room with chairs and benches

August 9–15

Doctrine and Covenants 88

“Establish … a House of God”

Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 counsels, “Teach one another words of wisdom.” What “words of wisdom” in Doctrine and Covenants 88 seem most relevant to the children you teach?

Record Your Impressions

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Invite Sharing

Tell the children that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to keep learning throughout our lives. Then ask them to share something they are learning about at home, at school, or at church.

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Teach the Doctrine: Younger Children

Doctrine and Covenants 88:63

God wants me to be close to Him.

What can you do to help the children you teach feel God’s presence in their lives?

Possible Activities

• As you read Doctrine and Covenants 88:63, invite the children to act out some of the words they hear. For example, they could pretend to look for something or knock.

• Ask a child to hold a picture of Jesus at the front of the room as the other children stand at the back of the room. Invite the children to take a step forward each time you say something we can do to come closer to the Savior and take a step backward each time you say something that distances us from the Savior. Bear your testimony that when we try to get closer to the Lord, He comes closer to us.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:118

Heavenly Father wants me to learn.

“Education is an important part of Heavenly Father’s plan to help you become more like Him. … The education you gain will be valuable to you during mortality and in the life to come” (For the Strength of Youth, 9).

Possible Activities

• Display a picture of a school, or draw one on the board, and invite the children to explain what a school is and what happens there. Tell about the school Joseph Smith started (see “Chapter 31: The Word of Wisdom,” Doctrine and Covenants Stories, 119–22). Show the children pictures of a home, a church, and a temple, and ask them how these places are also like schools.

• Sing a song about learning, such as “Search, Ponder, and Pray” (Children’s Songbook, 109). Ask the children what they enjoy learning about.

• Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:118, and emphasize the phrase “teach one another.” Share some wisdom that you have learned from each of the children in your class, and invite them to share wisdom they have learned.

  children studying the scriptures

  We should seek wisdom and learning.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

The temple is the house of God.

Consider how you will help the children feel love for the temple and a desire to worship the Lord there when they are ready.

Possible Activities

• Show the children how to make a temple “spire” by raising their arms and touching their fingertips together. Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119, and ask them to make a spire every time you say the word “house.” Explain that Heavenly Father wanted Joseph Smith and the Saints to build a temple, or a “house of God.” Display a picture of a nearby temple as you talk about the differences between a temple and a Church meetinghouse.

• Share your testimony of the temple, and sing together a song about the temple, such as “I Love to See the Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 95). Invite the children to draw a picture of themselves going to the temple.

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Teach the Doctrine: Older Children

Doctrine and Covenants 88:68, 74

Jesus Christ can make me clean from sin.

To be sanctified means to be made clean and pure. How can you help the children you teach understand that they can be sanctified when they follow Jesus Christ?

Possible Activities

• Invite one child to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:68 aloud and another to read verse 74. Ask the children to listen for a phrase that is in both of these verses. How do we “sanctify” ourselves? (If needed, help the children look up “Sanctification” in the Guide to the Scriptures.) Draw a picture of a heart, a hand, and a foot on the board. Help the children think of what it might mean to “purify” and “cleanse” our hearts, hands, and feet. How does the Savior help us do this? How can we use our hearts, hands, and feet to become more like Jesus?

• Explain that the Lord wanted His people to be sanctified before they could go into the temple. Consider inviting a young man or young woman who has a temple recommend to visit the class. Invite him or her to show the children what a recommend looks like, discuss what they do to live worthy of it, and share why it’s important to have a temple recommend even if we don’t live close to a temple.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:77–80, 118

Heavenly Father wants me to learn.

You can help the children understand that learning about both spiritual and temporal matters can prepare them to serve the Lord.

Possible Activities

• Write on the board What, Why, and How. Invite the children to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:77–79 in pairs and make a list of what the Lord wants us to learn about. Then ask them to search verse 80 to find out why He wants us to learn. They can then search verse 118 to find out how we should learn. What do we learn from these verses about how the Lord views education and learning?

• Display a map of the world, and read together Doctrine and Covenants 88:79. Why is it important for us to learn about other countries and cultures? If you or the children you teach have visited or lived in another country, show items that represent the culture, and share things you learned.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–26

“Establish … a house of God.”

The Lord’s instructions regarding the “house of God” can be a helpful guide for us as we build our lives and our homes.

Possible Activities

• Invite the children to choose seven words that describe their home or another home they’ve visited. Then ask them to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 and find the seven words the Lord uses to describe His house. Help the children think of ways they can make their homes a “house of God.”

• Give each child a phrase from Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–26 to draw. When they show their pictures to each other, let the children search the verses to guess what phrase each picture represents.

• Write on the board Do and Don’t. Invite the children to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–26 and list things the Lord wanted the Saints to do or not do to prepare to learn in the temple. They could look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary. Invite the children to choose something that they will start doing or something they will stop doing.

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Encourage Learning at Home

Invite the children to write down or draw one thing they learned that they would like to share with their families.

Improving Our Teaching

Help young children participate in gospel discussions. You may need to think of creative ways to have gospel discussions with younger children. For example, you might bring to class something the children can hold when it is their turn to speak.

activity page: the temple is the house of God