The primary lesson that is coming up for week 4 seemed a little lackluster to me. It is about respect others, which boils down to one of the ten commandments, “Love thy Neighbor”. I wasn’t a big fan of what the outline suggested, but it did trigger in my mind a way that I could present the simple lesson to the children that everyone is a child of God.
I chose the book, You Are Special by Max Lucado. He is not an LDS writer of children’s books, but a great one with inspiring lessons. I love this book because it is all about teaching children that it doesn’t matter what other people think or say about them, but all that matters is what their Heavenly Father thinks. I asked the kids to come sit on the floor, and I read them the story just like you would hear at any library story time. They were captivated by the story, and only one of the kids had heard it before.
I told them after I finished reading that I knew that they were all special to their Heavenly Father because he made them. I asked a few simple questions like,
“Does Heavenly Father love everyone?”
“Does he even love people that do something bad?”
“So, how does that mean we should treat others?”
“Is Heavenly Father happy when we aren’t loving to others?”
I tied the story into the commandment that we should love our neighbor because everyone on this earth is a child of God. We are all special, and therefore, we all deserve respect.
I then had a star for each child that said, “You are special” on it. And, on the back it said, “I can respect others because we are all God’s children”.
I love this book, and think one of the most important things we can teach a child is that he is loved, and he is special. I think the children understood that simple lesson, at least for a moment. This would be a great lesson to adapt for a family home evening, too.