Everyday object lessons

From a story by Bernie Siegel MD

His son came home with a picture from school and it was just a piece of paper with WORDS written all over the front over and over. As he looked at it, it became words or swords and he realized words can be swords. Words have life or death in them.

WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS

Aim:
If you let your bad habits grow out of control, you will be overcome by them (their effects) and will find it very hard to win over them. Therefore identify your bad habits at their roots and make your best to overcome them as soon as possible. Apparatus:
– Test tube filled with water
– Potassium parmanganate crystals (powder)
All pharmacies sell potassium permanganate as it is used as a disinfectant to wash fruit. Note that since the postassium permanganate is sold as powder you won’t actually see the crystals .
– spatula
– piece of white paper (A4/letter size will do)
Method:

Introduce this object lesson to your audience by saying that the potassium parmanganate crystals, which are very small (barely visible with the naked eye) can be compared to our bad habits, that can also seem unimportant. Now take a very small amount of potassium permanganate with the spatula, and in front of the class drop the crystals in the test tube. Mix well. Place the white paper behind the test tube and ask the class if they can observe any differences. Potassium parmanganate is very soluble in water so the colour would have changed to a pinkish colour, but not every one will notice this change. Observe to your audience that these little defects did not make any difference even if left unchecked, therefore lets repeat our behaviour. Add some more crystals (a small amount) and you should notice that the pinkish colour becomes more visible. With two more repetitions the colour of the water changes into a visible pink colour. At this point, point out to your audience that the small potassium parmanganate crystals have changed considerbly the colour of the water. So do our defects if they go unchecked they are capable of changing are character and the way people see us completely.

Aid:
With this you can build on with the story of the prince and the dwarf. The prince was walking in the forest when he met a dwarf that challenged him for a duel. The prince refused, because the dwarf was small and weak. But the dwarf wouldn’t listen and the prince was forced to fight. The battle was short lived in a couple of seconds the prince disarmed the dwarf and knocked him on the floor. The prince walked away. Time passed and the prince became king. One day while walking in the forest a giant lept out at the king and challenged him for a duel. The king had no choice but to fight for his life to the bitter end. The fight took a long time, but finally though exhausted the king overcame the dwarf and killed him. At this point the king realised that the giant was the same dwarf that he fought with years ago. The gist is that the prince should have finished the dwarf of the first time round. Because he didn’t, he nearly got killed by the giant. The same applies to our defects (dwarfs), if we let them grow unchecked they become (giants) which are difficult if not impossible to overcome.

Source: Doug Hoffman from Kentucky
Here’s an an awesome object lesson that I use with my kids at camp – all you need is a can of fruit or vegetables, and take the label off…add a dent or two also. It’s amazing what and how much the younger ones can come up with! Put the can in the middle of the group and let the group examine it. Ask them to describe the can. Some may say that it’s shiny, that it has dents, and that it has no label. Then ask how this relates to people. Dents of course, because we aren’t perfect and we all have some sort of short falling. The reflection…we reflect what people say about us. Some may say we’re really good at something, and others not good and often we’ll do just that. Then the label. We don’t want to label people. Only God knows whats on the inside, yet as people we know how to look on the outside. We need to train ourselves to look on the inside. On that same note, we need to get to know people and people need to open themselves up in order to really get to know what’s inside. A whole different road can be taken in discussing what labels we have had, why we don’t like them, etc. Some cans may have a pricetag on them, and one can touch on putting value on people needs to only be done if we really value them (because sometimes people don’t get high value, when they really are).

This is a really cool object lesson, something we can get from our kitchen cupboard. Great for group discussion and learning about relationships and judging.

This is a talk given by 11 yr old Alex.
The idea was based on a story given in a general conference talk – Oct 99
First you make two paper airplanes. One needs to fly very straight and true. The other needs to look a little battered and fly more in loops. There are patterns out there for making the different types. Then here is the talk: Imagine a plane taking off, the plane is in perfect condition the crew is trained and they have flight plan. If you get on this plane your sure to get to your destination. Now, imagine another plane taking off it doesn’t really have a place to go. It’s not in good shape. Its crew is a bunch of high school kids who have just graduated and have not been properly trained yet. If you get on this plane your almost sure to not reach your destination.

The first plane is god’s plan of happiness. Just like in the plane the church has leaders who are called of god. Just like the flight plan, gods plan of happiness is clearly written out in the scriptures. If we get on this plane, then we will be happy, and reach our destination of living with God again.

