Class #3 Teaching Your Children To Feel The Spirit

Sister Tanner teaches primary to 9,10, & 11 year old boys.  The lesson this week was on the day of Pentecost.  It is 50 days after harvest is over.  Pentecost is a Thanksgiving day.  The Savior was crucified at Passover.  During the Pentecost the disciples heard what sounded like the great rushing of wind.  Then appeared cloven tongues of fire.  There were people from all over the various countries there for the Pentecost.  The disciples came out and spoke in tongues and the people could understand them.  It is symbolic of being baptized by fire.  They received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  3000 people were baptized.

How often do we think when the Holy Ghost testifies it should be as a rush of wing? 

If you ask in Primary how the Holy Ghost works the kids will say “A still small voice”.  We know that answer, but when the still small voice whispers to us, what do we do?  Most of us ignore it and continue what we are already doing.  We let the impression fade away.  We don’t even identify it.

We are entitled to daily revelation.  You received daily revelation, but most of us don’t know how to identify and hear the Holy Ghost. 

Elder David A. Bednar was asked as a missionary conference, “How do you know the difference between a prompting of the Holy Ghost and just a good idea?”  His answer, “What difference does it make.  Any thought or inspiration that is good comes from the Spirit and should be acted upon.” 

How do we get our children to form a companionship with the Holy Ghost so they seek it and live by it?  If we teach this to our children then we can have faith that they will be fine.  They will be like the stripling warriors because their mothers taught them.

Allan F. Packer  “Finding Strength in Challenging Times! May 2009 Ensign

“When I was a young man in high school, one of my passions was American football. I played middle linebacker. The coach worked the team hard, teaching us the basics. We practiced until the skills became natural and automatic. During one play against our biggest rival, I had an experience that has helped me over the years. We were on defense. I knew my assigned opponent, and as the play unfolded, he moved to my right into the line of scrimmage. There was a lot of noise from players and fans. I reacted as the coach had taught us and followed my man into the line, not knowing if he had the ball. To my surprise, I felt the ball partially in my hands. I gave it a tug, but my opponent didn’t let go. As we tugged back and forth, amid all the noise I heard a voice yelling, “Packer, tackle him!” That was enough to bring me to my senses, so I dropped him on the spot.

I have wondered how I heard that voice above all the other noise. I had become acquainted with the voice of the coach during the practices, and I had learned to trust it. I knew that what he taught worked.

We need to be acquainted with the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and we need to practice and apply gospel teachings until they become natural and automatic. These promptings become the foundation of our testimonies. Then our testimonies will keep us happy and safe in troubled times.”

Read this next quote as a parent teaching your children…..

            Dallin H. Oakes "Nourishing The Spirit"  December 1998 Ensign

“Spiritual things, like conversion and testimony, come in large part by feelings—the enlightenment of the Spirit. Those who seek or are satisfied to stop with an intellectual conviction live in a spiritual habitation built upon the sand. For them and for their children—if that is all the inheritance their children obtain—that habitation is forever vulnerable. The things of God, including a spiritual conversion and testimony, must be transmitted in the Lord’s way, “by the Spirit.”

We are teaching knowledge, but not transmitting the Spirit.  


Dallin H. Oakes "Nourishing The Spirit"  December 1998 Ensign
“Parents who fail to provide their children with good examples and positive personal religious experiences seriously jeopardize the transmission of faith and spirituality to the next generation.  Parents teach most effectively by what their children see them do. The parental examples that influenced me most were my mother’s expressions of faith in God, her absolute support and total non-criticism of the leaders of the Church, and her faithful payment of tithing, even when times were hard.”  

How did the stripling warriors know?  They watched their mothers live it.  If we say 1 thing and then do another, they learn to believe in a principle as long as it is easy. 

EXAMPLE: If we teach them that we believe in being modest and then buy them an immodest prom dress, because ‘that’s all we could find’, we are teaching them that we believe the principle as long as it is easy.

The living of the gospel is rationalized away. 

We have to learn how to listen to and follow the spirit ourselves before we can teach our children.

PONDER PAD:  Is a pad of paper that you should keep available to you so that when you receive “lights of knowledge”.  These are ideas that come to you.  You write it down then go back to it later.  Keep it accessible.  Then on Sunday night or at early morning scripture study go back to your ponder pad and think about the things you wrote down.  Some of them will fade away and you can just cross them off your list.  Others will stay with you.  Those that stay you need to make a goal.  Inspiration will come in little thoughts.

We often feel like our prayers aren’t answered.  However we are receiving inspiration all the time, but we don’t act on them.

