YOUTH LESSON ACTIVITY. GOOD CHOICES: No Worms in My Apples! happy choices tree. Youth can ponder the good apple choices that make them happy and the bad choices that can make them sad (worms in apple). As they tell how they can REPENT of a bad choice they can get a new smiley apple to place on the tree (tossing the wormy apple).
FOR CHURCH & HOME, Primary, Sunday School, and family home evening
POST-AND-PRESENT Activity
CHOICES & REPENTANCE
No Worms in My Apples! happy choices tree
OBJECTIVE: Help youth learn about good choices that bring a smile and bad choices that make us sad (like having a worm in our apple).
TO MAKE Print apples in color or black-and-white, and then color. Cut out the images and laminate the tree. Place the tree on a poster or board. Place the apples in a container to draw from. Set aside in a separate container the plain smiley face apples (to replace the wormy apples once they tell how they can repent).
ACTIVITY:
Tell the youth that this HAPPY CHOICES TREE will help us think about the good choices Heavenly Father wants us to make, to keep His commandments. This way we can be happy and live in His kingdom someday.
Step 1. Place apples in a container or a bag and have the youth take turns choosing an apple and reading the situation aloud. If it is a good choice place the apple on the tree.
Step 2. If they read a bad choice apple (with the worm), they can place it under the tree.
IF THEY REPENT by telling how they would right the wrong, they can draw a smiling apple and place it on the tree. When we truly repent Jesus said He “remembers it no more.” D&C 58:42 “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.”
If we think ahead and not make a bad choice we won’t have to repent and dig the worm out of our apple. We can always try to Choose The Right (CTR).
If we make a mistake and repent, Heavenly Father has promised to make us new again and this will put smiles on our faces.
To keep the worms out of our apples, we have to be STRONG and say, “No.”
DISCUSSION. Ask the youth, “Why do you think Heavenly Father allows us to remember our bad choices?” So we can remember the consequences and try not to make that choice again. It helps us to think ahead.
THOUGHT TREAT Apples (without worms). Cut up apples and squirt cheese from the can on the apples or dip in nut butter and/or whipped cream.
For teens, ponder the following scriptures about repentance.
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
D&C 58:42-43 “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them.”
Moroni 10:32-33
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ … the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.”
Mosiah 3:19
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
DOWNLOAD and the Eraser Promises (Steps-to-Repentance Pencil and bookmark (HERE).
*STEPS TO REPENTANCE Lesson Ideas:
Read D&C 58:42-43 “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them.”
DOWNLOAD and the Eraser Promises (Steps-to-Repentance Pencil and bookmark (HERE).
How can I order the Apple Activity?
This should be available on September 15th or sooner. Thank you. Here is the new description.
YOUTH LESSON ACTIVITY. GOOD CHOICES: No Worms in My Apples! happy choices tree. Youth can ponder the good apple choices that make them happy and the bad choices that can make them sad (worms in apple). As they tell how they can REPENT of a bad choice they can get a new smiley apple to place on the tree (tossing the wormy apple).