One reason Heavenly Father sent us to earth in families is to help us experience happiness. In the family proclamation, the Lord revealed how we can achieve peace and happiness as individuals and families. This lesson can help students apply the teachings of Jesus Christ in their family relationships.
Possible Learning Activities
Cause and effect
Consider writing the following incomplete cause-and-effect sentence on the board. Complete the first blank with a phrase like “Getting good grades.” Then invite students to fill in the second blank with a phrase that completes the statement, such as “we do homework.” You could repeat this process a few times using different phrases.
“ is most likely to be achieved when .”
Invite students to read paragraph 7 of the family proclamation, looking for an inspired way to complete the phrase on the board. Help students recognize the following truth: Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. To help students think about how living Christ’s teachings can lead to happiness in family life, ask them to ponder questions like the following:
In what ways do you think Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ could increase your family’s happiness?
How have your efforts to live Their teachings contributed to that happiness?
Inform students that at the end of this lesson, they will be invited to act on one of the Savior’s teachings that could increase the happiness of their family. Invite students to seek Heavenly Father’s help during the rest of the lesson to know which principle they should focus on. Encourage students to pay attention to any thoughts or feelings they receive from the Holy Ghost.
The teachings of Jesus Christ
Consider putting a picture of Jesus Christ on the board. Ask students to read paragraph 7 again, this time marking each teaching that can increase family happiness. Invite students to write what they found on the board around the picture of Jesus Christ. Then have students form small groups or pairs to complete the following activity:
Choose a teaching of Jesus Christ you found in paragraph 7.
Find a scripture or a statement by a Church leader that helps us better understand that teaching.
Describe how following that teaching can increase happiness in families.
If available, invite students to search “Happiness in Family Life,” available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, to find teachings from Church leaders about the principles in paragraph 7.
After sufficient time, invite groups to share with the class what they found. As groups share, ask them to write on the board the scripture reference or part of the Church leader’s statement that helped them understand the teaching of Jesus Christ.
Then you could use questions like the following to help students ponder and discuss how the teachings of Jesus Christ can affect families.
Which of Christ’s teachings on the board have had an impact on the happiness you feel in your family?
Which of these teachings would you like to focus on more in your family? Why? How can you accomplish this in your family?
Which of them would you like to focus on in your future family? Why?
Which of the Savior’s teachings can help a family that is struggling with disagreement, contention, or strained relationships?
As students discuss the previous question, you might point them to the principles of “faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, [and] compassion” in the paragraph they studied. Testify of the Savior’s desire to forgive, heal, and improve individuals and family relationships. Our efforts and desires to repent and forgive others can invite His healing influence into our lives and relationships.
Increasing happiness
Before inviting students to apply one of the Savior’s teachings to their own family, help them consider ways His teachings could be applied in various family situations. Consider writing a few different family situations on the board that students in your class might relate to. Examples could include the following:
Entire family active in the Church.
Part-member family.
Divorced parents.
Single-parent family.
Consider asking students to share answers to the following questions for each family situation on the board:
Which specific principles from paragraph 7 of the family proclamation would you recommend to a teenager in this situation?
How could a teenager in this family situation apply the principles you chose?
Then consider displaying the following statement:
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
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Elder David A. Bednar
Whatever bad things may have occurred in your family, I testify and promise that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of the healing, renewing, and restoring that you need. …
With the help of the Lord, you can create an eternal family, even if you did not come from the kind of Latter-day Saint home that sometimes is featured on the covers of the Liahona or Ensign magazines. Please always remember: it begins with you! (David A. Bednar, “A Welding Link” [worldwide devotional for young adults, Sept. 10, 2017], broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org)
What stood out to you from Elder Bednar’s statement? Why?
Invite students to choose one of Jesus’s teachings from the family proclamation that they feel prompted to apply to improve happiness in their own families. Give them time to ponder and write in their study journals a plan to start, continue, or improve living that teaching. If time permits, invite some students to share what they felt inspired to do.
Consider sharing your witness of Jesus Christ’s power to increase happiness in families of those striving to live His teachings.