July

The Temple Is a House of God

Song: “I Love to See the Temple”

(CS, 95)

“Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” paragraph 3).

Supplement the ideas provided here with some of your own. Plan ways to introduce the doctrine to the children and help them understand it and apply it in their lives. Ask yourself, “What will the children do to learn, and how can I help them feel the Spirit?”

Week 1: God has commanded His people to build temples.

Introduce the doctrine: Display a picture of a temple and write on the board “The temple is .” Invite the children to the sing the first verse of “I Love to See the Temple” (CS, 95). Tell them to signal when they sing the phrase that completes the sentence on the board by folding their arms. Ask them what the temple is (a house of God). Help the children look up “Temple” in the Bible Dictionary (pages 780–81). Help them find statements explaining that a temple is literally a house of the Lord and that God has always commanded His people to build temples.

Encourage understanding: Prepare clues about the temples built by Moses (see Exodus 25:1–2, 8–9), Nephi (see 2 Nephi 5:16), and Joseph Smith (see D&C 124:31) and their followers. For example: “Our temple was called a tabernacle, and we moved it as we traveled” (Moses) or “We built a temple after leaving Jerusalem and traveling across the sea” (Nephi). Choose three children to represent these prophets, and invite them to read their clues to the Primary. Invite the other children to guess whom each child is representing. After they guess correctly, show a picture of the prophet or the temple that he and his people built.

Images available at sharingtime.lds.org

Encourage application: Show a picture of the temple nearest to where you live. Discuss the following questions: Why do you think God commands us to build temples? What can you do to prepare to go to the temple someday?

Inviting responses: Children are more likely to respond to questions if they are given time to ponder. Consider telling them that you will give them time to think before asking for responses. (See TNGC, 69.)

Week 2: Families are blessed through sacred temple ordinances.

Introduce the doctrine: Invite an older child to read the last two sentences from paragraph 3 of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” to the Primary. Put each of the following words and phrases on separate strips of paper: The temple is, a holy place, where we, are sealed, together. Place them on the board in random order. Have a child move one strip to its correct place. Continue until the words are in order. Sing the second verse of “I Love to See the Temple,” and have half of the children listen for two things we do in the temple (covenant and promise to obey) and the other half listen for a truth they have learned (a family is forever). Help the children understand that being sealed to their family in the temple means that they can be together forever.

Clearly identify the doctrine you are teaching. This helps the children understand and apply it better.

The temple is a holy place where we are sealed together.

Wordstrips available at sharingtime.lds.org

Encourage application: Invite a family or a few children to share how they feel when they visit the temple grounds or how they have been blessed because of the temple and sealing ordinances. Invite the children to draw pictures of their family outside the temple.

Love those you teach: As you teach about eternal families, be sensitive to children who do not have both a mother and a father in their home. Also be sensitive to children who have parents or siblings who are less active or who are not members of the Church. Encourage all the children to live worthily and prepare so they can have eternal families of their own someday. (See TNGC, 31–32.)

Week 3: The pioneers worked hard and sacrificed to build temples.

Encourage understanding: Gather information about the building of the Kirtland and Salt Lake Temples and, if possible, the temple nearest to where you live. (See Primary 5, lessons 25 and 44 or LDS.org for information on the Kirtland and Salt Lake Temples.) Ask some adults to come to Primary and share the information with the children. Divide the children into groups, and have the groups take turns meeting with each of the adults. Invite the children to sing “I Love to See the Temple” as they move from one guest speaker to another.

You may need to adapt activities to the needs of your Primary. For example, if your Primary is large, you may have the guest speakers move from group to group instead of moving the children from one speaker to another (see TNGC, 179).

Week 4: I can prepare to be worthy to go to the temple.

Encourage understanding and application: Display “My Gospel Standards” and explain that following these standards will help us be worthy to go to the temple. Divide the children into groups. Have a teacher in each group discuss the standards that will help the children prepare to go to the temple and testify of how living the standards has helped him or her. Ask each group to choose one of the gospel standards and then write or draw their commitment to follow that standard. Invite the bishop or branch president into Primary, and have each group share with him their commitment. Invite the bishop or branch president to share his testimony about the importance of temples.

Poster available at sharingtime.lds.org

Yearly Challenge: Remember to give children opportunities to share what they are learning from their scripture reading (see January, week 2).