When I first heard the talk The Music of the Gospel I knew it would be a great family night. Our family loves to gather as a family each Monday night to read the scriptures, sing, and have fun together. Family Night, or FHE, is one of our favorite traditions. In our faith we have a General Conference every 6 months were we can be edified and encouraged to come unto Christ. We love Conference so much. And we know as we strive as individuals and families to keep those words in our heart we are edified. Last April we heard a wonderful talk given by Elder Wilford W. Andersen called The Music of the Gospel. To summarize this talk he tells us as parents we need to be careful we aren’t just going through the motions, or teaching our children to just go through the motions, but to feel the spirit. He beautifully compares our lives to music is such a powerful way. I knew then this would be a talk we would focus on during family night. And dancing would be our activity.
I have always wanted my boys to learn how to dance socially. And to have confidence when asking a girl to dance. But we only have one sister to practice with. And she is a little young. I was trying to think of a family that had girls around my sons ages. And then we sat in front of them in church one day, and I thought, “Why did it take me this long?” We love this family. We had a great time together at the Gilbert Riparian together last month. I talked to my girlfriend and she was totally on board.
I told my boys we would be having friends over for family night. And that we were all going to learn how to dance. And they would each have dance partners. Gandalf, my oldest, was feeling a little embarrassed. They aren’t suppose to like dancing with girls. But I told them if they wanted treats they had to dance and be polite. So I needed to make sure the treats were really special. I found these adorable musical note cookies from a Bee in our Bonnet. I had just used her cookie tutorial for Georgiana’s birthday last weekend. And I still had frosting leftover from the cupcakes and cookies. And we don’t like to waste those resources at our house. I didn’t have enough royal frosting to outline and fill them so I had to use buttercream instead. They aren’t nearly as beautiful, but they still taste yummy. I tried my best to add musical symbols on my cookies thinking of my dear piano teacher friend who would correct my Treble Cleft.
I would love to share my lesson plan for your family to use. And feel free to use store bought cookies. Your family will love them I promise.
The Music of The Gospel Family Night Lesson
Opening Song: I am a Child of God
Prayer: by invitation
You can start by having two kids silently act out doing church things like, read scriptures, praying, and paying tithing. Have one child try and be real sincere and tell the other child to do those things but only half heartedly.
Have them sit down and ask your family
- What was the difference between them?
Tell them now we are going to learn a kind of parable. Elder Andersen is is talking about music but he is using that to teach us a higher lesson.
Sometimes in our homes, we successfully teach the dance steps but are not as successful in helping our family members to hear the music.
- What do you think this means?
Have your family read Doctrine and Covenants 8:2 (if your family is not Mormon you can share how The Holy Ghost speaks to us in our mind and hearts)
We learn the dance steps with our minds, but we hear the music with our hearts. The dance steps of the gospel are the things we do; the music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy Ghost. It brings a change of heart and is the source of all righteous desires. The dance steps require discipline, but the joy of the dance will be experienced only when we come to hear the music.
(This talk focuses on what we can do as parents, children can also apply these principals to their lives.)
(Our family has a homemade chalk board. Use a chalkboard or white board or piece of paper. Make a list of “dance steps” we are asked to do ex. pray, read the scriptures, serve others, pay tithing, and so forth. Then in the next column make a list of ways we can try to feel the music. Encourage discussion with your family. Call on children directly to show them you value what they think)
When we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, we are filled with the heavenly music that accompanies conversion.
- How did you feel when you received the Holy Ghost?
(We were blessed because one of my friends daughters was just baptized a week or so ago)
Teach these things that can help us feel the music:
First, we must keep our own lives attuned to the correct spiritual frequency.
Parents, if our lives are out of tune with the music of the gospel, we need to tune them up.
We know how to do it. We must walk the same path that we walked when we first heard the heavenly strains of gospel music. We exercise faith in Christ, repent, and take the sacrament; we feel more strongly the influence of the Holy Ghost; and the music of the gospel begins to play again in our lives.
(Refer to the list on ways we can increase spirituality in our own lives)
Second, when we can hear the music ourselves, we must try our best to perform it in our homes.
We need to feel the music and then help others to feel it. This includes our family, friends at school, neighbors. We can help others feel the love of our Savior. Helping others can only be done with love. No one can be forced to “feel the music”.
- Who hear plays an instrument?
- How do you improve your ability?
Keep Practicing.
And be patient. We are all practicing and we need to keep practicing to continually draw unto our Father in Heaven.
(Close by bearing your testimony on the power of the Holy Ghost. )
Closing Prayer: by invitation
Activity: Learning a basic Waltz. Pair up children and also adults to learn a basic waltz. Practice a couple of times before using the music. Grady picked this song and I thought it was perfect with those adorable girls pictured above. I told each of my sons to go up and ask each girl to dance. I was impressed how even my 4 year old escorted her on to the floor. I know if I was a young girl I would be thrilled to have a boy ask me. The kids were so cute. I did let them know before we started that this was a very fun, social thing to do. I wanted my sons to learn that you dance with your friends who are girls, it doesn’t mean you like, like them. Georgiana didn’t have a partner. But when I was snapping pictures she got to dance with daddy. And she wouldn’t let him hold her. She wanted to do it like everyone else. Check out these videos below. Or you can play Just Dance if you don’t have partners.
And don’t forget Treats! A great time to converse and spend quality time together.
Feel free to expound upon this lesson. I kept it short because my children are ages 1-10.
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