Shared by Sis Malupo
Ideas modified from: Choices and Gospel Guideposts: By Laurel Rohlfing Friend, Feb. 1989, 12
Choices! Choices! Life is full of choices! Should you wear your blue shirt or your red one? Should you play a game or do your work? Should you watch TV or read a book?
Making choices is a very important part of life on earth. Choices are part of the adventure of coming to earth to live. Your right to choose was given to you when you lived in Heaven with Heavenly Father and Jesus. Heavenly Father held a council with you and all His other spirit children and presented an important plan. If you followed His plan, you would come to earth, receive a body, and be tested to see if you would choose to keep His commandments. If you did, you would be able to live with Him again.
Satan wanted to change the plan. He said that he would not give people any choices. He would force everyone to keep the commandments. Jesus liked Heavenly Father*s plan. He wanted people to be able to choose for themselves how they would live. He said that He would come to earth and be our Savior and Guide. Everyone who lives on earth chose to follow Jesus and Heavenly Father*s plan.
Now that we are here on earth, the choices we make here, every day determine where we are going and where we will end up. The choices we make today about clothing, friends, movies and music can help us to stay on the path, or lead us away from the happiness and closer to Satan. We are all on the right path right now and by choosing the right and avoid temptation, we can continue to progress so that we can live with Heavenly Father again. Our Heavenly Father wants us to make good choices and helps us choose the right by giving us the Holy Ghost to help lead and guide us. He also has given us teachers and Priesthood leaders to help us stay on the path and get back on the path if we make a wrong choice.
Today we are going to hear about several different situations and make several choices. Some of us will choose the right, some of us will become confused, and need guidance to follow the right path back to our Heavenly Father.
*Notes: The numbers listed below are the room numbers in our church building. If the children made correct choices the rooms were in a straight line, but if not the rooms jumped from one side of the building to another. Before each situation we read the scripture 3 Nephi 27:33 and then during the debriefing at the end of the activity we talked about how choosing the right was the straight and narrow path and that is was easier and a lot less work than running all over the building to keep up the others. The repentance group would have to move faster than all the rest or would continually be trying to catch up. (Some children consistently made the wrong choice just to be funny I*m sure, but we always had at least a few in the wrong choice group.)
Situations
1 Your friends have invited you to a movie. When you get there, you realize that it is not a good, wholesome one. Your friends decide to see it anyway and you want to be part of the group.
If you decide to go to the movie-just this one time, go to __112________
If you decide to convince your friends to go to a more appropriate movie, go to _108_____
Be faithful, and yield to no temptation (D&C 9:13)
Hint: 3 Nephi 27:33 Jesus said unto the disciples: Enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life.
2 Your friends have been asking you to try smoking just once to see what it is like. They have promised that if it try it once you will be cool and they won*t ever ask you to do it again. They promise it will make you feel strong to have tried it .
If you try smoking-just once to see if he is right, go to _____105________
If you say *No Way-I don*t smoke* and then go home, go to ___107_____
Strong drinks are not for the belly, [and] tobacco is not for the body (D&C 89:7).
3 You break the cookie jar while getting some cookies. Your mother is gone to a meeting. You hurry and fix the cookie jar with some glue. You do a great job and no one can tell you broke it at all. Later mom gets the jar out and as soon as she sets it on the counter it breaks. Your mom thinks she has broken the jar. What will you do?
If you tell your mom about breaking the jar earlier and apologize, go to _105_____
If you tell your mom you are sorry that she broke the cookie jar and give her a big hug, go to _____114__________
Thou shalt not lie (D&C 42:21).
4 Some of your friends swear. The school is out for the summer and you have all been working on building an awesome club house. Your friends tell you that to join their club house, you only have to say one swear word. You want to be friends with them and play in the club house this summer and you have worked really hard to help build the club house. What will you do?
If you swear so that you can be join the club house, go to __101__
If you don*t swear and convince your friends to make up a secret club-house handshake to get into the club instead, go to __104_____
Swear not at all (3 Ne. 12:34; Matt. 5:34).
5. You really want to buy a new video game and you have been working really hard to earn extra money, but it is taking a long time. Your friends have a great idea about how to earn some extra money. They say you can just go door-to-door and tell people that you are raising money to help some school kids. Your friends say that they have done it before and everyone in your neighborhood wanted to help so they got a lot of money. The best part you get to keep all the money and you don*t even have to lie. You just don*t tell the people that the money is to help you get a video game.
