Trash and Treasure Talk
by Sally Cary / ga05152007

 

Click here for the clipart to go with this Family Home Evening (Word Document)

We talked about how much Heavenly Father and Jesus love us and how they would treat us if they were right here on they earth. Then I read them the scripture - Love one another as I have loved you - and we talked about what that means and I specifically made mention that the way we speak to each other is one way that we can show each other that we love each other. I then showed a picture of a treasure box and of a trash can and asked them what was contained in each - special, wonderful things in the treasure box and horrible, yucky things in the trash can. I then asked what they would like to be given - a treasure box or a trash can - they all said the treasure box - thank goodness. I then explained that some of the things we say in our family are unkind (trash talk) and some of the things we say are kind (treasure talk). I had been listening over the course of the last few days for specific things that the children were saying to each other that were kind or unkind and had written them on the speech bubbles. They then pulled a speech bubble out of a bowl and decided if it was trash or treasure talk and stuck it on the relevant picture. It was funny to see their shocked little faces - did someone in our family really say that???? - at the end we talked about what sort of talk we want to hear in our family and they each took the trash words and screwed them up and threw them in the real trash can - they loved this bit!!. I have stuck the treasure bow with the treasure words around it up in our home for them all to see and a reminder of what they should say to each other.