Purpose: as a special focus on the 12th Article of Faith, to learn with the family about respecting government, laws, and leaders, even if we disagree.
Possible scriptures: Samuel 12:14-15; Psalm 82:3-4; Proverbs 20:26; Proverbs 24:21; Proverbs 29:2; Proverbs 29:14; Ecclesiastes 10:20; Isaiah 32:1; Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:1; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Mosiah 29:16-17; Mosiah 29:26-27; Helaman 5:2; Helaman 7:5; Ether 8:22; Doctrine and Covenants 58:21-22; Doctrine and Covenants 88:34; Doctrine and Covenants 98:4-6; Doctrine and Covenants 101:77; Doctrine and covenants 109:54
Possible Songs: America the Beautiful, Hymn 338; My Country Tis of Thee, Hymn 339; Battle Hymn of the Republic, Hymn 60; The Star Spangled Banner, Hymn 340; Love One Another, Hymn 308; God of Our Fathers, Known of Old, Hymn 80; My Country, Children’s Songbook page 224; My Flag, My Flag, Children’s Songbook page 225. ** Or any national song for your own country** For the US, you may consider God Bless America, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and This Land is Your Land. I feel like there are plenty that fit here that are just as classic but these 3 seem to be the most colloquially accepted.
Possible Materials: a picture of someone conducting music and a stoplight. A picture of Christ talking to the Pharisees and a picture of a roman coin. a quarter. A picture of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Preparation: Begin with prayer. Read the suggested scriptures, Matthew 22:15-22, Luke 20:21-26, Matthew 17, all of Doctrine and Covenants 134, and the Revelations in Context chapter “Of Government and War.” Read through the lesson, including any links, and carefully select the most relevant material for your family. Children: I really really try to stay with Church-produced materials but for this lesson, I just feel that this video produced by the church is way over a child’s head. Therefore, I suggest these 2 videos for this lesson, but be warned that they are not specifically created by The Church. This video is about Christ talking about paying taxes, and this video is about Peter paying the temple tax.
Lesson:
Discuss how last week’s challenge went.
Introduction: Ask everyone in your family to think of their favorite song. Once everyone has a song in mind, have them sing it – at exactly the same time! After all the noise dies down, ask your family how well that worked. Did anyone feel heard? Could they hear or understand anyone else? Did the group song sound good?
Hold up a picture of someone conducting music. Ask your family if they know what this person is doing? Have they seen anyone leading the music in Sacrament Meeting? Why do they wave their arms while the music plays? Explain to your family that when we all look to the music leader, we know when to start singing and if there are any special things we need to know in the song. They help us know if we should sing quickly or slowly. If we watch them, we can all sing together! Have your family practice some of the time signatures by referring to either the back of the hymnbook or the conducting manual.
Now hold up a picture of a traffic light. Ask your family what the item in the picture is used for. Are there traffic rules we need to follow when we see this light? What does the red mean? And the Green? Why do we need rules while we are in a car? Explain to your family that following the rules is like following the music conductor. He or she tells us what we should be doing so we can all sing together and be heard and we can all make it safely to where we are going. When we follow the rules we all work together to make something beautiful and stay safe.
Have a member of the family read the 12th Article of Faith. If you discussed the Wentworth letters last week, remind your family about the origin of the Articles of Faith. Discuss words that your family may not know, for instance, “being subject to,” means we believe its okay to have someone set up rules that are fair for everyone and we should choose to follow those rules. Those people might be kings, presidents, or magistrates. Magistrates are judges. What does it mean to obey, honor and sustain? Obey means to follow commands or rules or laws. Honor is to recognize that they have authority and responsibility and to feel that the rules and leaders are valuable. Sustain means to do your part to help and support those laws and leaders.
