FHE Lesson - Finish the Race - President Monson

Family Home Evening last week had my four year old daughter Princess in charge of the lesson. I asked her which Apostle or church leader she would like to use for her lesson and she immediately chose President Monson. This was fine with me because I already had a blueprint to use for this lesson thanks to Tracie's post at "We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ!

My goal with my older kids is to have them study the words of the Apostles and guide them in developing a lesson. But my younger two kids who can't read need more help! I printed off a copy of the talk to read and study for myself, but I also printed off Tracie's lesson plan because it sounded age appropriate. My daughter told me we needed a coloring page, so I started searching for a coloring page having to do with running a race. I finally found a fairly appropriate one on page 37 (page 39 in the PDF) of the August 2007 Friend magazine. Then Princess and I sat down to piece together her lesson.

Here is our plan: (Very similar to Tracie's!)

Note: We talked through the lesson together twice, but during FHE I sat next to her and helped by whispering the questions to Princess that she should ask. 

Open with questions: "Are you excited when you run a race?" "What do you do if you fall down during the race?"

Show picture of President Monson and his wife, Frances. Ask questions: "Did you know President Monson's wife died this year?" "Do you think he is sad?" "Is it probably hard to do his work sometimes?"

Explain that President Monson talked about finishing the race in his general conference talk this year. He also shared the story of Job. Watch Old Testament Story of Job video. (Chapter 46).

Ask questions: "Did Job falter or finish?" "Did Job trust in his friends or in Jesus?" "How can we be like Job?"

Let's listen to President Monson for a minute. Watch last three paragraphs of talk starting at 15:25-18:00 “Only the Master knows . . .”

Color picture of kids running long race. (page 39 in PDF file)

Finish up by sharing testimony about trusting in the Lord to help us in our trials. Share quote: "We learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass." Display quote on wall in kitchen this week.

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Side note: While preparing this lesson with my dear daughter, it struck me how perfect of a topic it was for her since we have been dealing with her throwing tantrums lately when things don't go her way. It was enlightening to talk through it with her individually and watch her think about falling down in a race. Her initial answer was that you throw the tantrum because you are hurt and you don't get up. (Hmm, I've experienced that limp body response from her!) She even became a little whiny at that point. But then we read the story of Job in our Old Testament reader and talked about how we can get up when we fall down and keep trying and things will get better. We talked about how bad things happen sometimes no matter what but we can trust in Jesus to help us. She really seemed to take the message to heart.

Before dinner I was queuing up the video of President Monson for the end of the lesson. Princess saw the video and asked if she could listen to him talk. She came running to tell me a few minutes later that she heard him talking about Job! She was super excited!

Post lesson report: It went pretty well! Little Guy was a terror most of the time running around the living room but her big brothers and Dad listened nicely and Princess was very excited to be giving the lesson so we all just ignored Little Guy as much as possible. Watching the Old Testament story video of Job went really well and the hidden picture search on the kids running a race was something they all enjoyed doing a lot. We finished with a game of Uno and small bowls of ice cream (world's easiest FHE treat). I think it was a successful night of Family Home Evening!