I think one of the ways we pass this belief on to the next

generation is by getting them excited to be in their scriptures.

Get them curious and feel like the scriptures are full of light and joy and

for me, object lessons help me do that.

So I'm going to walk you through three simple object lessons to help

you connect these principles and the ideas of King Benjamin to your life.

to just everyday life for your kids and then I'll go through each

one individually so that you can figure out how you might adapt them.

None of these are designed to be used like exactly as they are.

I hope you will take the idea and run with it.

Create something cool for your class or for your family so

that it resonates for them.

Let me walk you through the supplies list first and then I'll take

you into each one individually.

Okay, first off, I really wanted to touch on that idea of things

being in wisdom and order.

I love the way King Benjamin basically says, Don't exhaust

yourself in the service of God.

That's not the way God wants you to work.

He will replenish you and he will strengthen you, but there are

boundaries that need to be set.

And I think that's really important for teenagers, especially if you

have teenagers that tend towards, you know, scrupulosity and worrying that

they'll never be perfect enough and, or a missionary that's out and worries

that the reason they're not baptizing is because they didn't wake up at six

o'clock or woke up at six oh three.

Like if, if those are issues you might have, then I think studying about wisdom

and order is a really valuable thing.

He helps us.

Balance that out.

So this one involves a printable, of course.

You could do this without a printable if you wanted, but I

created two for you just because I couldn't decide which one I liked.

Basically, we have a nesting dolls version, kind of

like Russian nesting dolls.

You know, you can only fit one inside of another in a very specific order.

That's how we're going to talk about wisdom and order.

So inside this little cone, you're going to see Varying sizes of nesting dolls

that teach you different principles that are in this week's study.

And then I have a piranha version as well, just because I thought it would be cool

to just make a fish that eats a bigger fish and a bigger fish and a bigger fish.

So piranhas, nesting dolls, you have both those printables.

If you're, if you don't have access to the printables, or you don't

have time to put those together, you could also teach it with something

really simple like measuring cups that nest inside each other.

You could teach kind of the same concept, but this one has the

words and the scriptures on it.

So that might make the teaching a little bit easier.

Okay, that's number one.

Number two, we're going to talk about the idea of being changed through his name.

I love the way King Benjamin talks about taking his name upon us and the

dignity that comes in that choice.

That we used our own agency to choose to make covenants with God, and when we take

his name upon us, we are part of his team.

And there's, it's not just about what you give in that choice,

it's about what you gain.

You're part of this team of the children of Christ, and that's powerful to me.

The best visual I found to teach that to my kids is just to give them a jersey.

So if you don't want to use the printable for this one, you could hold

up any jersey and teach this same idea.

But since I wanted something that you could Give to if you're teaching in

a you know primary class or seminary class and send them home with I created

printable jerseys as well So if you look in the printables this week, there's

these adorable little jerseys that have the scriptures written on them They'll

teach about what it means to be on the team of the children of Christ how we're

individual and have our own numbers But we're on this common team and we're

gonna walk through how to do that So for this, you just need the printable.

I used my cardstock for mine.

I made a big version like this that can hold a box of Skittles.

So if you go to, if you want to give your kids a treat at the same time,

inside this you can get the dollar store version of the box of Skittles.

They're the ones that are shrink wrapped in plastic.

Or if you need something smaller, like maybe you're teaching a seminary

class, or a big Sunday school class, and you need something smaller, I

also made a adorable mini version.

It goes on mambas.

So you want to grab a pack like this.

This will have four inside of it.

So depending on how many kids you have in your class, you're gonna want to grab

a few packs of mambas, and then you can make these adorable little tiny carousels.

Okay, that's number two.

Third one.

This one is going to help you understand his message about

being steadfast and immovable.

For me, the way I love to apply this was talking about integrity.

We just heard about integrity at conference.

I think that's such a key value for our teens.

I think it's especially valuable now that you see it in the preach

my gospel manual as this core value.

So I want to reinforce it.

And there's a really fun way to do that.

So for this one, again, there's a printable, there's three

printables this week, but you technically don't need any of them.

They're just to make it more cute, more fun and catch your kid's eyes.

But for this one, you just need scraps of paper.

So the printable has It prints on one page, and there are these two

weightlifting guys, and you're going to compare their strength

by doing things that fill them up.

