I can ask Heavenly Father to help me learn what is true.
Help the children you teach understand that they can turn to Heavenly Father for wisdom. Doing so will bless them greatly when they face difficult questions.
Possible Activities
Help the children repeat the phrase “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5). How do we ask God questions? How does He answer us?
After the children complete the picture you can tell them Joesph Smith's story.
Or watch this video.
Show a picture of the First Vision (Gospel Art Book, no. 90), or show the video “Joseph Smith’s First Vision” (ChurchofJesusChrist.org). Explain how reading James 1:5 prompted Joseph Smith to ask Heavenly Father to help him with a question (see Joseph Smith—History 1:1–20). Share your testimony that God answers prayers, and testify that the children can pray to Him when they have questions. Let the children draw their own pictures of Joseph Smith reading James 1:5 and praying to Heavenly Father.
Here is an activity/coloring book that teaches about Joseph Smith's first vision.
Click on the image to be taken to Etsy. Be sure to look at the pictures on the listing so you understand how to cut the whole for the HE.
I can speak with kindness.
As James testified, learning to say only kind things to others will help us become like Jesus Christ (see James 3:2).
Possible Activities
Show pictures of something sweet and something sour. Help the children understand that Heavenly Father asks us to use our tongues to say sweet (or kind) things and not sour (or unkind) things (see James 3:10). Help them think of examples of nice things we can say to others.
To encourage movement, you can put these on two opposite walls, and say things like "You are a meany" and see which side they run to, or "you are such a good friend."
Here is a fun idea. I use this tissue box guy a lot, so don't throw him away.
Have the students draw or write nice things they can tell someone and put it in the mouth. (For example they could say nice things about someone's shoes or hair...then they would draw shoes or hair.) When they are done, you pull out the paper, you may need help from the students to say what it is that they have drawn or wrote. But they will still be excited to have their paper picked(:
Give each child a simple drawing of a person speaking. Invite the children to hold it up when you say something nice that we can do with our words (such as telling the truth, giving compliments, and offering to help someone) and put it down when you say something that we shouldn’t do with our tongues (such as telling lies, calling other people names, and refusing to obey a parent).
Reinforce the message of James 3:1–13 by singing together a song about being kind, such as “Kindness Begins with Me” (Children’s Songbook, 145).
Click on the image to be taken to Etsy.
Receiving God’s blessings requires patience.
Patience doesn’t always come naturally, especially for children. Consider how you can use James’s counsel to help the children you teach learn patience.
Possible Activities
Help the children think of times when they have had to wait for something that they really wanted. Share an experience when you had to wait. Explain that waiting for something we want without complaining is called being patient.
Summarize James 5:7 in your own words, and show a picture of a seed or seedling. Why do we need patience when we grow plants? What would happen if we tried to pull on the seedling to make it grow faster? You might also talk with the children about what it means to be patient with others and ourselves. Testify that God can help us learn to be patient.
Share the story of Job, who is mentioned in James 5:11 as an example of patience (see “Job,” in Old Testament Stories, or the corresponding video on ChurchofJesusChrist.org). How was Job blessed for being patient?
Teach the Doctrine: Older Children
Heavenly Father will help me learn truth if I seek His help.
The children you teach are only a few years younger than Joseph Smith was when he read James 1:5 and was inspired to approach Heavenly Father in prayer. Consider how you can help the children you teach build their faith that God will help them when they lack wisdom.
Possible Activities
Ask the children to tell you the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in their own words (see Joseph Smith—History 1:5–20; see also the video “Joseph Smith’s First Vision” on ChurchofJesusChrist.org).
How did reading James 1:5 help Joseph? Help the children think of other examples of people in the scriptures who received an answer to their prayers, such as Nephi (see 1 Nephi 11:1–6) and the brother of Jared (see Ether 2:18–3:9). What are some things we can ask Heavenly Father in prayer?
Read with the children Joseph Smith—History 1:10–14. Invite the children to find things Joseph Smith did to receive answers to his questions. How can we follow Joseph’s example when we have questions?
“Faith without works is dead.”
How will you help the children see the connection between what they believe and what they do?
Possible Activities
Show the children a flashlight without batteries, a pencil without lead, or something else that is useless or “dead.” Ask the children to read James 2:14–17. How do these objects illustrate the truth in these verses?
I love this object lesson, if I was doing it I would get out my husbands electric drill, because the battery is so easy for the students to remove and put back. Obviously I would remove the drill bit(:
Here is an additional idea:
Assemble the Caterpillar while discussing what we believe, ask the children what the caterpillar is missing (the feet) explain that we can't just believe we have to do. What do we have to do if we believe in the scriptures? (read them) What do we have to do if we believe in Jesus? (pray to him) etc. After they give the right answers they can put feet on the caterpillar.
Invite some of the children to quietly read James 1:22–27 and others to read 2:14–18. Then invite them to share what they could do to show that they are doers of the word. For instance, how are they keeping their baptismal covenant? Do they know someone who is sick or lonely who they might visit? How could they serve their families more? You could also remind them of words they might have heard in sacrament meeting today. How can we be doers of these words?
I can choose to speak with kindness.
The words we say to each other may seem unimportant, but as James testified, they can have a powerful influence, for good or bad.
Possible Activities
Is there someone in the ward, perhaps one of the children you teach, who has worked with horses or knows something about boats? You could invite him or her to provide insights about James’s teachings in James 3:3–4 about using kind words. Or provide some of your own insights. What do we learn about controlling our tongues from these examples?
Invite the children to read James 3:1–13 and to draw a picture of something they find that teaches about controlling our tongues. Give them time to share their pictures and what they learned. Sing together a song about using kind words, such as “Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words” (Hymns, no. 232).
After reviewing James 3:1–13 together, review the standards for language in For the Strength of Youth ([booklet, 2022], 12). Help the children set a goal to improve the way they speak to others, and encourage them to ask Heavenly Father to help them with this goal.
If you want to make a big lesson out of this, here is something you can use. Everyone writes compliments to each other on the donuts and gives them to each member in the class.
(Click on the image to be taken to Etsy.)
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