Beginners are Many, but Enders are Few
by
C. S. Bezas
Opening Prayer: By invitation.
Devotional: Want to bring a sweet spirit to FHE and show your children you value the scriptures? Try starting each week's FHE with a "favorite scripture sharing time." These few minutes of short-verse-reading-and-testimony-sharing can bring a powerful spirit to your home and help settle the children for the FHE activity and lesson.
Activity:
Item Needed:
Roll of tape
Pass out a short strip of clear cellophane tape to each person. Ask them to affix it to one of their finger tips and press on it very firmly. Once a minute or two has passed, invite everyone to pull it off and look at it very closely. Ask them to see what they found on the tape (of course, if there are individuals who are allergic to cellophane tape, have them only watch).
Pass out a second strip of clear tape and have each person place it on their cheek and press firmly. Once it's been there for a few moments, have everyone remove it from their cheek. Ask them to look at the tape closely and share what they see.
Invite discussion on why small skin flakes, tiny hairs, etc., now are on the tape instead of on each person's skin.
Then ask: what might this activity have to do with "friends"? With "prayer"? With "service"? With "goals"? etc.
Application:
Explain that we are like tape. Everything that we "press" ourselves against deposits a tiny piece of itself on/with us. That is why we have to be careful with where our choices take us. That is why the prophets and church leaders recommend we pick carefully where we spend our time, who we associate with, and what kind of goals we work toward. Even our friends' choices become part of our lives the longer we "stick" with those friends.
Read the following poem:
Stick to your task 'til it sticks to you;
Beginners are many, but enders are few.
Honor, power, place and praise
Will always come to the one who stays.
Stick to your task 'til it sticks to you;
Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;
For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile
Will come life's victories after a while.
-Author Unknown, quoted byThomas S. Monson, "'Finishers Wanted," Ensign, Jun 1989, 2
When we choose wisely what we're going to "stick" to, the results are always joyous ones. In closing, ask the family quietly to think what they've "pressed" themselves against this past year. Do they like the results of what has collected on/in their lives? If not, what would they like to do differently for 2010?
Testify of the power of "choosing" rather than "allowing". Each of God's children has the ability to choose what they can "stick" themselves to, thereby influencing what "sticks" to them throughout life.
Invite each one tonight to make some private decisions and to record those in their journals, so that by the end of 2010, they can be pleased with what has "stuck" with them as they've "stuck" with uplifting friends, activities and goals.
Closing Song: #244 Come Along, Come Along
Closing Prayer: By invitation.
Refreshments: Gummy worms would be a fun treat to pass out after tonight's FHE lesson. Not only are they yummy, but they point out that some things can "stick" with you (or in your teeth) a very long time.