So, I'll walk through it in a second, but basically, for the supplies, you

just need a bowl of rice or wheat, something like that, something that's

dense and heavy like that, and then a whole bunch of books or jars of peanut

butter, something that has a flat base and also can have a lot of weight.

A stack of handbooks would work.

Anything like that would help you out.

Get those things on hand and then come on back and I'll teach

you how to pull each one off.

King Benjamin's advice about doing things in wisdom and order and not

running faster than you have strength I think is really critical for all

of us, especially if you have any kids that tend towards perfectionism.

I think this is a really valuable.

teaching tool.

Cause you want to help them understand that King Benjamin had to be good at this.

You know, he's somebody who not, well, not only was he a spiritual leader for

his people, but he was kind of the, the, the leader of them as a King as well.

Right?

He had to figure out taxes and he had to figure out justice and all those

things that a King would have to manage.

He also clearly was a good dad and a good husband.

Like he, He had to juggle a lot of things.

And so when he says, do things in wisdom and order and don't run

faster than you have strength.

I think we should take his advice to heart.

It's clearly what helped him be as effective as a leader as he was.

And so we should want to put that in our life as well.

I think we hear similar messages from leaders.

One of my favorites is from president Benson, where he

said, when we put God first.

All other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.

And that's kind of what the object lesson is all about.

It's really a simple one.

My hope here is that you can teach your kids about the principle of nesting dolls.

So if you grab the one with the little Russian nesting dolls, you

can see that on each one I have put a different relationship.

This comes from a talk from Elder Uchtdorf.

Gosh, I can't remember.

2010.

It's in the notes, if you want to read it.

But he talks about how we need to prioritize our relationships, and this

will help us be better disciples of Jesus Christ, and not run faster than we

have strength, and not, you know, abuse relationships that need cultivating.

And so he told us to put things in proper order.

So the order that he gives us is that the very first thing we should focus

on is is our relationship to God.

So you'll see that's the very first doll.

This is the biggest one.

If we put the biggest priority on making sure our relationship with God

is good, then every other relationship we have, family relationships, co worker

relationships, relationship with, with our friends, our neighbors, all of those

can get better if we put God first.

So that's what he recommends as your first priority.

The second one as you go in is to prioritize your

relationship with your family.

Meaning, you've got to make sure that they come first on your list, above

work, above even calling commitments at times, that you have to be sensitive

to the Spirit and know where your family needs help and put them first.

They don't come above your relationship with God.

My love for my family should never outweigh my love for God, because

I should trust that my love for God actually amplifies my love for my family.

My trust in God, especially in the covenants that I make and the promises

that he offers, is that I'll be better.

at all of my relationships in my family if I preserve that first.

So that's your, your next one is to take care of the family.

The next one in is relationships with others.

So this is friends and, you know, family members and co workers and neighbors.

They come and they are important.

It is important to love God and our fellow men, but those things

should not get in the way of loving our families in God's way or loving

God in the way he's directed.

And then the last one, of course, this tiny little doll is loving ourselves.

The idea here is that you should still care for yourself.

You should care for your needs.

You should look to your testimony to constantly be building it up.

But what I think King Benjamin demonstrates for us this week is that

by loving God and our fellow men, we actually give ourselves what we need.

We feel replenished.

Look at the people that King Benjamin spoke to.

When he taught them about service and about charity, the promise he made

to them is that you will feel joy.

You'll be able to hold on to this feeling of feeling secure

in Christ throughout your life.

If you serve, and if you diligently do good, if you help in your callings,

and you help in your families, and you serve your neighbors,

then you will actually find The strength that you need on your own.

So I think that's his promise.

And like I said, you can do it with the cute little nesting dolls.

Or you can take it in a more aggressive way and do the piranhas.

So, it, I, these are very sharp teeth piranhas that

teach the exact same principle.

But I think probably the most important of all of this is to talk about

how the Savior did this very thing.

I lay some out in the notes, but I think you want to talk through,

this is exemplified by Jesus Christ.

He, in his life, found ways to always love God first, and then he took care of his

family, even on the cross when he took care of Mary and made sure that she was,

you know, connected to John and would be safe there, and that he took care of

his fellow men, and that he did indeed take care of himself and took time for

himself as well, but that he seemed to be able to take those things in stride

and know how to juggle them and how to.

how to do things in wisdom and order.