From the Scriptures: Tell your family that Jesus followed the laws where he lived. Hold up this picture of Christ talking to the Pharisees. Read Matthew 22:15-22. Show the picture of a roman coin and quarter (or any coin from a country you identify with that has a leader on it). Ask who is on the Roman coin (Caesar). Who is on the quarter? Who was George Washington and why is he on our quarter? He was the first president, the first leader of our government! Jesus was saying we should obey our laws and pay the taxes that our government sets for us to pay. If you’re using a US coin, show the expression “IN GOD WE TRUST.” What else did Jesus say when the asked if we should pay taxes? Render “unto God the things that are God’s.” Jesus was saying to follow the laws of leaders *and* to follow Heavenly Father’s laws. One time, Peter was asked if Jesus was going to pay his taxes. Peter said yes and then went and talked to Jesus. Jesus said that since he was the Son of God and this money was meant for God’s house, he really didn’t need to pay this tax, but that he would keep the law. Read Matthew 17:27. Jesus told Peter to go fishing and inside the fish’s mouth he would find a coin to pay taxes for both him and Peter. Jesus paid his taxes.
From Church History: Ask your family if they know what the word, “citizen,” means. A citizen means a person who lives and does things with other people in the same area. Tell your family that being a good citizen means more than just obeying laws. It means doing all you can to make your community a great place to live. Read Mosiah 2:17. What can we do to be good citizens? Have someone read the following and ask what these scriptures teach us about being a good citizen:
- Jeremiah 29:7 We should seek peace wherever we are.
- Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-28 we should be involved in good things around us.
- Mosiah 4:13-16 We should look our for and care for those around us and teach our kids to do the same.
- Mosiah 29:39 We should take the opportunity to vote and be happy for our freedoms.
- Doctrine and Covenants 98:8-10 and Doctrine and Covenants 134:1-3 We should do our best to make sure honest and fair individuals are put in power
- 1 Timothy 2:1-2 We should pray for our government leaders
- Doctrine and Covenants 134:5-6 we should uphold the law and respect our leaders for their roles as lawmakers.
- Doctrine and Covenants 134:8 We should help to bring about justice when crimes are committed.
- Doctrine and Covenants 134:11 When something is wrong, we should seek to protect ourselves and defend ourselves and to seek legal ways to fix it, where possible.
Point out that a lot of the scriptures we just read come from Doctrine and Covenants 134. Section 134 was originally written as a “Declaration of Government and Law,” and was written so that everyone – both Saints and Missouri Citizens, as well as the government trying to decide if they’d stand up to their responsibility to help the saints – would know where the church stood on the issues of government. The church tried repeatedly to get the government to help them and it wouldn’t! Eventually the saints left the established United States and started their own settlement in Salt Lake City.
From World History: But what if there’s a law that you feel is wrong? Have your family read the 2-paragraph article from the December 2016 New Era. Now hold up a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ask your family if they know who this man is. When Dr. King was alive, there was a law that said that people with dark skin couldn’t use the same things as people who had light colored skin. He didn’t believe that having different skin colors was a good way to decide if a person should be treated differently and wanted the rules to change. Sometimes people think it’s okay to be mean and violent to get a law to change, but Dr. King didn’t think that was the right way. He thought that violence was evil and against what Heavenly Father wanted his people to do. He taught others that the way to change a law was to politely and boldly discuss why it needed to be changed and to have conversations with people, even if those conversations were uncomfortable. He used his actions to show respect but to stand up for what he believed in. We can be like Martin Luther King, Jr and stand up for what we believe in in order to change laws we disagree with.
Further Discussion:
Recent Conference talks to consider in your discussion: Divine Love in the Father’s Plan, by Dallin H Oaks; Following Jesus: Being a Peacemaker, by Neil L Andersen; Defending our Divinely Inspired Constitution, by Dallin H Oaks; Love Your Enemies, by Dallin H Oaks.
Challenge:
For younger families, Here is a coloring picture to remind them of the lesson.
Have your family strive to memorize the 12th Article of Faith. If they’ve already memorized it, have them pick their favorite verse or part of a verse from Doctrine and covenants 134 and memorize it.
Giving due credit: as usual, I read and learned from the Primary 2 lesson 31, Gospel Principles Chapter 35, the Family Home Evening Resource Manual Lessons on Authority and Citizenship, and Gospel Topics from Gospel Library on Citizenship, and True to the Faith on Civil Government. As far as further reading and edification goes, I really liked this scholarly article on Civil Society and the Church.
