Use for COME FOLLOW ME Young Women, Young Men, or Youth, Family Home Evening, Primary Sharing Time, or Activity Days
LESSON LIFESAVER Activity
The New Me! Changing Caterpillar poem poster
Description of Lesson Activity: Help youth realize that the covenants we make help guide our choices. Think of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly and compare it to yourself who too must struggle to progress and grow. We must constantly change, to improve our lives. Our covenants help us to change as we live God’s laws or plan of happiness.
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” As we are faced with challenges we can think of ourselves as a butterfly emerging from our cocoon. Use this Changing Caterpillar poem poster to remind you to stay close to the Spirit or the Holy Ghost, who will guide you in making important changes.
TO MAKE print activity in color or black and white.
NOTES ON “WHAT IS GRACE?”: Obtain quotes for this lesson from the talk The Gift of Grace by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
MUTUAL NIGHT, SUNDAY SCHOOL, FAMILY HOME EVENING ACTIVITIES
CATERPILLARS: Have pictures of beautiful butterflies everywhere. Try to find a chart (or video – see below*) of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Explain how the butterfly must struggle to emerge from the cocoon.
Tell the story of a young lady who was watching this process and decided to help. It looked like the butterfly was having a hard time coming out of its cocoon, so she gently peeled open the cocoon a little for the butterfly. As she watched over the next few days, it came out more easily, but its body was much larger than normal and its wings were limp and frail.
It could not fly but only wiggle and flop along the ground. This is because a butterfly must work hard to gain its freedom. The pressure to squeeze out of the tight cocoon pushes blood to its wings and completes the process. In the same way, pressure can make us strong. We can take the easy road or we can show discipline and courage and persistence and become much more!
TREATS:
. Butterfly Cookies: Make butterfly-shaped cookies using a cookie cutter or knife to cut out shape after rolling out sugar cookie dough. Youth can frost and decorate.
. Caterpillar Cake: Make a long caterpillar with several upside-down cupcakes lined up for the body with licorice antennae.
HAVE YOUTH PRESENT A FAMILY HOME EVENING ON REPENTANCE: Click Butterflies-Are-Free Repentance Garden post and present activity.
LEARN THAT PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS: Encourage youth to keep going/working, no matter how hard the task. Tell them that each time they do something that is difficult—it becomes easier the next time. Challenge them to make a list of difficult tasks and set goals to achieve.
*VIDEO: monarch butterfly emerging from chrysalis
THE ONLY THING CONSTANT IS CHANGE: Tell youth that our life changes daily in many ways and the Lord knows what is coming. We need not look for a crystal ball or psychic reading as “the world” often does. We can prepare for our future with the Holy Ghost. Let the Spirit be your guide to prompt us as we are prayerful and listen to the promptings.
LEARN ABOUT CHANGE: (1) Read stories from the New Era of youth who have made changes in their lives. (2) Show Mormonad posters (available at the Church Distribution Center), e.g., “Rise Above the Blues” (see video below), “There’s a Way Out,” “Service: Get a Handle on It,” etc. SEE MORE.
• VIDEO OR POSTER: Rise above the Blues (D&C 136:29) MormonAd
DEVELOP STRONG HABITS: Give each youth a calendar and 21 stickers. Tell them it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. Have them enter their goal for change at the top of the calendar and concentrate on that goal for 21 days. Place the stickers on the calendar for the days they tried the new habit. Tell them some habits may take less time or longer to develop, but consistency is the key. Try a new habit this month.
CHANGE RELAY: Have a dress-up relay race with a clothing box filled with men’s clothing: three or more of each item: pants, shirt, shoes or boots, hat, gloves, belt, glasses. If it is just young women, use women’s clothing. (1) Divide guests into two teams at opposite ends with clothing box in the center of the room. Each youth must run, put on 6 or 7 items over their clothing. Youth races to model outfit by walking around a chair placed four-feet away, then back to the box to remove outfit and return to their team. (2) All could receive a diaper pin pinned on a note that reads: “Prepare for Change.”
CHANGE SKIT: Put on skits about change (providing objects/props and clothes).
SOURCE: YW 3.42
. . . THE NEW ME FINDS PEACE . . .
Philippians 2:1–5, 14–18; 4:1–9; Colossians 3:1–17
We become “new” as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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You may want to help your class members visualize what it means to “put off the old man” and “put on the new man” through Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:9–10). To do this, you might display before and after pictures of something old that has been transformed into something new (such as a piece of furniture, a home, or a bike).
DOWNLOAD and talk about The New Me! Changing Caterpillar poem poster (HERE or below) -
Class members could discuss how we become “new” through our faith in Jesus Christ and our willingness to live His gospel. As part of this discussion, you could ask half of the class to study Philippians 2:1–5, 14–18; 4:1–9 and the other half to study Colossians 3:1–17, identifying characteristics of the “old man” and the “new man.” You could also invite a few class members to share how having faith in Jesus Christ and living His gospel have helped them become new people.
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Because evil is increasing in today’s world, your class members will benefit from Paul’s counsel to “think on” things that are pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). Perhaps you could assign each class member (or small groups of class members) one of the qualities listed in Philippians 4:8 or Articles of Faith 1:13. They could each use the Topical Guide to find scriptures about their assigned quality and share with the class what they find. They could also share examples of that quality in people’s lives. How do we “seek after these things”?
- SOURCE: I Can Do All Things through Christ Which Strentheneth Me” Come Follow Me SUNDAY SCHOOL lesson
MORE LESSON ACTIVITIES on the topic (click on poster) ⇓
THIS ACTIVITY CAN BE USED FOR Come Follow Me
• FEBRUARY Lesson 5 “Why do we have adversity?”
• MARCH LESSON 4 “What is grace?”
• JULY Lesson 2 “Why are covenants important in my life?”
• NOVEMBER Lesson 1 “What does it mean to be self-reliant?”
• NOVEMBER Lesson 7 “How can I find solutions to my everyday problems?”
