Building a House of God: Lesson 1 of 8

Building a House of God

by Rosa Boynton

Lesson 1 in a series of 8 on Establishing a House of God.

You can find the rest @ 2 precious4words.blogspot.com

Prep:

1. Gather: a tool belt (toy or real, depending on age of children), a hammer (toy or real), laminated word strips (see attachments) that label each part of “a house of God,” small bag to put word strips in, tape (to attach word strips to blocks), wooden blocks (choose some that will be easy to build a house with, such as long rectangular ones -- I made the word strips small enough to fit on Jenga blocks, in case those are the only blocks you have in your home), copies of My Eternal Family song (enclosed).
2. Buy: sugar cubes (if that is your choice for activity/treat).
3. Watch for examples throughout the day of things family members do to help make your home a house of God (so you can share these during the explanation of the Daily Application Activity listed below in lesson plan).
4. Make any preparations necessary for any of the suggested activities you choose to do.

Opening Song: My Eternal Family (sheet music found on lds.org and in the attachments)

Lesson Introduction/Attention Grabber: Pull out the tool belt and put it on to capture everyone's attention. Point to the pile of blocks and pick up the hammer.

SAY: “Today we're going to work together to build a model of a house of God! But before we start, we need something special. Do you know what builders need before they can build a home or a building?” (wait for response)

SAY: “That's right: blueprints! Did you know that the Lord gave us a blueprint for how to build our homes? We can find it in Doctrine and Covenants, section 88! Let's look it up and read it now! Everyone turn to D&C 88:119 and let's read the Lord's blueprint for how we can make our home a house of God!”

Scripture: D&C 88:119 While someone/everyone is reading this verse in their scriptures, hold up the enclosed laminated copy of this scripture and then put it in a place where it will be visible during the whole lesson.

Building a House of God Activity & Lesson:

(continued from Lesson Introduction above)

SAY: “Now that we have our blueprint, we're ready to build our model of a house of God. Who would like to come up and help us build our house of God?”

1. Choose a family member to come up and be a “builder.” Let them wear the tool belt, if they wish, then pick a word from the bag and read it aloud.
2. Ask the “builder” to think of an example of something they can do to help our home be a house of _______ (fill in the blank with the word they chose from the bag)? *Attach a piece of tape to the word strip and tape it to the block.
3. As the builder adds their block to the model of your home, they can *pretend to
   hammer it into place, as everyone sings the first two lines of “My Eternal Family.” If possible, try to keep the word strips visible so everyone can read the different parts that make up a house of God. *Alternatively, you could build a real model, if you have scrap wood, nails, real tools, and the desire to keep it on display as a visual reminder for your family throughout the following weeks/months while you are studying how to establish a house of God.
4. ONLY DO THIS STEP IF COMBINING ALL EIGHT LESSONS INTO ONE LESSON. After the builder adds the block to your home, read the scripture provided for that attribute of a house of God. For example, if they choose the word that says “faith,” then find the enclosed paper that says “A House of Faith” and read the scripture on the back of that paper.

Repeat the above steps with each “builder” until all the word strips have been added and the whole home is built. Point to the “Establishing a House of God” scripture (D&C 88:119) and read it one more time together as a family. Then, sing “My Eternal Family” one more time.

Daily Application Activity: This activity will encourage your family members to apply this scripture to your daily lives. Hold up the main scripture verse again and read it together.

SAY: “Who is ready to put this scripture into action? As we all follow this blueprint (point to scripture) that our Heavenly Father gave us here for Building a House of God we can help make our home a temple!”

**Hold up the enclosed laminated chart entitled “Making our Home a House of God.”

SAY: “As we all follow God's blueprint here (point to scripture) for Building a House of God we can help make our home a temple. Who will help me do the things we learned about in this scripture (point to scripture again) all week long so we can watch our home become a temple? Every time we see a family member doing something that helps make our home a temple, then we will give them a small temple to tape onto this chart. (Perhaps take some time here to think of a few examples together, or if you already took note of examples as they occurred throughout the day, then share these now, letting those family members come up and add temples for their deeds). Pretty soon, our chart will be full of temples. Even though this is just a picture, these things you are doing will actually help make our home like a real temple. We really can help make our home become a house of God!”