And hopefully the nesting dolls will help you do that.

Just be sure to pull up the notes.

It'll guide you through the conversation and help you figure out how you could

adjust this to your particular group.

King Benjamin uses this interesting phrase where he says, we are children of Christ.

When we choose to make covenants and keep them, we are children of Christ.

And that can get kind of confusing for kids because they've been

singing, I am a child of God forever.

And they start to wonder what that means.

So in the notes, I walk you through how you can explain the

difference that you are indeed.

spirit children of your heavenly parents.

But when you choose to make covenants with Jesus Christ, you become his.

In my brain, I love the way it's phrased in Paul in Galatians.

He talks about putting on Christ.

And that's where the idea of the jersey came in.

The very first time I heard this idea, it was from Bishop Shields, a bishop in our

ward who came right before Jason, and I love the way he taught this to the kids.

But I think the idea of putting on a jersey is a simple one.

It says, I'm going to take his name upon me.

So when my kids put on their Corner Canyon jerseys, that's what they say.

When they have that jersey on, they are not just part of a team.

They, they take the strength of the team, right?

They are someone who contributes to a team.

They help the team.

They listen to their coach.

I walk you through a bunch of these in the notes, but my hope is that you can

invite your kids to, if they're in like a Sunday school class or primary class,

invite them to bring a Jersey, right?

Let them have a chance to talk about the sport that they love and

what it's like to be on that team.

How, what it means when, if you choose to accept that Jersey and be

part of that team, what does it mean?

It means you're probably going to behave a certain way, both

on the court and off the court.

It means you're going to do things, differently with your physical

body and your mental state, you're going to get good grades.

Like there's a lot of stipulations that are laid out when you're part of a team.

And then talk through the blessings that come from being on a team.

You know, that you are somebody who benefits from the

skills and talents of others.

I might be a great setter in volleyball, but I am not a good outside hitter.

So by being part of a team, Somebody else compensates for my weakness.

All those things you want to be able to talk through and let

them kind of sort through it.

And then compare those things with the covenants you make at baptism.

And this is where the printable comes in.

So if you want them to remember these ideas, I made a jersey so

that they could take it home and teach this to their families.

Or if you're teaching it in a family setting, they could set this

on their shelf and remember it.

They are essentially, when they When they choose to make covenants with God at

baptism, they become children of Christ.

They're on his team, and he is this incredible coach who wants to strengthen

and support each individual player.

And his goal is not to make us all the same.

His goal is to help us be strong in the way that we were sent here to be

strong, so that as a team, all together, we can accomplish amazing things.

We can gather Israel as a team, meaning I have a certain part of the court that I'm

responsible for and certain skills I need to develop and talents I need to polish

so that I can do my part on this team.

I just think there's so many beautiful comparisons between taking his name

upon us and putting on a jersey and choosing the blessings and the

responsibilities that come with it.

That's what these people did when they made covenants.

They chose to take those responsibilities and commitments and then they reap

these beautiful blessings as well.

So.

You can walk through the notes in the creative side of things and it'll take

you through some discussion ideas and questions you could ask your kids,

but I'm hoping that the jerseys, especially the little jerseys they can

take home, will help them teach other people about that critical covenant.

One of the most famous phrases from this week's study is to

be steadfast and immovable.

I don't think this means you're anchored and never change.

I think this means you are tethered to Jesus Christ.

You are firmly planted on that rock so you can do all kinds of things and

you don't get tossed about, right?

I think that's Benjamin's invitation to his people, and it's the same

one we give to our kids today.

One of the ties that I like with this last conference is seeing

this as an invitation to integrity.

To be steadfast in immovable means, no matter who is watching

or what group of people I'm around, that I am true to my beliefs.

If I love God, I'm going to honor God.

If I am a disciple of Christ, I'm going to act like it, whether

people are watching or not.

There's a beautiful talk by Elder Gerard from this last conference where

he invited us to do this very thing.

I think it really applies to teenagers especially, but

I think it's for all of us.

I'm just going to give a snippet of his talk.

He said, Jesus Christ is our exemplar.

Living a life of integrity requires us to be true to God and to each

other and to our divine identity.

Integrity flows from the first great commandment to love God.

Because you love God, you're going to trust him at all times.

You understand that there is right and wrong and absolute truth, God's truth.

