Walk the Path that Jesus Walked...and Be Happy!

In his General Conference address "Ponder the Path of Thy Feet," President Monson taught, "We need not walk the shores of Galilee...to walk where Jesus walked.  All of us can walk the path He walked when...we choose to follow Him as we journey through mortality."

To help us learn more about President Monson's talk, I worked with Scarlett to develop a visual lesson and activity that she could teach the other children during FHE, something she was most eager to do!

The visual that President Monson lays out...that of following a path, was an easy one to focus on and fun to replicate.

My kids had fun painting each other's feet to create footprints for our "path," and I enjoyed standing back and observing my children as they take more and more initiative in the conducting of our lessons and activities.  They are really growing up.

In his talk, President Monson points out that Jesus Christ walked the paths of disappointment, loss, sorrow, temptation, and pain--and that as His disciples, we will also experiences these things. 

But he says, "While we will find on our path bitter sorrow, we can also find great happiness."

But how?

He continues: "We, like Jesus, can walk the path of obedience...."  We, like Jesus, can walk the path of service, prayer, and scripture study.  We can be merciful, humble, righteous, peacemakers, stand up bravely for our beliefs, and let our light shine regardless of ridicule.  We can be rescuers.

Scarlett did a great job teaching this lesson and helping us to understand that while we will all experience these things in mortality, we can choose to follow Jesus Christ and find happiness even as we experience pain, disappointment, and sorrow in this life.

The game that Scarlett came up with to help us talk about this was as follows:

Each person took a turn rolling a die.  If the number came up odd, they came up and read one of the "sad" experiences on our path.  If the number came up even, the person came up and read one of the good things we can do/become on our path.  Each person shared an example of ways we might feel sorrow, pain, humility, service, mercy, etc. in life.  And then we shared one way that the Savior experienced or demonstrated those things during his life and we compared these experiences to each other.

It was a very clever game, and I'm proud of Scarlett for coming up with it all on her own.  She's a very good teacher.

The kids all seemed to enjoy it, but when Autumn lost interest and rolled herself up in a blanket, she got laid on by the teacher!  That'll keep her attention, Scarlett! ;)

You can read more about our General Conference Lessons here.