The second plane is the world. It has no destination, no plan, no consistent direction or standards. One month the world wants pokemon, next it wants pogs. One year the world wants Harry Potter, next it wants Animorphs. (This lesson is old! Pick popular toys and media of today.) Everthing is subject to the whims of popular culture. The passengers on this plane don’t know where they are going, so they never know if they get there.

If I were a passenger with a specific destination, I would pick the one with trained pilots and a flight plan. I would feel safer and more secure the God’s plan of happiness.

Then read this scripture Eph. 4:11-14

Source: New Era magazine – Nov 99, p.44
You need a lazy susan or turntables that go in your cupboard for your spices. Demonstrate in some way how the things in the center spin much slower and don’t fly off like the things on the outside. If you can’t have the demonstration then just have them picture the last time they were on a merry-go-round and have the class discuss what happens to a person in the dead center and what happens to someone on the edge when the merry-go-round is going very fast. The lesson from the New Era is this: You’ll find that when you move away from the teachings of the Savior and the prophets, you find yourself taking risks you know you shouldn’t. And then you can suddenly find yourself far away from the Church. And it can be really hard to get back on the ride again once you’re off. If we stay centered on Him, following the teachings of the Church and the prophets, we won’t be tempted to take the risks that will throw us off the path that leads home.

From Angela Spencer
A Story out of the Friend called Bag of Rocks. This boy named Malcolm collected rocks everytime someone or something made him mad. I brought a bunch of rocks and made a boy stand in front of the room and as I read the story, we loaded him down with rocks, adding suspenders, a coat with many pockets and a backpack. We then discussed at the close of the story, how to unburden ourselves from bad feelings we harbor for others. We took rocks out at every suggestion and this kept the kids completely entertained!!!!

Everyone needs a survival kit, one to remind them of something beyond the everyday traps we fall into.

• Toothpick
• Rubber band
• Band aid
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Chewing gum
• Mint
• Candy Kiss

Here’s why:

• Toothpick – to remind you to pick out the good qualities in others…Matt 7:1
• Rubber band – to remind you to be flexible, things might not always go the way you want, but it will work out…Romans 8:28
• Band Aid – to remind you to heal hurt feelings, yours or someone else’s…Col 3:12-14
• Pencil – To remind you to list your blessings everyday…Eph1:3
• Eraser – to remind you that everyone makes mistakes, and it’s okay…Gen 50:15-21
• Chewing gum – to remind you to stick with it and you can accomplish anything with Jesus…Phil 4:13
• Mint – to remind you that you are worth a mint to your heavenly father…John 3:16-17
• Candy Kiss – to remind you that everyone needs a kiss or a hug everyday… 1 John 4:7
• Use your imagination to come up with more of these!And send your ideas to me so I can add to the list

Source: Elder Earl M. Monson conference talk Nov. 98
Make up a jar or cup full of colored water the same as you would for coloring eggs. Hot water (not too hot) with a tablespoon of white vinegar and food coloring. Have each person in the class or family put their fingers or hand into the jar with the dye then take it out and dry their hand.
Here is the quotation taken directly from the conference talk: “We may not appreciate the capacity of our our minds to absorb and remember if we think it doesn’t matter what books or movies or other activities are fed into it. The Lord wisely told us to seek first for the kingdom of God and then other desirable things will also come to us. Elder Sterling W. Sill noted that our mind, like the dyer’s hand, is colored by what it hold; that is, if I hold in my hand purple dye, my hand becomes purple. Those who help establish the Church know what is bad, but they consistently choose the better part and fill their minds with pure thoughts.”
Continue or elaborate on the discussion about how what we read or see stays with us just like the dye. A good scripture to go with this is the 13th article of Faith.

Take a spool of thread and wrap it once or twice around the volunteer’s fingers or wrists. Have them break the thread. This represents bad habits. When we first begin a bad habit like smoking, or even something as simple as watching an inappropriate t.v. show or using foul language, it is easy to break. Now wrap the thread around many many times and see if the volunteer can break the thread. If we let bad habits go on and on, we lose the power to easily return to something better. It requires more will power and may require help from someone else. Don’t give up your freedom and power by remaining in your bad habits.

If possible, get a brand new small box of legos (the kind that has the picture right on the front of the thing that could be built on the front). Here is the lesson: Here are some legos and right on front is a picture of what you can build with these. Do I have to build exactly what is here? Can’t I choose to make any design that I can imagine? In fact, there are lots of different choices of really fun things that I can make with just the legos that are in this box. If your friend makes a rude comment or does something mean to you, that is like handing you the box of legos. You can choose to react in any way that you want. The most common thing would be to get mad and maybe give him a punch or yell and say two mean things back. But you don’t have to. You can make a choice to react in a different way. The discussion could go on at this point about what the other choices might be.