Everyday object lessons

This lesson requires the game of Stak Attack or Jenga. Those are the games that stack up wooden blocks in a weave pattern and then you pull out the blocks and re stack them on top until the tower tumbles.

The object lesson is that as you build the tower you discuss what foundations a nation or life needs in order to be prosperous and happy. Then as you play the game you discuss the actions and attitudes that weaken and destroy a nation or people.

For this lesson all the scriptural references are taken from the Book of Mormon but you could use any holy scriptures that fit your lesson.

My game has 16 layers so I split the group into 8 or 4 and each group looks up 1 or 2 scriptures then before they put the wooden pieces into the container they tell what the scripture talked about.

1. Obedience to laws of land -Mosiah 29:11,41, 43
2. Christ- Helaman 5:12
3. Thanksgiving- Alma 7: 23,24
4. Freedom to worship -Alma 21:22
5. Honesty- Alma 27:27 & Mosiah 4:28
6. Family- Jacob 3:7
7. 10 commandments – Mosiah 12:35, 36 & Mosiah 13:12-24
8. Alma 23: 7

When everyone has loaded up the pieces, turn the game over on a table and hand out the new scriptures. As each group tells what actions or attitudes cause eventual destruction, each person in the group gets to remove one piece and stack it on top. The game just keeps going until the tower falls over. If anyone didn’t get a turn, re stack the pieces while as you discuss again the foundations of a strong nation, and play again.

If everyone gets a turn and the tower is still strong, have the class members repeat again the things they learned from their scripture when its their turn again. Repetition is just fine.

1. Unrighteous judges and lawyers – Alma 10:27 & Alma 11:20
2. Gadianton robbers -Helaman 2:13 & Helaman 6:21, 23
3. Dishonesty, etc – Helaman 7:20,21
4. Wickedness – Moroni 9:20
5. Moroni 8:3-5
6. Ether 11:22
7. Mormon 8:37
8. Mosiah 29:27

Source: Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley
Have a volunteer come up and put his/her arm in a sling then stand there while you give the rest of the object lesson. Ask the group or volunteer: What would happen to your arm if you left it in this sling and didn’t use it for a year. Listen to all comments and weave them into the rest of your presentation. Here is the direct quote from Pres. Hinckley from which this lesson comes from: The Church will ask you to do many things. It will ask you to serve in various capacities. We do not have a professional ministry. You become the ministry of this Church and whenever you are called upon to serve, may I urge you to respond and as you do so, your faith will strengthen and increase. Faith is like the muscle of my arm. If I use it, if I nurture it, it grows strong; it will do many things. But if put it in a sling, and do nothing with it, it will grow weak and useless and so will it be with you. If you accept every opportunity, if you accept every calling, the Lord will make it possible for you to perform it. The Church will not ask you to do anything which you cannot do with the help of the Lord. God bless you to do everything that you are called upon to do. Feb. 22, 1998

This is a good object lesson to illustrate the scriptures about testing God’s plan by tying it out first. This is a difficult task because it requires obedience and commitment to a standard, and many people look for an excuse to not live by standards, and sometimes it is the excuse that they are testing the Lord and his church before they really commit. This would be the object lesson for these people.

Decide beforehand which “theory” you are going to test. It could be something simple like theory of gravity, or something else that both you and your audience understand very well. I will use gravity for my example here. You say, “I am going to test the theory of gravity, today. I have here some different size and weight of balls and marbles.” Now leave the tools and go to the other side of the room. “It’s like I was suspecting, that this gravity thing is not like I thought. People must have been lying. Those balls and marbles aren’t doing anything. I can say with real certainty and truth that the theory of gravity is false. I have tested it right here, and nothing works.”

Then have a discussion with your class what is wrong with this picture. “Testing a theory” means that you get in the middle of it, try it, experience it. Only then can you say with any truth that you believe it or not. It is the same with “testing the gospel.” You cannot test it by staying away from church and seeing what comes of that. You test God’s word by getting in the middle of it and trying it out and living it.

The useful part of a pencil is in the middle. And in order for it to be useful, something sharp has to wear away the outer covering. Let’s compare that to a humble heart that is found in each of us. In order to be of the most use as a servant of God, we must scrape away our pride and arrogance.