Richard G. Scott “To Acquire Spiritual Guidance”  November 2009 Ensign 

“What may appear initially to be a daunting task will be much easier to manage over time as you consistently strive to recognize and follow feelings prompted by the Spirit. Your confidence in the direction you receive from the Holy Ghost will also become stronger. I witness that as you gain experience and success in being guided by the Spirit, your confidence in the impressions you feel can become more certain than your dependence on what you see or hear.”

You need to learn to recognize the spirit and then testify to your children so they can come to understand.  Then encourage them to share their experiences.  Identify the thought.  “You saw Mary alone on the playground and went over to play with her.”  That was an inspired thought. 

Children need a journal to write down those experiences.  They need to understand quiet promptings are the way the Spirit works.  You need to help your children write down those experiences so when they say, “I have never felt the spirit” you can show them all the times that they have.

When they feel the spirit then they begin to feel that the Savior actually listens to them.

          Everyone feels the Spirit a different way.

1.     You learn to receive the inspiration.

2.     Create an environment in your home where they can experience the Spirit & testify of it.

a.     “17 Miracles” move is faith promoting & full of the Spirit

b.     This creates a stage for you to discuss the roll of the Holy Ghost.

c.     When you are all giggling and laughing and having fun as a family you can stop and identify that feeling.  That the Holy Ghost is making us feel happy.

d.     Sometimes in a profound moment.

e.     We need to identify it for our children.

f.      The Spirit is still invited.  They are always entitled to it, but they have to invite it in.

g.     Do something daily to receive the Holy Ghost that day.  Your morning prayer is where you invite the Holy Ghost in to your day.  Recognize those experiences and then testify of them to your children.  At the end of the day in your evening prayers acknowledge those experiences to your Heavenly Father and thank him for them.

Margaret Lifferth “Respect & Reverence” May 2009 Ensign

“My appeal today is to parents, teachers, and leaders to work together to teach, exemplify, and encourage the standards of respect and reverence that will strengthen our children and youth and invite the spirit of worship into our homes and chapels.

Reverent behavior is not a natural tendency for most children. It is a quality that is taught by parents and leaders through example and training. But remember, if reverence is rooted in love, so is the teaching of it. Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence. So begin early and have reasonable expectations. A toddler can learn to fold his arms and get ready for prayer. But it takes time, patience, and consistency. Remember that we are not only teaching a child his first lessons in reverence, but the child may be mastering his first attempts at self-discipline.”

You need to  be patient as you teach reverence to them at home.  Practice sessions need to be done at home.  It begins in Family prayers, Family Home Evening, and Home/Visiting Teachers.

You will find that when you are in a class and you are feeling the Spirit really strongly that someone will crack a joke to break the Spirit.  That is because they don’t know what to do with that feeling. 

You need to teach your children that there is a time for fun and a time for spiritual things.  Allow them to have “fun” but be careful that you don’t expect them to ‘flip a switch’ and be reverent.  There has to be some kind of transition. 

Example of a practice:  The kids were allowed to be wild and wrestle and play before dinner, but once dinner was over the silliness was gone.  It was quiet time.  They could still have fun….read, play board games, TV time, etc, BUT it was time for them to tone down.

This creates order at home.  They know what to expect.  It gives them an emotional slot to slow down.  As transition time into family scriptures/prayer sing 3 primary songs.  We have to learn to help them transition. 

You can also just tell them a story or an experience from that day.  There are times that we are in such a ‘hurry’ to get finished with family scriptures and prayer that we end up missing the opportunity to teach them to feel the Spirit.

Some things are just ‘practices’, but anything given in General Conference is a ‘principle’. 

Margaret Lifferth “Respect & Reverence” May 2009 Ensign

“Teaching our children and youth that it is appropriate to address our leaders as president, bishop, brother, and sister encourages respect and reverence. It also teaches the truth that leaders are called of God and have been given sacred responsibilities.”

We need to demand that kind of respect from our youth.  It creates a feeling of respect for them to use appropriate titles.  Adult & youth are not buddies.  We need to set a pattern and lead the way.  Do not allow youth to call you by your first name.  At times it’s appropriate for them to use a title and a 1^st name (Example…Kids in nursery say Ms. Tracy)

Parley P. Pratt “The Key To the Science of Theology” pg 101

“The gift of the Holy Ghost adapts itself to all these organs or attributes.  It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gifts of wisdom, to their lawful use.  It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature.  It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity.  It develops beauty of person, form, and features.  It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling.  It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man.  It strengthens, and gives tone to the nerves.  In short, it is, as it were marrow to the bones, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being. 

In the presence of such persons, one feels to enjoy the light of their countenances, as the genial rays of a sunbeam.  Their very atmosphere diffuses a thrill, a warm glow of pure gladness and sympathy, to the heart and nerve of others who have kindred feelings, or sympathy of spirit.” 

