As I serve others, I serve Jesus
Christ and show my love for Him


 

Introduction: Begin by displaying a container of uncooked rice in a large tupper ware container.  Have the following clues (click here for the pdf file) cut up, word-by-word and placed throughout the rice.  Call on a few children to search for one of the words.  As they find one, tape the word to the chalkboard (clustered in a group).  After all the words have been found, ask if any of the children can unscramble this phrase ("As I have loved you, love one another.")  Once someone shares the answer, write it on the board.  (If the children have a difficult time unscrambling the sentence, give them the first word and so on until someone gets it.

Ask a child, "What do you think this sentence is saying?"

Jesus Christ was a perfect example of love and kindness.  In turn, when we help others, we are showing our love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
 

Game: Explain that you will hum a song. When they think they know the name of the song, they may raise their hands. You can either interrupt your humming and ask a child to guess what the song is or wait to ask until you have finished humming the song all the way through.
 

Hum “When We’re Helping.” After a child has guessed the name of the song, ask this question:

• What is this song about? (Helping)

Print Helping on the chalkboard.

Hum “ ‘Give,’ Said the Little Stream.” After the children guess the name of the song, ask them this question:

• What is this song about? (Giving)

Print Giving under Helping.

• Can you think of another word that means helping and giving? (Serving. Give them additional clues as needed until they can guess it.)

Explain that serving others can include giving and helping. We often serve by helping and giving to others.
 

Sing: As a Primary, sing all three verses of “ ‘Give,’ Said the Little Stream”.  Point out that the last verse says we should give as Jesus gives. Tell the children that when Jesus was on the earth, he served other people often.

Ask every child who wants to be a disciple (follower) of Jesus Christ to stand up and remain standing. Remind the children that Jesus wants all his disciples to serve others.

• How can we serve others? (For Senior Primary, depending on how many children there are, you could challenge them to either share a time when they served someone else and how it made them feel or something someone did for them and how it made them feel).

Let each child sit down as he or she names a way to serve others.  If a child has difficulty thinking of a way to serve, you may want to suggest one of the following ideas or another idea appropriate for the children in your class:
 

• Tell or read a story to someone younger.

• Draw a picture for your parents or grandparents.

• Put away the toys your brother left out.

• Set the table for dinner without being asked.

Activity - Make three small paper hearts for each child. Tell the children that you want to start a “Service in Secret Club.” Encourage the children to take these hearts home and do secret acts of service for their family members, leaving a heart in each place they did an act of service. For example, they could make a brother or sister’s bed and leave a heart on the pillow. (Idea taken from Primary 2 Manual, Lesson 39) 

Summary - Share your testimony.
 

Optional Ideas:

- Review events in the Savior’s life and have children determine ways He served others.

- Tell the children that the thirteenth article of faith says that we believe in serving others. Have the children stand, and help them say, “We believe … in doing good to all men.” (You may need to explain that all men means all people.)

- Tell the children that we follow Christ’s example when we serve others. Obtain (in advance) and display photographs (at a young age) of three ward/branch leaders (bishop/branch president, Relief Society president, a diligent home teacher, etc.). Find out some things about them and give clues until the children guess who each leader is. (Clue examples: He helps us choose the right. We pay our tithing to him. She visits the sick. She helps the women learn to serve others. He helps us when our family has a problem.) When the leader has been guessed, have him/her come in and tell the children how they learned to work and to serve others, and when and how they learned that it was important to serve the Lord. (If possible, the stories should be from their youth.) Ask, “Whom else is the bishop (or whoever it is) serving?” [Heavenly Father] “For whom do they show their love as they serve?” [Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the people in the ward/branch] Set a timer for one minute and see how many ways the children can tell you that they can serve at home, at church, at school. Sing vs. 1, 4 of “I Feel My Savior’s Love” (CS, pp. 74–75). (This idea is taken from the May 1999 Sharing Time)