Purpose: To gain respect for the world around us, because it is a gift from their Heavenly Father.
Possible scriptures: Moses 1:39; Moses 6:63; Moses 7:28-32; John 17:3; Colossians 1:16; 1 Nephi 17:36; 2 Nephi 2:14; Jacob 4:9; Mosiah 3:8; Mosiah 4:9; Alma 30:44; Mormon 9:11,17; Doctrine and covenants 29:31; Doctrine and Covenants 38:1-3; Doctrine and Covenants 59:14-21; Doctrine and Covenants 76:24; Doctrine and Covenants 104:13-17;
Possible Songs: Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, hymn 242; All Glory Laud and Honor, Hymn 69; O My Father, Hymn 292; If You Could Hie to Kolob, hymn 284; I Am a Child of God, Children’s Songbook page 2 and Hymn 301; My Heavenly Father Loves Me, Children’s Songbook page 228; Because God Loves Me, Children’s songbook page 234; Thanks to Our Father, Children’s Songbook page 20; The World Is So Lovely, Children’s Songbook page 233; I Am Like a Star, Children’s Songbook page 163; Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, Children’s Songbook page 60; The World Is so Big, Children’s Songbook page 235
Possible Materials: These scripture figures (print with black or they’ll come out gray-ish); some type of sculpting dough, clay, or sand dough. You could easily make salt dough if you don’t have anything else already on hand. A picture of Mary Jackson or Katherine Johnson. A picture of the seagulls eating crickets in Utah.
Preparation: Begin with prayer. Ask yourself why creating this world was so important to Heavenly Father’s plan. Ask yourself again if you feel God’s love for you. Do your family members know? Take a moment to think over the creation and how it is evidence of God’s love for you. Read the suggested scriptures, the article Four Accounts of the Creation (Jan 1986), along with Genesis 1-2, Moses 1-3, and Abraham 3-5 (hyperlinks can be found within the article). Read through the lesson, including any links, and carefully select the most relevant material for your family. Children: watch this video and this video about the creation. Ask a grownup to help you print, color, and cut the scripture figures.
Lesson:
Discuss how last week’s challenge went.
Introduction: pull out some dough or clay. Tell your family that clay is great because it can form all kinds of creations and sculptures. A tree, for instance. And then just set it down and sit there, like you expect it to do something. Ask your family why it didn’t form a tree! The dough has all the ability to become a tree, but it can’t just form itself into one. It needs a creator. Now tell your family that we live in a beautiful world, full of glorious things. How do you think it was created? Did it and could it create itself? Ask someone to open their scriptures to Alma 30:44 (starting after the second question mark).
Ask your family if they remember talking about Heavenly Father’s plan. Review it based on the needs of your family. Remind them that part of Heavenly Father’s plan involved coming to Earth. We needed someone to create a world for us to live on. Read Moses 1:33 and ask your family who created the world (Jesus followed Heavenly Father’s instructions).
From the Scriptures: Depending on the needs of your family read the accounts of the creation as found in the scriptures. For younger families, consider just read the most common account found in Genesis 1. Make sure to talk about the 6 days of creation and the 1 day of rest. If sharing video is available, I found this one by President Nelson (then Elder) to cut down right to the principles of the subject of creation.
- On the first day, Jesus separated the light from the dark and created day and night (Genesis 1:1-5; Moses 2:1-5; Abraham 4:1-5). Ask your family why we need day and night? What are some things we do during the day? What do we do at night?
- On the second day, Jesus created the atmosphere, organizing heaven and earth (Genesis 1:6-8; Moses 2:6-8; Abraham 4:6-8).
- On the 3rd day he separated the land from the water. He also created all different types of plants and fruit. The plants were made to have seeds (Genesis 1:9-13; Moses 2:9-13; Abraham 4:9-13). Why is water so important to us? What do we do with water? What about plants? How do we use plants? All of the plants on the earth show us that Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to have the things we need.
- On the 4th day, Jesus created the sun, moon, and stars, creating times and seasons (Genesis 1:14-19; Moses 2:14-19; Abraham 4:14-19). Talk to your family about all that the sun does for us! It keeps our earth comfortable and warm. It helps plants grow. How does the moon help us? What would happen if we couldn’t see stars in the sky? Think about a cloudy night when there is no moon. It’s hard to see! What if we could never see the stars?
