You guys, good things are in store on the creative side of week three.

I wanted to take some of the core principles that we've learned in the

chapters and find creative ways to teach them, and I think we have some

good things up our sleeve this week.

So just like I've done in the past, my hope here is to give

you a quick preview of each.

I'll walk you through the supplies that you'll need for each one.

And then you can kind of figure out as you watch the rest of the

videos, how you could adapt these to your own kids or your own classes.

Cause there's a plenty of options out there.

I'm just trying to kickstart some creative ideas.

I would remind you that for those of you who are in the full course, you'll have

access to the notes and the printables.

Um, that'll just be within the links that are built into the course.

If you're not part of the course and you really want to get your

hands on one of the printables.

This year we've started to add a few of them to my Etsy shop.

So you'll see some of the more popular printables there.

You can find links below this video if you want to go access those, but

hopefully just seeing this video, we'll get some ideas going in your mind.

OK, first and foremost, I wanted to help our kids understand what the iron rod

is, why it is such a pivotal part of making it from where they begin to where

they're all trying to get to to the tree.

And it is this steady, solid, warm.

Guiding tool.

And I loved Elder Anderson's perspective about the iron rod.

He's one that taught me in a BYU devotional about what it's composed of.

So we're gonna do a cool object lesson to help your kids understand

what makes up the iron rod.

I've taught this to my course in the past.

It uses just simple sheets of tinfoil, but this time I decided to add a printable

option just so you have something that if you were teaching in a seminary class

or maybe in a primary sharing time.

You had something that you could hold up that's a little

easier for your kids to read.

So, if you want to use the printable element, you can.

It's just these simple little iron rods, and I'll teach you how to use those.

Okay, second object lesson.

This is to talk about what it means to keep.

I thought it was fascinating that after Lehi teaches all about his vision, he

urges his sons with all the feelings of a tender parent to keep the commandments.

And, I thought it was interesting to think about what that word really means.

You know, to keep isn't just to hold on to.

It's to defend, to guard, to, you know, be anxiously engaged in

doing good, those kinds of things.

And I think the same thing applies with Nephi when he's talking about

the small plates and how he hopes that those who write in them after him

will keep and preserve that record.

And I don't think that just means to hold on to the record.

He wants them to use it.

to study it and to write in it and to keep them, you know, in use.

I think there's something powerful about that, about that word keep.

So we're going to demonstrate that understanding with a really cool game.

It's simple, lazy, and fast, and you can play it with two people or 20 people.

It's called potato jousting.

So if you've never done this before, you just need a sack of potatoes.

Personally, I prefer the ones that are a little bit smaller.

So the golden ones are the red ones that are a little bit smaller, work a little

better than the giant russet potatoes, but whatever you have on hand will work.

Then each player, in addition to needing a potato, they also need two spoons.

Ideally, the more like serving spoon or soup spoon size, you could even use

wooden spoons if that's all you have on hand, but you need two spoons on hand.

If you're teaching a big seminary class and you need, to help a lot

of people have spoons, then it might be good to get the smaller potatoes.

If you're using just a regular cereal spoon like you'd find in a church

kitchen, then get the little baby red potatoes and you'll probably

have better success with those.

Third one.

This is one of my favorites of all time, but I wanted to reinvent it for 2024.

So, this is when Nevi's teaching about unfolding revelation.

About how it has to, we have to listen to revelation on the Lord's timetable.

When he's ready to reveal things to us and when we're ready to receive it.

Things open up, but they don't open up fast.

They unfold.

Those are Nephi's words, and there's a really fun way to

teach your kids all about that.

In the past, we've done it with a flower.

This time, I decided I'm going to do it with a hand and a fire.

To represent what you see in the youth theme this year, and in

the, even the logo of this course, this idea of passing on a flame of

discipleship to the next generation.

So, you just need the printable for this one.

You also need a little bit of water, maybe a cup or so, and

then a plate to hold things.

You could use a salad plate, something that has, you know, shallow depth.

You don't need anything too deep.

If you want to open up a few of these all at once, then maybe

a cookie sheet would be good.

You just want to have a little room to work with, but for that

one, you just need copy paper.

