Everyday object lessons

Source:Jaburek
For family home evening one night we were trying to teach our children that we may not know if they had done anything wrong when they were not around us, but there was one that would. We talked to our children about our spirits and used the object lesson with the glove (we used winter gloves), then we separated them by sending one into the kitchen and keeping the remaining two together. On the table was a box lying on it’s side, there was a hole cut into the bottom of the box with a tea towel pinned over the hole. Inside the box was a dish of coloured water with coins in the bottom. The child sat across from their father (who could see into the box and the dish of liquid) they were asked to remove their glove. On the table was a laytex glove which had lots of pin holes and slits cut into it (which they didn’t know). This was to represent the thought of a little bit won’t hurt. Then they were given a choice to 1 – stick their hand through the hole and remove as much as they wanted. 2 – put on the laytex glove and remove as much as they wanted or 3 – refrain from putting their hand through the hole. They were nervous at first, but when prompted to participate each of our three children chose a different method. After they took as much money as they could they were to put their winter glove back on and return to the living room. No was was allowed to share with the others what happened in the kitchen. When all were finished we sat as a family and looked at their winter gloves and asked if anyone could notice a difference in the others gloves when the answer came back no they were then asked to remove their gloves. Two were stained really red, the third was clean. We then discussed that when we sin even though those around us could not see the stain, our spirit was marred by our disobeying. Their father represented Heavenly Father and that he knew what stain was on each of their souls. We then talked about repentance and talked about the scripture – if your sins be as scarlet. Then we had the children with the stained hands wash in bleach to remove the stains. It was alot of hard work, but eventually the food colouring was removed.

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!!!!