

A huge aspect for me is feeling the spirit, that strengthens me to make good decisions and stand up for what is right. If we can remember the spirit that we felt when we are confirmed, or baptized or receive a blessing, etc, we will have a easier time choosing the right.

This is from the outline also, read 3 Nephi 17:11-25, this is the story of Christ blessing the children. The outline says, "Explain that priesthood holders have the power to act in the name of Jesus Christ; they can bless us just as Jesus would if he were here." I couldn't have put it any better myself :)

Nursery has a cute handout for the priesthood that I thought would be a little different to hand out. It makes a flip book instead of a plain coloring page. Here is a link to the coloring page. You will have to click on the coloring page image of someone receiving a blessing to download the one I'm referring to. It took me a minute to figure this out.

I realize this is long, I usually try to shorten it up but I just felt this week needed to be a bit longer considering the sensitive material being covered.