Activity: Seven Days of Service

Can you serve for seven days in a row? Serving every day for a week will lift those you serve and help you become more Christlike.

Watch the video “Seven Days of Service” together. As a group, think of ways—both big and small—to serve your families, ward members, and community every day for the next week. You might ask your ward or branch’s priesthood quorum or Relief Society leaders for additional suggestions (do this in advance, if needed). You may also find service opportunities in your area at JustServe.org. Make a plan for how your group will do service every day for the next seven days.

Try to plan a mix of individual and group service opportunities to do in the next week. For example, first plan some service opportunities you can pursue as a group. Then have each group member make a list of additional individual service ideas that they can do on their own. (Make sure that service projects scheduled for Sunday are Sabbath appropriate.)

Possible individual service ideas might include the following:

• Writing or drawing thank-you notes to family members or ward or branch leaders for the ways they serve and bless your life. When the notes are complete, deliver them.
• Giving someone a sincere compliment.
• Posting something uplifting or sharing a gospel message on social media.
• Reaching out to someone who needs a friend.

Possible group service ideas might include the following:

• Organizing into teams to clean up garbage in your neighborhood.
• Collecting items for members of your community and delivering them to local businesses or hospitals that can provide them to people in need. (Be sure to check specific organizations’ donation wish lists before collecting items to donate!)
• Visiting patients in a hospital.
• Preparing and delivering a meal to someone who is sick.
• Gathering items to make emergency preparedness kits, then making and delivering the completed kits to family or ward members.

At the end of your planning activity, invite the youth to record their feelings and thoughts in a journal at the end of each day they serve. After the seven days of service, meet again as a group. Have the youth share what they felt and learned as they served.

Please adapt activities as necessary to ensure all individuals are able to participate, belong, and contribute.

• If it’s not possible to serve together as a group during the week, think of ways for each group member to serve individually each day. Have the group connect via social media, the Gospel Living app (using the Circles feature), or other ways to discuss their daily projects.
• Plan a joint service project with members of another faith.

Encourage youth to talk about how what they are learning can help them and others grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity and should last just a few minutes. You could ask questions like the following:

• Why do you think it is important to serve others? What does the parable of the good Samaritan teach us about service?
• How do you feel when you serve others?
• What feelings or impressions did you have about doing seven consecutive days of service?

• “How can I serve others?” (Come, Follow Me—For Aaronic Priesthood)
• “How can I be more Christlike in my service to others?” (Come, Follow Me—For Young Women)
• “Seven Days of Service” (video for youth), ChurchofJesusChrist.org
• “Service,” For the Strength of Youth (booklet, 2011), 32–33
• Bonnie L. Oscarson, “The Needs before Us,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2017, 25–27
• JustServe.org