This would be a great spot to add your testimony.

*Note about different options for Daily Application Activity: You can choose to give the laminated picture to the child immediately when you see them earn one, tell them why they are earning it, then let them go tape it onto the chart. Remember to thank them for helping make your home a temple! Or, instead of having them tape it onto the chart immediately, another idea is to jot down what they did on the back of the laminated temple (with a Vis-a-Vis or thin dry erase marker), or just write their name and a key word (so you can remember who earned it and why) then place it in a special little basket/jar on the dinner table. Later, during a family meal, pull each temple out and share what each person did to help make your home a temple that day, then let that person tape it onto your chart. Our family likes this last option best because we all love hearing about, and celebrating, the wonderful things our family members are doing to help make our home a temple.

Share Your Testimony

Closing Hymn: Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth (Hymn #298)

Closing Prayer

Activity: Either make a temple out of sugar cubes (see Treat idea below), or do one of the other suggested activities below.

Treat: Work together as a family to build a temple out of sugar cubes (or let each member of your family make their own small temple). If you just search online for “sugar cube temple pics,” then you'll see a whole bunch of cute ideas. Royal icing works well as the glue (just like when you're making gingerbread houses) because it's strong. You can find a recipe for royal icing here: https://www.wilton.com/royal-icing/WLRECIP-50.html

Suggested Activities: Choose one or more of the following, depending on the age and attention span of your children.

1. Take one week to study each attribute of “A House of God” listed in Doctrine & Covenants 88:119. You can view all eight lesson plans in this series on my blog (2precious4words.blogspot.com) under the Family Home Evening Lessons tab.

2. Making Your Home A Temple Puzzle.

PREP: Print out a picture of your home and a picture of your local temple. On one side of cardstock, glue the picture of your home. On the other side, glue the picture of the temple. Cut it into a simple jigsaw puzzle. Laminate if desired. When you are ready to do this activity, scramble puzzle pieces and place on ground/table with picture of your home facing up.

SAY: “Just like this scripture asks us to organize ourselves, we need everyone's help organizing this puzzle.” Instruct them not to turn the pieces over while you're putting it together, though, because you want them to guess what is on the back. Make sure all family members (including parents) work together to put the puzzle together (this will tie in to the lesson later).

Once your family has assembled the puzzle and identified it as your home,

SAY: “Yay! We all worked together to organize our home! Now, what do you think is on the back?” If they guess it right away, then read numbers (1) and (2) below as reinforcement of the lessons we learn from this activity. If they would like a clue, read numbers (1) and (2) out loud as the clues (only the first sentence of number 2, or it will give it away completely). If these clues don't help, then let them do number (3) until they guess it.

(1) Read D&C 88:119 again.
(2) SAY: “Just like we've been learning about in this scripture, when we create a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, and a house of order, what else are we making? That's right: a house of God! At the same time as you were helping put our home in order (point to puzzle), you were also making a house of God! Just like everyone needed to help put this puzzle together, we need everyone's help to make our home a house of God!”
(3) Let them turn one piece over and peek. If it's not a piece that has part of the temple on it, then let them choose another piece until they see part of the temple. Once they've guessed it, go back to number (2) above and read it (starting with the question at the beginning again) so they get the point of the activity. Then, let them flip the pieces over and put the puzzle of the temple together.

3. Teens: Study Thomas S. Monson's talk “Building Your Eternal Home” from the April 1984 session of General Conference. Divide the parts according to the number of family members. Give each family member a copy of the talk, with their part(s) highlighted. Ask them to each read and study their attribute(s) of “a house of God” from President Monson's talk, then be ready to summarize/teach their section(s) to the family during Family Home Evening.