Sometimes our children seem bored or seek distractions when we try to discuss the gospel with them. How can we help them enjoy learning about the gospel?

Response by Claudia Porter Black, Laurel adviser and counselor in the Young Women’s presidency of the Mesa Sixty-first Ward, Mesa Arizona East Stake.

We’ve struggled with this problem in our family. Here are some of the things we’ve learned.

Be enthusiastic. The word enthusiasm stems from words that literally mean “having God within us.” How essential inspiration is! Without it, and the enthusiasm it generates, our teaching can die from a lack of spirit.

Enthusiasm begins with prayer, which invites the Spirit into our hearts. It continues with dedicated preparation. Nothing kills enthusiasm as fear does, and the antidote to fear is preparation (see D&C 38:30). Keeping things simple also helps. Like Nephi of old, children delight in plainness and simplicity (see 2 Ne. 25:4).

Using real, personal examples builds enthusiasm. That principle applies no matter what the topic is. Imagine teaching a genealogy lesson about a generic “ancestor” instead of about the real people with real names, people who look formal and solemn in those old photographs. There’s no comparison. Real-life examples enliven lessons, whereas made-up examples (or none at all) invite dullness and distance.

Challenge and involve the children. Stimulate their minds with puzzles, games, quizzes, and thought-provoking questions. Involve them in preparing visual aids, organizing games, explaining things to younger children, preparing and serving refreshments, and so on. In families with wide age spreads, it’s hard to challenge all the children all the time. But if we target the various ages in the family as we present different segments of a lesson, it’s usually possible to keep everyone involved.

Introduce variety into lessons. When eyes stare at an unchanging scene, perception and attention quickly fade. That’s what happens to our children if our lessons are static. So, for variety’s sake, try to teach precepts with stories. Also use puzzles, charts, pictures, games, songs, role playing, and other teaching methods. Remember that the younger the children, the more variety they need. But don’t overdo it.

Use resource materials. For years, our family scripture-study program consisted of reading the Book of Mormon page by page. Then for Christmas one year, we received a book that organizes scriptures from the standard works into a year-long, topical, family scripture-reading plan. For our family, given our stage of development, it’s been just what we needed—a mine of ideas and inspiration.

Many such resources exist. For general principles of teaching, try the Church’s Teaching: No Greater Call (1978) or The How Book for Teaching Children (revised 1984). For topics and ideas, try the Family Home Evening Resource Book (1983), with accompanying family home evening videos (nos. 53276 and 53277). The many Church videos are also helpful. And for a real teaching-resources treasure hunt, visit your ward library. Many LDS-oriented publishers and bookstores offer resource materials that, with careful selection and prayerful preparation, can stimulate our lessons. Information from general conference addresses can provide current, relevant authority on most gospel subjects.

Take advantage of teaching moments. Some of our best gospel discussions and teaching have happened accidentally.

When one of our daughters was in seventh grade, two of her friends told her that if she didn’t stop speaking to another friend, they would stop speaking to her. As painful as the experience was, it gave us many unplanned teaching moments. And when she managed to bring the three friends together again, the experience became a joyful case study in several gospel principles that have served her—and us—ever since.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Once, when our children didn’t seem to be responding to our gospel-oriented family home evening lessons, we prayed for a solution. The thought came to us that we needed a change of pace. So for the next lesson, we showed electron-microscope photographs of things like mosquitoes, immune-system cells, and the surface of a tongue. Our children became curious and enthusiastic. A week later, we showed amusing slides of my husband when he was a boy. And a week after that, we showed visual puzzles and optical illusions with the same result.

Although we weren’t directly teaching the gospel during these innovative lessons, the change of pace rejuvenated the children’s interest (and our own as well). Soon we worked our way back to a mix of innovative lessons and the more usual gospel topics, which our children more willingly received.

Teach the gospel for its own sake. For a long time, we taught lessons on what we were worried about—things the children were doing wrong or areas our family needed to improve. How dispiriting those lessons seemed, full of exhortation and gloom! Then we began teaching joyful gospel topics for their own sake, setting aside for a time our concerns. As our lessons brightened, our family problems began to diminish. Perhaps the Apostle Paul had a similar result in mind when he counseled, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).

Photo by Steve Bunderson