The Lesson:
This week, the Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon manual asks us to read 1 Nephi 8-10. In the Latter Day Parables, Mom and Dad teach the kids about the vision of the Tree of Life. Blindfolded, the kids must make it to their pretend tree of life holding on to their pretend iron rod.
Before reading this story, discuss the vision of the Tree of Life to your children. You can use pictures from the Gospel Art Book or the visuals provided in the Quick Clicks below. Talk about the tree, the fruit, the iron rod, the mist of darkness, and the great and spacious building. You can talk about the symbolism of each of these things for next week’s lesson. Prepare a treat that your kids LOVE. Depending on how you want your lesson to go, you can read this story before or after the activity.
For the activity, have a long rope, string or yarn strung across your home or classroom. One side is the starting point and the other end is the Tree of Life where the treat is. Blindfold your children and spin them around. Guide them to the beginning of the path and ask them to reach the Tree of Life. Make sure to emphasize not to let go. As they walk, try to tempt the children and coerce them off their path. You can tell them it was all a lie, there’s no treat. You could turn on the TV or offer candy. When your children finally reach the end, offer them their treat. Ask them how the treat makes them feel. The fruit of the tree makes you feel happy, just like the treat does!
What You Need:
- Cut-outs of the entire Latter Day Parables Family, the Tree of Life, and the Iron Rod. If you haven’t yet, download the free Original Latter Day Parables Family cut-outs to get your visuals for this week’s story. Print, cut out, and laminate the cut-outs and then store them in your Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon Binder for future use. You can download the Tree of Life and the Iron Rod cut-outs for free in the Quick Clicks below.
- “Hold to the Iron Rod” story. Provided in the Quick Clicks below is a PDF document of the story that you can download for free. Print out the story and store it in your Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon Binder.
Quick Clicks:
For the Original Latter Day Parables Family, click here.
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For more lesson ideas, click here to see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ thoughts on the subject.