In fact, this is one that you do not want to print on cardstock.

You want to keep it on copy paper so that it can get its full effect.

Um, copy paper, water and a pan, and you'll be good to go.

Soon we're going to learn that the iron rod represents the word of God.

But I think it's hard for kids to understand how to grab

a hold of the word of God.

What does that even mean?

And so I think anytime you can break down that analogy to something that

they can understand, it's always better.

In fact, I really love the way Elder Anderson taught this in a BYU devotional.

He basically described the iron rod as three components.

In fact, that's what you'll find on the printable this week.

All these different components work together to become the iron rod.

So you have the scriptures as one component, the words of ancient prophets,

you also have the living prophets, what we read today from our prophets and apostles.

That's a vital component of the iron rod.

And then third one is revelation that comes from the gift of the Holy Ghost.

When those three intertwine and reinforce each other, we get this

solid, steady thing we can hold on to that will take us home.

So I wanted my kids to understand that, and one of my favorite ways

to do that is to use tinfoil.

So you just want to rip up a couple sheets of tinfoil.

I found it was best, you're going to tear up one of these printables.

So on the printable, you're going to notice I give you

three, the three components of the iron rod and an extra one.

And the reason I do that is so that you have one that you can tear up.

Basically, I would take that extra one and you're going to

tuck it into a sheet of tinfoil.

If you're not using the printable, you could easily just write on the

tinfoil with sharpie is the same idea, but you want to write the on

a piece of tinfoil, and then you're going to crumble it up the long way.

So you'll have a long rope.

I found if I tore my pieces of tinfoil about the size of a cookie

sheet, that gave me enough rope to work with to create the braid later.

So you're going to tuck a printable that that printable of the rod

with just scriptures on it into the foil and crimp it around.

And then you want to give your kids a challenge and you just say, okay.

Can you pull this tinfoil apart?

So let them hold on to either end of that rod and pull with all their force.

And what they'll find is they can actually pull that apart pretty easily.

It'll almost look like a fortune cookie.

The printable will pop out and you'll see that there isn't enough strength

with just one form of the iron rod.

We really need reinforcement from all three of them working together.

So this is when you set that torn one down and you pick up those three components,

the ones that are in the printable.

So you're gonna wrap up each one individually in a rope of tinfoil.

Wrap it up nice and tight and then braid them together.

You don't need your braid to be super tight.

You just want it to have a good strength and width to it.

When they pull on it, it will tighten naturally on itself.

So you really don't need to worry too much about.

Making a very tight braid, but then you're going to give your kids the

same challenge You'll say okay.

This iron rod is composed of the words of the scriptures or ancient prophets

The words of living prophets, and the words that come from the Holy

Ghost through personal revelation.

This iron rod has strength.

So now you invite your kids to do the same challenge.

They're gonna pull on either end.

You can even have two kids pull from either side and see what they can do.

But what's powerful about this braid is because they're interwoven,

they reinforce each other.

And as they pull, the braid only gets tighter and stronger.

I would caution them that they can't twist it or tear at it, because then

you can break the object less than down.

But if you're just pulling from either end, this rod cannot be moved.

And that's something I want my kids to understand about the Word of God.

We need all three of those things.

We need to study our scriptures.

We need to understand the words of living prophets.

And we need to seek our own confirmation from the Holy Ghost.

Nephi demonstrates that this week.

He studies the words of the brass plates.

He listens to the words of his father, the prophet.

And then he turns to the Lord and asks for his own revelation.

And when he uses all three of those in tandem, he gets this rock solid

faith that he can hold on to and make his way towards the tree.

I know, I know, potato jousting is a ridiculous way to teach gospel

principles, but it's memorable and that's what we're going for.

Okay, you guys, as silly as this seems, I think this has a lot of Lasting power

what I wanted my kids to understand is what the Lord means when he asks

us to keep things It's really easy to hear keep the commandments or keep the

record or keep my covenants and just think that means I'm supposed to be

Passive I think in the scriptures we see over and over again that that word

keep means to do something active.

