2 Nephi 31-33

March 2-8

“This is the Way”

Scripture: 2 Nephi 32: 8-9

8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.

Activity: Learn to Pray- Talk to dad on the phone

Have the kids use mom’s phone (or the house phone if you have one) to call dad. Have him be in the other room. Give them instructions to

Tell him Hello
Tell him thank you for at least 3 things
Ask him for something
Say Good-bye

Dad has instructions to talk when given time and asked questions.

Let each kid have a chance to talk to dad.

Then talk about prayer.

Our kids need a good little reminder about the importance of prayer and how to be reverent during (i.e. don’t eat during a prayer, don’t move around during a prayer, no touching siblings while praying…basic stuff).

I want to talk about how we have the chance to talk to our Heavenly Father. And we should really talk to Him. He really wants to hear from us and talk back to us. We just have to give Him the time and pay attention to the Holy Ghost.

Scripture: 2 Nephi 33: 10

Activity: DO GOOD

One of my favorite quotes is from Sister Camilla Kimball: “never suppress a generous thought.” By following her counsel, we can know that our Heavenly Father knows us personally because He sends us to be His hands and heart to those in need. As we do so, our faith in Him is strengthened.

When a generous thought comes into your mind do it!

Keep a list throughout the week of GOOD DEEDS that you and your family do. Or talk about them over dinner. Or come up with a good deed to do as a family and DO IT.

What will the Holy Ghost inspire you to do for someone else today? We just learned about prayer…what does God want you to do?

Don’t ignore those generous thoughts that come in your mind.

Scripture: 2 Nephi 33: 15

Last words of Nephi….I must obey. When he said this at the end of the book of Second Nephi I felt like he closes with a mic drop.

He was true to those words in his lifetime. I’m grateful to have so many examples of him ‘going and doing’…because that is obedience, right? The whole youth theme this year is to ‘go and do’ and what I’m learning is that means being obedient to God. Being obedient to what God tells us to do in the scriptures. Being obedient to God by heading the words of the living prophet of God. And being obedient to His voice to our hearts or the spirit. #hearhim

Nephi showed in his life that he obeyed what God taught in the scriptures by obeying the law of Moses and by getting the scriptures to learn from them. He listened to the voice of the prophet…he even went to the Lord to help soften his heart so he could follow his father, the prophet, into the wilderness. (1 Nephi 2:16). And what I love most is finding him following the promptings of the Lord that he received through the Holy Ghost.

I pray that I can feel that I must—-be compelled to/forced/obliged—to obey. Because I love God so much that I can’t see myself not obeying.

I still have a long ways to go in feeling that I MUST obey. Right now I’m in a stage where I really want to (with most things) obey.

Even amid my weaknesses and shortcomings to obey the voice of the Lord in my life I’m so grateful for the hope that Christ brings. That not only I can repent when I don’t obey, I can be empowered through Christ as I do my best to obey even when it is really hard.

I’m trying to obey.

Activity: Simon Says- (You must obey)

Read the 2 Nephi 33:15. I love that Nephi ends his words by his faithfulness in obedience. Nephi had the confidence that the Lord wouldn’t ask him to do things that he couldn’t do. When the Lord asked, Nephi did! We can too!

A fun easy way to talk about the need to obey is to play Simon Says. Some fun ideas to spice up your Simon Says game are:

Simon says play air guitar
Simon says roll over
Simon says waddle like a penguin
Simon says to dance
Simon says cry like a baby.
Simon says to start singing (what do you what them to sing???)
Simon says smell your feet.
Simon says hug yourself.
Simon says walk backwards.
Simon says act like a robot
Simon says blow a kiss
Simon says freeze
Simon says be your favorite superhero
Simon says stick out your tongue
Simon says swim
Simon Says make a funny face
Simon Says slither like a snake

Activity: Feast on the words of Christ:

2 Nephi 31:20

Prepare everyone’s favorite food items. Cover them. Have everyone describe how much they want to eat their food item and why they like it so much. Invite them to have the smallest taste with their finger. Is it enough? Or do you want more? Have each food item be listed with things that represent the word of God; like the scriptures, General Conference addresses, sacred music, and prayer. Talk about if we are just getting a taste of each of these things or are we feasting upon them.

Scripture: 2 Nephi 31:10-13

10 And he said unto the children of men: ^aFollow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we ^bfollow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?

11 And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.

12 And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father ^agivethe Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, ^bfollow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.

13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall ^afollow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no ^bhypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real ^cintent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are ^dwilling to take upon you the ^ename of Christ, by ^fbaptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the ^gbaptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the ^htongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

I was impressed by the repeat of Christ inviting us to FOLLOW HIM. It is so much more than a little game but I hope my kids will learn little by little things they can do to follow Christ daily in their lives.