I'll Follow Him in Faith
Stake Leadership Training

submitted by Melissa McGowan / ga09292006

Last night I attended my Stake Leadership Meeting about next year's theme "I'll Follow Him in Faith" and I thought I'd share the excellent ideas they gave.

Our invitations were printed on a pretty picture of a single sunflower and when we got to the chapel, there was an arrangement of sunflowers at the pulpit and sunflower refreshments mentioned below.

Our first handout was the Parable of the Sunflower. It is as follows:

The Parable of the Sunflower

When Sunflowers bloom, they follow the sun all day. The flower looks towards the sun as it goes across the sky.

We can be like the sunflower and look for our light in the Son of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ.
 
It will help if we put our plant in good soil. The good soil of our lives can be obeying our parents, going to church, saying our prayers, etc. These things help nourish our testimonies of Jesus Christ.

When the sunflower blooms, its seeds help nourish people, animals and birds.  Our testimony will help nourish others around us as they see how the light of Jesus Christ shines in our lives.

We should follow Jesus Christ the same way the sunflower follows the sun. If we pray in the morning and at night and watch for his help all day long, He will be able to guide us.

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They also gave us a handout with 10 ideas for how to make use of the Parable of the Sunflower in a quarterly activity or even for a sharing time. They are as follows:

1. Tell the parable of the sunflower. There is a picture of Monet's painting of sunflowers in the back of the church manual titled, The Presidents of the Church. There is a picture of Jesus in the red robe on the flipside of the sunflowers.

2. Let the children make a bracelet out of different colored beads but give them a pattern or example to follow. Show a picture of the Savior and talk about following the pattern He has given us to follow.

3. Plant a sunflower seed in a cut for them to take home (see sharing time outline for the first week in January).

4. Copy a picture of a sunflower on yellow construction paper or cardstock to use as a picture frame. Let the children cut out the sunflower and put a picture of themselves in the center of the flower.

5. Play "Simon Says" to see how well they can follow.

6. Make a round cake and frost it yellow. Place Twinkies around the outside of the cake to look like the petals of a sunflower (this idea was shown in the Family Fun magazine). (CLICK HERE for another version of this cake).  Use jumbo milk chocolate chips (Hershey's Kisses) to cover the round cake to look like seeds on a sunflower. The children could each receive a Twinkie for a treat.

7. Sunflower cookie cutters are available at JoAnn's Craft Store. Let the children frost their cookie yellow and use chocolate chips for the center of the flower.

8. Small pictures of the Savior could be given to each child to display in their rooms or keep in their  scriptures. 

9. Plan a service project that will give the children and opportunity to follow the Savior's example.

10. For more ideas, see the Friend, March 1999, Jesus Christ Shows Us The Way, page 14 and the Friend, May 1999, Follow Jesus Christ, page 44.

Also, one of the BEST ideas I think we heard last night was taken from a talk called "Faith Is The Answer" given by Virginia H. Pearce at the General Young Women's Meeting on 26 March 1994. In this talk, she talks about an easy to remember definition of Faith that can be counted out on your 5 fingers. Then she tells 3 stories - Moses, pioneer, personal - and applies each story to the 5 points of Faith defined as follows:

1. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, and they are in charge of this world.
2. They know me.
3. They love me.
4. They have a plan for MY future.
5. If I will obey the commandments, work hard, and trust in their plan, sooner or later, everything will be okay.

I think everyone can agree that this is a PERFECT definition of Faith. What a wonderful idea it would be to reiterate this definition EVERY week in primary after a scripture story or personal experience is told. It fits every story, scriptural or personal and can be a comfort and a bulwark for anyone that commits it to memory. It is certainly easy enough for children to remember if it is repeated each week. We will DEFINITELY be using this idea in Primary this year. And I will take EVERY opportunity to reinforce it for myself, my family and my Primary.

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Some good quotes:

"According to legend this common but beautiful flower follows the sun from the early hours until it reaches its zenith, is constant and steadfast through the long afternoon, and, as the sun declines, follows it until it finally disappears into the horizon."  -Relief Society Courses of Study, 1986, pg. 171

"Walk in the sun with your heads high, knowing that you are loved and honored, that you are a part of [the Lord's] kingdom, and that there is for you a great work to be done which cannot be left to others." -President Gordon B. Hinckley ("Live Up to Your Inheritance," Ensign, Nov. 1983)