Integrity means we do not lower our standards or behavior or to

oppress or be accepted by others.

You do what is right and let the consequence follow.

This object lesson is designed to help you talk about integrity.

What, what we look like when we rely just on our own strength and what

we look like when we are filled with the integrity that God wants us.

When we know who we are, when we know our connection to God and

we know our connection to Jesus Christ, we are solid and we can do

things we couldn't do otherwise.

And that's what you see in this object lesson.

So setup is really simple.

You just want to print out your two weightlifter guys.

So if you don't have time for the printable, you could just

do this on regular paper.

And it would teach the same principle, but it's more fun if

you have these ridiculous guys.

Basically, you have two options.

The first one you're going to start with is the green one.

You're going to talk about this guy.

He's holding up this weight with both of his arms, and, you know, trying

to hold up the weight on his own.

And you're going to talk about what that looks like for us.

So to demonstrate it, I would just, you're going to print this not on

cardstock, but just copy paper.

You just need a thin piece of paper.

What's powerful about this object lesson is, These two guys are actually

made of the exact same material.

They're printed on the same piece of paper.

Structurally, there's nothing different about them.

It's what's inside them that makes all the difference.

So the first step, on the green one, you're going to make a loop.

So you're just going to glue a little area on the printable.

Stick it together and make a loop and set it on your table or countertop.

And then you're going to see how many books this weightlifter guy can hold.

And since he has nothing in him, he will not hold many.

You guys, for us, we, he cracked within two books and they

weren't even my biggest books.

So you want to show them what we look like when we don't have anything within.

We crumble under pressure.

But if we have integrity, if we're filled with something, especially

an understanding of who we are and what God expects of us, then

we can do incredible things.

So this is where the rice comes in.

So now you're going to grab your second one.

This is the blue one.

And you're going to put him on a countertop, same way.

I would put it on top of a cookie sheet so that your kids can see

it from all the different angles.

If you put it deep inside a bowl or something, then they won't

be able to see him very well.

But you want to put him down and then you're going to fill him with rice.

So as you take a big scoop of rice and pour it in, you want to

actually talk about what are the daily discipleship things that the

Lord asks of us that fill us up.

What does he do for us that, you know, he invites us to do things like read

the scriptures and pray together and go to the temple and attend seminary.

All those things help fill us up with integrity.

They remind us who we are and reaffirm what we want to believe about ourselves.

And then when we get to the very top and we're solid, we can do.

cool things.

So once you have the rice all the way to the top, you don't want

any paper left showing at the tip.

You want it all the way full, even pat it down a little bit.

Then you start to add the same weights.

So you'll put those same two books that crushed the first guy and he'll hold.

And then you do two, three, four, five more books.

In fact, in ours, Sam grabbed a jar of peanut butter and he took the

whole bowl of rice and set it on top.

And we still weren't to the point where that Paper would crumble.

It, I think it probably could have held anything except for the fact that

we couldn't balance stuff very well.

You could take a giant thing of soda cans and put it vertical and set it on top.

All kinds of options.

But you want to talk to your kids about this is what steadfast

and immovable looks like.

It means you can do things you could never do on your own.

We are paper.

You know, King Benjamin talked about us being nothing.

Without God, we are nothing.

We are fallen and there is, Limited abilities to accomplish much, but with

God, especially with an understanding of our divine nature and who we are and

how much God loves us and expects great things of us, then we can do big things.

Especially if there's a bunch of us doing it together when we all have integrity

and we hold each other up, we can do remarkable things in the name of God.

And I think that's the motivation and the excitement you want your kids to feel.

They want to see that little weightlifter guy and realize, you

That's what I can do if I fill myself up with the integrity that comes by

being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

That's it for week 18.

Thank you for being here, you guys, and thank you for subscribing to the

course, subscribing to the YouTube channel or the podcast, and especially

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If you need extra support with just this week's study, remember

you can come find me on the live.

So if you go to the place where the course is housed, where you can interact with

other students and check boxes when you finish a lesson, you want to go to gather.

mcmom.

com.

You can learn how to subscribe there so you have access to the

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You can come find us on the live on Monday mornings.

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m.

Mountain time, or you can just post anytime throughout the week on the

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You can put all of those over at gather.

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So enjoy your week, you guys, and I will see you on Monday.