If you go with your friends, door-to-door, go to____109_______
If you don*t go with your friends and tell a grown-up about your friends* idea, go to ______103__________
Let every man deal honestly (D&C 51:9).
6 You don*t know an answer on a test at school. You promised your parents that you would try to get a good grade. Your friend is really smart and always gets 100% on their tests at school. What will you do?
If you keep your promise to your parents and look at your neighbor*s paper for the right answer, go to _______104____________
If you do your best and don*t look at anyone else*s paper-even if you might get the problem wrong, go to _____102_____________
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie on to another. (Lev 19:11)
7 You always pay your tithing and you have been working at extra jobs to earn money for a new toy. When you go to pay for it, it costs more than you thought, but you are happy because at least it is on sale. If you add just a little bit of your tithing money, you can buy the toy right now while it is on sale.
If you decide to buy the toy, go to ____114_________
If you decide you will have to save even more money and possibly miss the sale, but won*t spend your tithing money-no matter what, go to ____101________
Those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest (D&C 119:4).
8 You are so excited that you have a lot of friends. Someone at school tells you a story about another friend who got into trouble for doing something bad. It is a great story and you are sure some of your other friends haven*t heard it yet.
If you are the first one to tell them and help them to know more, go to _____112________
If you don*t pass along the story and ask your friend not to tell you any other gossip either, go to ___103___________
Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm (D&C 42:27).
9 You*re very tired and get into bed before remembering to pray. The good thing is you usually pray every night and you thanked Heavenly Father yesterday for your blessings. What will you do tonight?
If you jump right out of bed, even though you are tired and pray, go to ________104______________
If you skip praying for one night, go to ____101________
Ye must pray always (2 Ne. 32:9).
10 Your brother is being mean and teasing you, and you want to get even with him. You know he is sensitive about his big nose and you can think of some really great comments about how big it is. What will you do?
If you don*t do anything and think about all the good times you have had with your brother, go to _____105_________
If you say, *At least my nose is not as big as a house*, go to _____103__________
Charity is the pure love of Christ (Moro. 7:47).
11 Your mother has been washing clothes all day. Your clothes are folded and neatly stacked in the living room. Your mom asks you to put them away. Just then your hear a horn honk. Your run outside and your friends invite you to play a game of ball, but they are leaving right now. What will you do?
If you decide not to keep your friends waiting and hide your clothes under your bed, so you can put them away later, then hurry out to go play with your friends, go to _______110________
If you tell your friends you can come in 2 minutes and quickly put away your clothes in the right place before leaving, go to _______106_____________
Honour thy father and thy mother (1 Ne. 17:55; Mosiah 13:20; Ex. 20:12).
12 It is a very hot day and you would love to get some ice cream. You see a student put quite a few quarters into his desk at school. You don*t know where he got the money from, but you think he found it on the playground. You decide that since he found the money on the playground, it really isn*t his. There is a great store on the way home and for only 50 cents you can buy an ice cream cone. Will you take some of the money so that you can buy some candy on the way home?
If you take only 2 coins, just enough to buy the ice cream, but leave the rest of the money there, go to ___112____
If you don*t take any of the money and go without ice cream, go to _____107__________
Thou shalt not steal (Mosiah 13:22; Matt. 19:18).
13 Your friends are all excited about something. They are all going to the circus and they invite you to come with them too. You are really excited to go and they tell you the best thing is the circus starts after your church is over so you can go to church too. It sounds like fun. What will you tell them?
If you tell them you won*t go to the circus on Sunday and ask them to go to the Saturday show with you instead, go to ____108_______.
If you think it is great that you can go to all of your church meetings and the circus all in on day, go to ____114______.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Mosiah 13:16; Ex. 20:8).
Repentance Script:
Alma 5:32 Repent, Repent, for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Because Jesus died for us, we can repent when we make a wrong choice. The choice you made in this situation__(read wrong choice)___was not the choice that leads to happiness. In this situation the best choice was __________because ______(explain briefly).
Repent of your mistake and make a great choice in the next situation.
(read next situation)
(avoid spending time teaching further about wrong choices at this point so this group can hustle back and get on track with the rest of the kids.)