When he asks us to keep the commandments, when Lehi asked his

sons to keep the commandments, he wasn't just asking them not to murder,

not to lie, not to commit adultery.

He's also asking them to do good, to be anxiously engaged and to do

good and progress on that path.

I think we need both.

And I think when we're asked to keep things, we're doing both.

Choosing not to do bad things, and we're also choosing to use our time

and our talents to accomplish good.

In fact, it was fascinating to me this week, as I was studying and

thinking about this object lesson, to go into the scriptures and search

for the other uses of the word keep.

And there are a bunch of them, you guys.

I put some in the notes, but it was fascinating to me.

Like, Adam and Eve are asked to keep the garden, to tend and to keep it, which

can't just mean to reside in it, right?

It means somehow that they're gonna care for it, they're gonna nurture it, they're

gonna They're gonna do something there.

The same thing happens when you hear the Lord promise to Jacob

that he will keep his promises.

I don't think that's ever passive.

When the Lord talks about keeping Jacob and keeping his children and keeping

the promises, it's in no way passive.

It's active.

You see another one when President Nelson asks us to keep our covenants.

That is not a passive role.

That is us choosing to set down things that are distractions and

hold tight to what will advance us.

And I just loved it.

So you can go and learn more in the notes if you want to find out

more, but I'm hoping to demonstrate that with this Silly game.

So basically to play the game, you're going to set up, you can either do

this one on one, you can do it in small groups, or you could do it in

a whole class if you're teaching a seminary class or a Sunday school class.

And you just need to give each player two spoons and a potato.

If you want to make this a little more Pinewood Derby style, you could

invite your kids to name their potato.

I did find it helps to write something on the potato in

case both potatoes fall down.

It's easy to tell whose is whose.

So.

Make them give their potato a name and then invite them to joust.

The rules of jousting are very simple.

Basically, I'm just trying to keep my potato on my spoon and I'm going

to use my other spoon to defend.

So it's both, right?

I'm walking that line of trying to guard and protect and also to proactively do.

And I think that's the gospel message, you guys.

We're supposed to do both.

So as they go and they play, they'll go against their opponents and they're going

to have to use a lot of caution because basically what happens is as I try to.

Go into the field of battle, I lose my balance a little bit.

So I'm constantly trying to guard this potato on my spoon.

And I'm also trying to move forward.

I'm trying to get distractions and temptations out of my way.

I have to be proactive in my approach.

And that's kind of how the game is played.

As I go forward, if somebody's potato falls down, then they get a letter.

So it's kind of like the game of horse and basketball.

If your potato hits the ground, you get a letter.

For us, the letter or the word was keep.

So, K E E P.

And the last person without all their letters wins the jousting tournament.

It's the laziest, easiest approach to teaching this principle

that I could come up with.

But I think it's one that's loaded with fun.

Like, I really think When we find ways to make the gospel fun and

meaningful, then memories are made.

And that's part of what we do here.

So I hope you enjoy potato jousting.

Time to talk about the mysteries of God unfolding.

That visual, I mean, just those words, you picture something that takes a

process of time and something that becomes more beautiful and more understandable.

over the course of time.

And that's what I'm hoping this object lesson teaches as well.

Nephi seems to be comfortable with the fact that revelation is going to

come to him, but it's going to come line upon line and layer upon layer.

I actually think that's exactly what President Nelson taught us as well.

This is in his 2018 talk about revelation.

He said, I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability

to receive personal revelation.

For the Lord has promised that if you shall seek, thou shalt receive revelation

upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and

peaceable things, that which bringeth joy and that which bringeth life eternal.

Oh, there is so much more that your Father in heaven wants you to know.

As Elder Neal A.

Maxwell taught, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear

that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe.

I love his optimism.

He wants us to receive knowledge the same way Lehi wanted his sons

to grab hold of these understandings and work their way towards the tree.

So I wanted some way to catch my kid's eye as well.

This is one we've done with my kids in the past.

When we taught this back in 2020, we did it with this

beautiful little lotus flower.

In fact, if you're in the course, you can still download that original printable

and find it if you want to do it.

a more botanical version of this.

But I wanted something that fit with 2024.

