Additional Sharing Time Ideas, August 2006

The following are additional ideas Primary leaders may use with the Sharing Time printed in the August 2006 Liahona. For the lesson, instructions, and activity that correspond with these ideas, see “The Scriptures Show the Way” on pages F4 and F5 of the children’s section in this issue.

1. Display Gospel Art Picture Kit 240 (Jesus the Christ). Tell the story of Alma’s repentance (see Mosiah 27). Explain that we can be forgiven just as Alma was. Help the children memorize D&C 58:42. Tell the children that we have the story of Alma in the scriptures so that we can learn from his experience. Explain, however, that the Lord no longer remembers the things that Alma did wrong. To put it another way, “none of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him” (Ezekiel 33:16).

Demonstrate repentance by showing a clear glass jar with water in it. (Depending upon the water in your area, you may need to add two tablespoons of vinegar to make the water clearer.) Liken this clear water to us when we came to earth. We were pure and clean. When we make wrong choices and sin, we become impure. (Pour water colored with food coloring into the jar.) But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we are able to repent, even as Alma did. (Pour bleach into the jar—water should return to clear if there wasn’t too much coloring.) Then we are pure and clean again. Bear testimony of repentance. To help children understand what it means to repent, refer to Primary 3, lesson 10.

2. Be prepared to tell the story of the stripling warriors in your own words (see Alma 53:10–22; 56–57). Using the language of the scriptures, prepare parts for boys ages 10 and 11 that describe the stripling warriors. For example, “I am a stripling warrior, and I made a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites” [Alma 53:17]; “We were all young men and were exceedingly valiant for courage” [Alma 53:20]. Continue writing similar parts using Alma 56:44–48; 57:19–27.

Introduce the Sharing Time by briefly reviewing the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies as given on the back of Gospel Art Picture Kit 311 (The Anti-Nephi-Lehies Burying Their Swords; see also Alma 23–24). As prepared earlier, tell the story of the stripling warriors and have the older boys read their parts. Prepare simple case studies (see Teaching, No Greater Call [1999], 161–62) that pose questions about appropriate music, media, language, dress, and so on. Place them in a basket, and pass it up and down the rows as you hum a song or hymn. Randomly stop the music, and have the child with the basket draw out and read a case study. Let the “stripling warriors” answer what they would do because “their mothers taught them.” Continue until all of the case studies have been answered.