Building Strong Families: Love, Compassion, and Service
"Can you guess the answer to this riddle? What is as invisible as the wind and as warm as the sun, can be given away without losing any, grows when it is shared, comes from your heart, and shows on your face?
"The answer to the riddle is love. Love is a powerful feeling of affection, concern, and tenderness for another."1
"Parents have a sacred duty . . . to teach [their children] to love and serve one another."
Jesus is our best example of showing love, service, and compassion. What are your favorite stories about Jesus loving, serving, and having compassion on others? How do you feel when you read these stories?
Do you have a favorite song about love or service?
How do you show Heavenly Father that you love Him?
Here is a fun activity in the Friend magazine about love at home, with a cute house and hearts to color and cut out.
Do you remember or can you find a story about service in the scriptures?
How do you feel when you serve someone? Why?
President Eyring said: “I promise you that if you’ll use your gifts to serve someone else, you’ll feel the Lord’s love for that person. You’ll also feel his love for you.”2 Try putting President Eyring's words to the test!
How can you show compassion at home?
Act: Pray to Heavenly Father in the morning that the Holy Ghost can help you know who to show more love to, or whom you can serve. Heavenly Father loves to answer prayers like this! You will have ideas come into your mind. This is the Holy Ghost prompting you! Quickly act on those ideas. Sister Camilla E. Kimball taught, "Never suppress a generous thought."
Your family should have received a package with lots and lots of paper hearts in it. 💖 Every time you see someone serve someone else, or show compassion to someone else, or show love to someone else, write or draw a picture of what you saw on a heart and tape it to a special spot on a wall or door - a place your mom and dad decide you can cover with hearts. Can your family fill up the entire space with hearts, just like the tree in the picture above? I'm excited to see the "heart wall" fill up! Please send me photos of it!
I've written a message to you in code. See if you can decode my message! Go to this page in the Friend magazine to get the decoder.
Here is my message:
Easier - gjmm zpvs ipng xjui mpwf! j mpwf zpv!
Difficult - xmyy kupo gucs vmjg yues! M yues kup!
Hint for easier code: b represents a, c represents b, d represents c.
Have fun!
I'll send the decoder for the difficult message to your mom, if needed.
Difficult code hint: "y" represents the letter "l".
"Success in family life is deemed to be grounded in honoring principles such as “forgiveness, respect, love, [and] compassion” (¶ 7). To observe such counsel, mothers and fathers would embrace and nurture forgiving attitudes, loving emotions, and compassionate feelings." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamations, Principles, Research Perspectives Edited by Alan J. Hawkins David C. Dollahite Thomas W. Draper, 2016, 172)
1(Ashton, Karen. Love at home. The Friend. 1996, June.)
2(Eyring, Henry B., To Draw Closer to God (1997), 88.)
Here are some fun videos about loving families:
Love
How do you show love to each other? How do you show Heavenly Father that you love Him?
Here is a fun activity in the Friend magazine about love at home, with a cute house and hearts to color and cut out.
Serve
What are some ways you can serve one another?
Can you think of something your mom, your dad, or a sibling did today to serve you? What are some ways you can serve one another?
Do you remember or can you find a story about service in the scriptures?
How do you feel when you serve someone? Why?
President Eyring said: “I promise you that if you’ll use your gifts to serve someone else, you’ll feel the Lord’s love for that person. You’ll also feel his love for you.”2 Try putting President Eyring's words to the test!
Compassion
What does compassion mean? Can you find the word "compassion" in the dictionary? How about in the scriptures? Will you send to me some scripture references that you've found about service and compassion?How can you show compassion at home?
Act: Pray to Heavenly Father in the morning that the Holy Ghost can help you know who to show more love to, or whom you can serve. Heavenly Father loves to answer prayers like this! You will have ideas come into your mind. This is the Holy Ghost prompting you! Quickly act on those ideas. Sister Camilla E. Kimball taught, "Never suppress a generous thought."
Your family should have received a package with lots and lots of paper hearts in it. 💖 Every time you see someone serve someone else, or show compassion to someone else, or show love to someone else, write or draw a picture of what you saw on a heart and tape it to a special spot on a wall or door - a place your mom and dad decide you can cover with hearts. Can your family fill up the entire space with hearts, just like the tree in the picture above? I'm excited to see the "heart wall" fill up! Please send me photos of it!
I've written a message to you in code. See if you can decode my message! Go to this page in the Friend magazine to get the decoder.
Here is my message:
Easier - gjmm zpvs ipng xjui mpwf! j mpwf zpv!
Difficult - xmyy kupo gucs vmjg yues! M yues kup!
Hint for easier code: b represents a, c represents b, d represents c.
Have fun!
I'll send the decoder for the difficult message to your mom, if needed.
Difficult code hint: "y" represents the letter "l".
"Success in family life is deemed to be grounded in honoring principles such as “forgiveness, respect, love, [and] compassion” (¶ 7). To observe such counsel, mothers and fathers would embrace and nurture forgiving attitudes, loving emotions, and compassionate feelings." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamations, Principles, Research Perspectives Edited by Alan J. Hawkins David C. Dollahite Thomas W. Draper, 2016, 172)
1(Ashton, Karen. Love at home. The Friend. 1996, June.)
2(Eyring, Henry B., To Draw Closer to God (1997), 88.)
Here are some fun videos about loving families:
"President Hinckley (1990, p. 70) taught this precept: "As children grow through the years, their lives, in large measure, become an extension and a reflection of family teaching. If there is harshness, abuse, uncontrolled anger, disloyalty, the fruits will be certain and discernible and in all likelihood they will be repeated in the generation that follows. If, on the other hand, there is forbearance, forgive-ness, respect, consideration, kindness, mercy, and compassion, the fruits again will be discernible, and they will be eternally rewarding. They will be positive and sweet and wonderful. . . . I speak to fathers and mothers everywhere with a plea to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes."(Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamations, Principles, Research Perspectives Edited by Alan J. Hawkins David C. Dollahite Thomas W. Draper, 2016,125)
"extant empirical evidence readily asserts that parental influence can significantly interact with genetic predispositions and other environmental influences to help shape behavior. Hence, parents should follow Brigham Young’s counsel to “study their children’s dispositions and temperament, and deal with them accordingly” (1998, p. 2007)." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamations, Principles, Research Perspectives Edited by Alan J. Hawkins David C. Dollahite Thomas W. Draper, 2016,120)
"Parents must realize that they have the opportunity to proactively help their children develop positive traits or overcome undesirable tendencies. Children will be most open to instruction when they feel loved and accepted by their parents. They will act to maintain positive interactions." (Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamations, Principles, Research Perspectives Edited by Alan J. Hawkins David C. Dollahite Thomas W. Draper, 2016,120)
Comments
Post a Comment