- On the 5th day, he created fish and birds (Genesis 1:20-23; Moses 2:20-23; Abraham 4:20-23). How are fish and birds important? Would humans have learned to fly if they hadn’t seen birds in the sky?
- On the sixth day, the rest of the animals were placed on the earth. In the culmination of the creation, Heavenly Father and Jesus created man in his own image (Genesis 1:24-31; Moses 2:24-31; Abraham 4:24-31). How do animas help us?
- On the 7th day, Heavenly Father rested (Genesis 2:1-3; Moses 3:1-3; Abraham 5:1-3).
From Church History: Hold up the picture of the seagulls eating the crickets in Utah. Ask your family if they know this story (more info here). Tell your family that in 1848, the pioneers had just settled in and were starting to grow crops. It had already been a hard and complicated spring, with a late frost, ad the saints were worried that they wouldn’t be able to grow enough food. Then, just as the crops were starting to look like they’d pull through, a swarm of crickets came in (they were actually katydids, if you were curious) and started eating the crops! The pioneers tried all they could to get rid of the crickets and it wasn’t working. They were scared. They knelt down and prayed to Heavenly Father. Soon, lots and lots of seagulls came and ate all the crickets! the Pioneers had enough food to eat and save until next planting season. Heavenly Father sent the seagulls. They obeyed Him because they knew He was their creator.
From World History: Ask your family how we can show Heavenly Father that we are thankful for the world he made. Answers will vary and should all be acknowledged. If or when someone mentions that we should learn as much as we can about the world we live in, (even if prompting is necessary), hold up the picture of Katherine Johnson or Mary Jackson. Explain to your family that in the 1960’s people were wanting to learn lots about the world around them, and they were especially excited to learn about space, where our sun and moon and stars are. Katherine and lots of women like her were really smart, smarter than computers were back then! they could do lots of math very quickly. Math was very important if we wanted to get rockets into outer space to see the world. People didn’t think much of black women at the time, but Katherine and Mary learned as much as they could and overcame the excuses people made because they loved science and loved exploring. Because of them, their math skills, and their determination, we have sent many rockets up to space to learn about our world and about what else is in space. We can show gratitude to Heavenly Father by learning all that we can about his creations.
Further Discussion:
Read 2 Nephi 2:11. Ask your family to look over the days of the creation and point out the opposites in each aspect of the creation. Why did God separate opposites in his creation process? Are there good and bad in the separations? Both separate aspects are necessary and important. We can and should embrace differences just as we can and should enjoy each part of creation.
There are many different focuses to take in a family where everyone knows the basic creation story. Pray to know what is the best direction to take for your family, but some of the areas of focus include: why we have so many creation accounts, that all things were created spiritually before they were created physically, or other ways we can show gratitude to Heavenly Father for each and every category of creation. Also consider the overall planning and preparation that went into the creation. There was nothing haphazard about the creation of the earth.
Recent Conference talks to consider in your discussion: Facing Our Spiritual Hurricanes by Believing in Christ, by Elder Sean Douglas; A House of Sequential Order, by Elder Vaiangina Sikahema (this one is really good!); Invite Christ to Author Your Story, by Sister Camille N. Johnson; The Things of My Soul, By Elder Ronald A Rasband; God’s Love: The Most Joyous to the Soul, by Sister Susan H. Porter; A Faithful Search Rewarded, by Elder Patricio M. Giuffra; The Love of God, by Elder D. Todd Cristofferson
Challenge:
Challenge each family member to look for ways God loves them throughout the week. At dinner each night, have each family member share what they noticed that day. Invite the members of your family to make sure those things end up in prayers as well, focusing all week on expressing gratitude to Heavenly Father for His creations in prayer.
Giving due credit: as usual, I read and learned from the Sunbeams Manual Lessons 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 (Nursery Manual lesson 7), Gospel Principles Chapter 5, and the Family Home Evening Resource Manual Lesson 6. I also found this article from the 1998 Friend, and this article from the 1986 Ensign helpful.