HOMEWORK:  Tear apart this quote.  Make a list of when the Holy Ghost is working with you.

3.     Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

·       D&C 59:9  And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;

Bishop H. David Burton “A Season of Opportunity” Nov 1998 Ensign

“Now, I know it’s hard, particularly for our young people, to choose to observe the Sabbath day when athletic teams on which they so much want to participate regularly schedule games on Sunday. I too know it seems trivial to many who are in need of just a few items on the Sabbath to quickly stop at a convenience store to make a Sunday purchase. But I also know that remembering to keep the Sabbath day holy is one of the most important commandments we can observe in preparing us to be the recipients of the whisperings of the Spirit.”

·       Your children and you need to “come out of the world and be still and know that ‘I am God’”

·       It needs to be totally different than any other of the 6 days of the week. 

·       It should be a day of rejoicing

·       It is not a day to command them to sit reverently on the couch.  That won’t happen.

·       Mom will work harder than ever before.

Jeffrey R. Holland “To the Young Women” November 2005 Ensign

"I make a special appeal regarding how young women might dress for Church services and Sabbath worship. We used to speak of “best dress” or “Sunday dress,” and maybe we should do so again. In any case, from ancient times to modern we have always been invited to present our best selves inside and out when entering the house of the Lord—and a dedicated LDS chapel is a “house of the Lord.” Our clothing or footwear need never be expensive, indeed should not be expensive, but neither should it appear that we are on our way to the beach. When we come to worship the God and Father of us all and to partake of the sacrament symbolizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we should be as comely and respectful, as dignified and appropriate as we can be. We should be recognizable in appearance as well as in behavior that we truly are disciples of Christ, that in a spirit of worship we are meek and lowly of heart, that we truly desire the Savior’s Spirit to be with us always.”

Mark E. Peterson “The Sabbath Day” May 1975 Ensign

“Do we really believe in God—sincerely? Are we convinced that he knows what he is talking about? If we are, then will we take him and his word seriously? Or will we further trifle with divine revelation?  The Lord does know what he is talking about. Sabbath observance will help us to more fully remain unspotted from the world.”

·       What is our habit on Sunday?

          L. Tom Perry “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and donot the things which I say?”  November 1984 Ensign

“I often wonder what happened to the good old saying, “Sunday best.” If our dress deteriorates to everyday attire, our actions seem to follow the type of clothing we wear.  Of course, we would not expect our children to remain dressed in their church clothes all day, but neither would we expect them to dress in clothes that would not be appropriate for the Sabbath.”

Example of Practices in Sister Tanner’s Home:

·       Girls in a dress after church

·       Boys—no shorts, no jeans, wear slacks or Dockers, and button up shirt.

·       If there was a Youth Fireside they went to it in the church clothes even if no one else was in church clothes.

Appropriate Activities:  These need to be special activities that are saved specifically for Sunday.  (The following are examples of practices)

·       Read The Friend

·       Play dough

·       Sunday books

·       Special markers

·       Book of Mormon games that mom makes up and asks questions.

·       Go over scouting merit badge requirements & make goals

·       Cut scout requirements

·       Activity day requirements

·       Faith in God requirements

·       Duty to God requirements

·       Write life histories

·       Scrapbook

·       Making cookies and delivering them

·       Writing letters to family or missionaries

The key is “Being there!” with them.  Focus on what you ‘can do’ not what you ‘can’t do’

4.     General Conference

The difference between our church and others is a living prophet.  We need to chow children that he holds a place in your home and your heart.  Our rationalization teaches children to be casual in church.  We need to put aside things of the world and listen to what he prophet says.

You need to create an environment so they love it.  You have to be excited.

Practices:

·       Conference Saturday—have special food: cinnamon rolls or sugar cereal

·       Food is motivating for children

·       Create a “spot” for themselves….her kids rolled an afaghan from corner to coren and made a circle so they had their own ‘nest’ and put their pillow in there.

·       Little kids can have quiet things like legos, crayons, and dolls.

·       Require children to be in the room.

·       Once in Kindergarten or 1^st grade do packets

·       General Conference packets available on lds.org here

·       General Conference packets available at Sugardoodle.net here

          Follow through after conference.  Buy each child their own Ensign and use it for Family Home Evenings for the next 6 months.            Write their name on it. 

Each child can choose one of the 15 apostles & prophets and do a lesson on it.

As they pick then you set a goal as a family on how to apply that in your family.  Write the talk title and family goal on a paper and put it up next to their picture.  Review the goals and try to work on them for the next 6 months. 

You are saying by what you do that you believe the words of the prophets.  If we follow what the prophet says we are standing in holy places and we will be ok.  We have to fortify our children and teach them to be immersed in the Spirit.  The Lord will go before them to guide and protect and lead them home.


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