So I decided to grab a hold of that visual, that the logo of the youth theme,

this idea of having a hand with fire.

In fact, it's a lot like our logo, but I wanted some way to catch

that feel of it happens slowly.

Fires catch in your hearts of discipleship, but it happens

over time and it becomes more beautiful the longer you stay in it.

So basically what you're gonna do is you're gonna open up the again, print

it on copy paper, not on cardstock.

Because you want the water to be able to saturate the printable in it.

You're going to find a couple different things I have a few different, um skin

tones of hands that you can choose from.

And then two fire flowers that look like this.

One that's bigger and one that's smaller.

It's actually a really simple thing.

The hardest part of this printable is just to cut it out.

So you're going to cut out all your pieces and then you're

going to slowly fold the petals, essentially, of your fire flower in.

If you look at the printable, there's like a dotted line.

That's kind of your fold line.

So you're going to tuck your printable petals in towards the center of that fire.

And then you're going to do that both of those rings of fire and

nest them inside each other, almost like a Russian nesting doll.

So you'll take the smaller ring of fire and you put it inside

the middle size ring of fire.

Then you're going to put both of those into the hand that is outstretched

and then fold the fingers in.

And then this is where the magic happens, you guys.

So you're going to take a dish of water.

Again, you need maybe like a half an inch of water to work with.

And you want to set your little packet, that hand that you've got

all folded around those, that fire.

and set it flat on top of the water.

You don't want to dip it at an angle, you really want it to land nice and flat.

And what will happen almost immediately is that hand will start to open.

The water saturates the copy paper on that outer layer and the hand unfolds.

And then as you continue to watch, that outer ring of fire spreads out,

and you start to see those flames.

And then if you stick it out even longer, that third tier will open up,

and you'll see another layer of flames.

And in the process, you can read the verses that are all about

the mysteries of God unfolding.

One of the reasons I've really loved this object lesson in the past and

still love it today is because it's really tempting to pry open those edges.

You, especially on that third tier, you, you've seen the magic, you know

what's happening and you want to pry it open to get it to open up faster.

What I found is that time that your kids have to wait and

watch is really valuable time.

Because that's when you can swoop in and teach them about the Spirit.

That there isn't much hope in prying at the plates like we

talked about in the Insights video.

We have to let the mysteries of God unfold to us.

I don't think that means we shouldn't be aggressive seekers.

I think the Lord is always eager to give us revelation.

And Joseph Smith's story teaches us that when we have questions, we should

come to the Lord and seek answers.

But I do think we have to trust that those answers will come in

His way and on His timetable.

And when we trust in that, the beauty unfolds.

If we rush it and try to force things open on our own, we miss the magic.

And I feel like that happens with us as well.

So hopefully this really cool object lesson will help you reinforce the

youth theme for this year about being a disciple of Christ and also teach about

this power of revelation, how it comes slow and steady, but there is a clear end

point when you know the mysteries of God.

That's what happened for Nephi.

It can happen for us as well.

Thanks for being here.

You guys, that's the end of week three.

All right.

I hope you enjoyed this week of study I just think how can you not right?

It's Lehigh's vision.

It's it's a beautiful block of scriptures to study I think you're gonna love it.

If you have questions about the insights or about how to do the

object lessons better I hope you'll come join me on the live.

We've moved it in 2024.

We're no longer doing it on Instagram I've decided to take it into our own

site so we can control things a little bit better and get you off social

media So you can find it at gather.

mechmom.

com.

You'll have to sign in as a free member, but then you can RSVP for the live or

just come back and watch it anytime.

It's recorded as we do the live and you can watch it whenever you feel like it.

The difference between the live and these videos is I try to take things

in a more chapter by chapter approach.

So if you're looking for just an introduction into your week with a

quick understanding of what happens in each chapter, the live might

be a great place for you to go.

It's also a good place to hear the comments and thoughts of others in

the course, so if you're looking for more voices than just mine, the live

would be a good place to find it.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this week, you guys.

It's a beautiful, solid week of study that we'll build on for the

whole rest of the Book of Mormon.

So take your time with these chapters, and then come on back for week number four.