COME FOLLOW ME Doctrine and Covenants – AUGUST (week 3) Lesson 33 “Establish … a House of God” D&C 88 (August 9-15, 2021) – Activities and Song Visuals for Primary and Home, family home evening (individual families), Sunday School, Seminary

As you read Doctrine and Covenants 88:63, invite the children to act out some of the words they hear. For example, they could pretend to look for something or knock.

Ask a child to hold a picture of Jesus at the front of the room as the other children stand at the back of the room. Invite the children to take a step forward each time you say something we can do to come closer to the Savior and take a step backward each time you say something that distances us from the Savior. Bear your testimony that when we try to get closer to the Lord, He comes closer to us.
DOWNLOAD Jesus is Knocking – Are You Ready? preparation ponder Post-and-Present Activity (HERE or below)

Just days after warning that war would be “poured out upon all nations” (Doctrine and Covenants 87:2), the Lord gave a revelation that Joseph Smith called an “‘olive leaf’ … plucked from the Tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us” (Doctrine and Covenants 88, section heading). How is this revelation like an olive leaf, a traditional symbol of peace? (see also Genesis 8:11). What truths in this section help you feel hope and peace in Christ?

Display a picture of a school, or draw one on the board, and invite the children to explain what a school is and what happens there. Tell about the school Joseph Smith started (see “Chapter 31: The Word of Wisdom,” Doctrine and Covenants Stories, 119–22). Show the children pictures of a home, a church, and a temple, and ask them how these places are also like schools.

Sing a song about learning, such as “Search, Ponder, and Pray” (Children’s Songbook, 109). Ask the children what they enjoy learning about.

Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:118, and emphasize the phrase “teach one another.” Share some wisdom that you have learned from each of the children in your class, and invite them to share wisdom they have learned.

You can help the children understand that learning about both spiritual and temporal matters can prepare them to serve the Lord.

Show the children how to make a temple “spire” by raising their arms and touching their fingertips together. Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119, and ask them to make a spire every time you say the word “house.” Explain that Heavenly Father wanted Joseph Smith and the Saints to build a temple, or a “house of God.”
DOWNLOAD Ancient & Latter-day Temples – Temples Through Time puppet show (HERE or below)

Display a picture of a nearby temple as you talk about the differences between a temple and a Church meetinghouse.

Share your testimony of the temple, and sing together a song about the temple, such as “I Love to See the Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 95). Invite the children to draw a picture of themselves going to the temple.
DOWNLOAD I Love to See the Temple song visuals (HERE or below)

Invite one child to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:68 aloud and another to read verse 74. Ask the children to listen for a phrase that is in both of these verses. How do we “sanctify” ourselves? (If needed, help the children look up “Sanctification” in the Guide to the Scriptures.) Draw a picture of a heart, a hand, and a foot on the board. Help the children think of what it might mean to “purify” and “cleanse” our hearts, hands, and feet. How does the Savior help us do this? How can we use our hearts, hands, and feet to become more like Jesus?
DOWNLOAD Follow Jesus’s Steps example sandals (HERE or below)

Explain that the Lord wanted His people to be sanctified before they could go into the temple. Consider inviting a young man or young woman who has a temple recommend to visit the class. Invite him or her to show the children what a recommend looks like, discuss what they do to live worthy of it, and share why it’s important to have a temple recommend even if we don’t live close to a temple.

Invite the children to choose seven words that describe their home or another home they’ve visited. Then ask them to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 and find the seven words the Lord uses to describe His house. Help the children think of ways they can make their homes a “house of God.”

Give each child a phrase from Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–26 to draw. When they show their pictures to each other, let the children search the verses to guess what phrase each picture represents.

Write on the board Do and Don’t. Invite the children to read Doctrine and Covenants 88:119–26 and list things the Lord wanted the Saints to do or not do to prepare to learn in the temple. They could look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary. Invite the children to choose something that they will start doing or something they will stop doing.