POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY. MY TESTIMONY OF JESUS weak or strong plant builder. Youth can learn ways to grow a strong testimony by gathering leaves (actions) and placing them under the matching STRONG or WEAK plant.
USE FOR: COME FOLLOW ME, Primary and Home lessons, Family Home Evening, Young Women, Activity Days, Sunday School, Bible Study
POST-AND-PRESENT Activity
My Strong Testimony of Jesus – weak or strong plant builder
OBJECTIVE: Help children/youth desire to gain a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. They can learn ways to make their testimony grow STRONG and ways their testimony can grow WEAK.
POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY:
1. Tell children/youth the story “A Growing Testimony” (Ensign, Nov. 2000) about President James E. Faust gaining a testimony of Jesus Christ. You can say, “When President Faust was a child, he had a nightmare and woke up crying. His grandmother hugged him, comforted him, and told him they were safe because Jesus Christ was watching over them. He went peacefully back to bed, assured that Jesus does watch over us.”
2. Tell children/youth that Jesus Christ watches over us, and if we want to increase our faith in Him, we need to do things that will help us gain a strong testimony of Him. Take turns gathering leaves that will show ways to make your testimony strong, and place them on the smiling “My Testimony of Jesus Grows STRONG” plant. Watch out! Some of these actions will make your testimony WEAK, making you sad. Place these on the “My Testimony of Jesus Grows WEAK” plant.
3. Review the STRONG plant leaves. Tell children that as they do these STRONG actions by choosing the right, their testimony will continue to grow STRONG and they will always be happy.
TO MAKE Print activity in color or black and white. Mount the planter boxes and leaves on the poster as shown; then laminate the entire poster. Laminate the leaves, and place double-stick tape on the back.
THOUGHT TREAT: Testimony Leaf Cookies. Cut out sugar cookie dough into leaf shapes, bake and frost. As children/youth eat their cookie, talk about ways you can build a strong plant or testimony. This way when temptation comes you will not be weak, you can be strong and say “no.” You might say to the youth, “What a ‘re-leaf’ it is to have the gospel that helps our testimony-plant to be strong.”
MORE LESSON IDEAS (on the subject):
President Boyd K. Packer, Apostle said, “You cannot force spiritual things. A testimony is not thrust upon you; it grows. And a testimony is a testimony, and it should be respected, whether it is small or large. We become taller in our testimony like we grow in physical stature and hardly know it is happening, because it comes by growth.” Talk: How Does the Spirit Speak to Us?
More Learning Activities:
SCRIPTURE POSTERS TO DOWNLOAD HERE:
• The Holy Ghost Testifies of Truth – Moroni 10:5 scripture poster
• Testimony that Jesus Christ Lives! – D&C 76:22 scripture poster
SONGS USING SONG VISUALS (to DOWNLOAD HERE):
• Seek the Lord Early (CS, 108)
• Faith (CS, 96-97)
SEE YOUNG WOMEN LESSON: Come, Follow Me – May – How can I strengthen my testimony?
. . . Testimony Seeds packet with clues
. . . Testimony Lost and Found game
. . . Wise Man “Built His House Upon a Rock” testimony building project
. . . We Believe in God – 3 Personages – Articles of Faith 1:1 – scripture poster
. . . I Know My Savior Lives bookmarks
May: “Prophets and Revelation”
“We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Articles of Faith 1:9).
“Come Follow Me” Lesson 5: How can I strengthen my testimony?
November: “Spiritual and Temporal Self-Reliance”
“The power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves” (D&C 58:28).
Come, Follow Me” Lesson 5: How do I know if I am becoming converted?
December: “Building Kingdom of God in the Latter-days”
“May the kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of heaven may come” (D&C 65:6).
Come, Follow Me” Lesson 1: How can I invite others to come unto Christ?
Source ST.2014.Mar.1
