Sermon on the Mount, by Jorge Cocco

February 18–24

Matthew 5; Luke 6

“Blessed Are Ye”

Start by reading Matthew 5 and Luke 6. Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families can help you understand these chapters, and this outline can give you teaching ideas.

Record Your Impressions

Invite Sharing

Ask the children to talk about something they did this week to share the light of the Lord with someone.

Teach the Doctrine

Younger Children

Matthew 5:9

I can be a peacemaker.

The children you teach can have a powerful influence at home as they treat others with love and kindness.

Possible Activities

• Read Matthew 5:9 to the children, and explain that peacemakers make any place a peaceful place, no matter where they are. Share a few fictional scenarios, and help the children identify whether or not the people involved are being peacemakers.

• Invite a few of the children’s parents to visit your class and share examples of times when their children were peacemakers in the home.

• Write on strips of paper several difficult situations the children might face (for example, siblings fighting over a toy). Invite each child to pick a strip of paper. As you read the scenarios, ask them to share how they could be a peacemaker in that situation.

Matthew 5:14–16

Jesus wants me to be a light to others.

Little children can have a powerful influence for good on others. How can you inspire them to let their light shine?

Possible Activities

• Show the children several items that give light, including a picture of children. Read Matthew 5:14–16, and tell the children that we all have a light within us. How can we use our light to bring others to God?

• Shine a flashlight around the room. How does light help us? How can we be a light to the world? Cover the flashlight. What happens if we don’t share our light or if we hide it?

• Hide a flashlight in the room, and turn off the lights. Let the children try to find it. Review Matthew 5:15, and talk about why we shouldn’t hide our light.

• Shine a flashlight on the wall, and invite the children to follow the light with their eyes. Use the light to lead their eyes to a picture of the Savior. Ask the children to share how we can be a light that leads others to Jesus Christ.

• Help the children find and color the hidden candles in this week’s activity page.

• Sing with the children “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” “Shine On,” or “I Am like a Star,” Children’s Songbook, 60–61, 144, 163.

Matthew 5:44–45

Jesus Christ wants me to love everyone.

Younger children can begin now to practice showing love, even when they are mistreated by peers or siblings. As you read Matthew 5:44–45, consider how the Savior’s teachings apply to the children you teach.

Possible Activities

• Restate Matthew 5:44 using words and situations the children will understand and relate to. Ask the children to share times when they showed love for someone even though it was hard. How did these experiences make them feel?

• As a class, sing “I’ll Walk with You,” Children’s Songbook, 140–41. What do we learn from this song about loving others?

• Give the children paper hearts labeled with the words “I will show my love for everyone.” Ask them to decorate the hearts and hang them in their homes as a reminder to love others.

• Help the children learn the actions to go with “Love One Another,” Children’s Songbook, 136–37, as suggested in the Children’s Songbook.

Teach the Doctrine

Older Children

Matthew 5:3–12

I can be happy when I live the way Jesus taught.

As you read Matthew 5:3–12, what words and phrases stand out to you? How will these teachings bless the lives of the children you teach?

Possible Activities

• Create a chart on the board with two columns, labeled Blessed are … and Blessing. Invite the children to search Matthew 5:3–12 for who Jesus says is blessed and the blessings He promises them.

• Write each of the qualities and their corresponding blessings from these verses on cards, and let the children match the qualities and the blessings. Ask the children to pick one of the qualities in these verses that they want to develop.

Matthew 5:9, 21–24, 38–47

I can be a peacemaker.

Jesus taught that peacemakers will be called the children of God. How can you inspire the children to be peacemakers?

Possible Activities

• Invite a child to read Matthew 5:9. Then ask: What is a peacemaker? What are ways we can be peacemakers with our families and friends? (For some ideas, see verses 21–24, 38–47.)

• Ask each child to think of a situation that would need the help of a peacemaker. What would a peacemaker do in the situation?

• Invite the children to share times when they showed love for someone, even if that person was different from them or was difficult to love.

Matthew 5:14–16

My example can light the way for others to follow Jesus.

Think about the children you teach as you read these verses. What messages might the Lord have for the children in this passage?

Possible Activities

• Help the children memorize Matthew 5:16. Write the verse on the board. Read it together several times, erasing a few words each time. After the children have memorized the verse, you could also sing “Shine On,” Children’s Songbook, 144.

• Ask the children to draw things that give us light. Read Matthew 5:14–16. Ask them why Jesus wants us to be a light to the world.

• Invite the children to draw things they can do to be a light to others. You could show the video “Light the World: 25 Days of Service” (LDS.org). Invite two children to face each other, and ask one to try to make the other smile without touching him or her. Talk about the power the children have to bring happiness to others.

Encourage Learning at Home

Challenge the children to watch for someone being a peacemaker this week. At the beginning of next week’s class, invite them to talk about who and what they saw.

Improving Our Teaching

Help children be active. “As you teach children, allow them to build, draw, color, write, and create. These things are more than fun activities—they are essential to learning” (Teaching in the Savior’s Way, 25).