YOUTH GOALS &
POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY
POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY. LOVED FROM UP ABOVE Hearts-on-a-String. Youth can share how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ show Their love for us by allowing us to come to earth, giving us talents, gave us a family; Jesus suffered for our sins, suffered and died for us (and more).
SPIRITUAL
Youth GOAL
Loved From Up Above
Learn that God: Our Heavenly Father and Jesus love us perfectly.
Goal Ideas
With this Loved From Up Above – Hearts-on-a-String Post-and-Present activity, YOUTH CAN TEACH ways Heavenly Father shows His love for us and ways we can show our love for Him found on the hearts (they can string across the room).
Encourage youth to learn about God’s love by studying the Church magazines, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon, which will bring us closer to God. These words will help us know that God has never stopped loving His people.
POST-AND-PRESENT Activity
I Am Loved From Up Above hearts-on-a-string
Inspiration
“We increase our love for our Heavenly Father and demonstrate that love by aligning our thoughts and actions with God’s word. His pure love directs and encourages us to become more pure and holy. It inspires us to walk in righteousness—not out of fear or obligation but out of an earnest desire to become even more like Him because we love Him.” – The Love of God, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency
OBJECTIVE: Help youth learn ways Heavenly Father shows His love for us and ways we can show our love for Him.
ACTIVITY:
1. Ask children/youth, “How can you tell Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you?” Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ don’t want us to be alone on this earth, so they have given us many blessings to show us we are loved from up above. We can also show our love for Them.
2. Have children/youth take turns coming up and following steps 1-4 that follow, to show and tell how they are loved from up above.
*Step 1: Have children/youth take turns unclipping a heart love note from the string and reading it aloud. Then have them let go of the heart so it falls (the string will catch it, as shown). This catching symbolizes that we are loved from up above—Heavenly Father and Jesus love us very much and catch us, coming to the rescue, sending their love in many ways.
Step 2: Read the love note, e.g., “Heavenly Father gave us a family.”
Step 3: Tell how this shows that they are loved from up above, e.g., “Heavenly Father wants us to have a family to love us and care for us and teach us the right way to live.”
Step 4: Tell what we can do to show Heavenly Father we love Him because of this love He sent from up above, e.g., “Be kind to family members,” or “Honor and obey my parents.”
3. Continue until all notes have been read and talked about. Examples of Hearts: Heavenly Father made it possible for us to pray to Him. Heavenly Father gave us families. Heavenly Father gave us our agency so we can choose for ourselves. Jesus suffered for our sins, making it possible for us to repent when we do wrong. MORE in the pdf.
TO MAKE Print activity in color or black and white. Cut out the hearts. Laminate and cut out. Attach hearts (see more details in the pdf download).
THOUGHT TREAT: Loved From Up Above – Heart Cookies. Cut out heart-shaped sugar cookies and frost. As children/youth eat, have them tell a way they think Heavenly Father has shown us that He loves us (on the hearts above) or their own ideas. Examples: He created parents to guide us, teachers to teach us, animals for pets, and the earth to bring us beauty and joy. He created the opportunity for us to come to earth to obtain a body and to have the agency to make choices and learn how to return to Him again.
MORE ACTIVITIES
For Church or Family
Identify the doctrine (playing a guessing game): Tell the children that you are thinking of someone who loves us, knows each of us, helps us, and lives far away. Ask them to guess who you are thinking of (Heavenly Father). Discuss our relationship with Heavenly Father. Invite the children to repeat together “God is my Heavenly Father. He knows and loves me.” SHARE WITH YOUTH THE “I AM LOVED FROM UP ABOVE” POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY (ABOVE).
Encourage understanding (reading scriptures): Divide the children into groups. Have each group read Enos 1:5, Moses 1:6, and Joseph Smith—History 1:17 SEE SCRIPTURE POSTER FOR THIS SCRIPTURE TO DOWNLOAD BELOW and discuss how the Lord addresses each prophet. Ask the children: “If Heavenly Father visited you, what would He call you?” Bear testimony that God knows each of us by name.
Encourage application (singing songs): Have the children stand in a circle and pass around several items that represent God’s love for His children as they sing “I Am a Child of God” (CS, 2–3), or “I Know My Father Lives” (CS, 5). SEE SONG VISUALS TO DOWNLOAD BELOW. Items could include scriptures, a picture of the sacrament, a piece of fruit, or a picture of a family. Randomly stop the singing and have the children holding an item share one way they know God loves them. Repeat as time allows. CHILDREN CAN PASS AROUND THE HEARTS AND READ THE MESSAGES FROM THE “HEARTS-ON-A-STRING” POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY (ABOVE).
MORE GOALS & ACTIVITIES:
