Oil in your lamp
by Sue Hart / ga08142007
 

I just wanted to share a successful Sharing Time we had. We have separate Sharing Times so I adapted it for both groups. For both, I showed a picture of the 10 Virgins and asked what it was about. Junior's didn’t know but the Senior's did!  I told the Junior's about how it was the custom for the bridegroom to go to the bride’s house with a group of people, the wedding procession, to get her to take her back to his house. Along the way they would be joined by groups of others who were waiting for the procession to come their way. I told them about the 5 foolish who didn’t have oil and thought they could borrow from their friends and the 5 wise who were prepared, even if they had to wait a long time, how the foolish had to go to get oil and missed the wedding.  I asked both groups why the Savior told that parable?  Was it so we’d go out and buy oil? We decided that it was to tell us to be prepared for when He comes again.  For Junior's, I had drawn a picture of an oil lamp and taped a baggie to the back of the poster board, making a slit in the top of the oil lamp. I had cut out drops of ‘oil’ from laminating film and they told me things they could do that would put oil in their lamps-going to Church, praying, reading scriptures, not fighting etc., and they got to put a drop of oil in the Iamp. I showed them some colored lamp oil and put a dropper full into a clear dessert bowl. They each looked at it to see if they could see the oil. I told them that it wasn’t enough to do something once but they had to keep doing it to put oil in their lamps. 
 

For Senior's, after the telling of the parable and asking why the Savior told that parable, I showed the children the picture from the mural in the DC Temple of the Savior’s return with the righteous on one side and the unrighteous on the other. I asked them what they saw in the picture. They noticed the Savior and the temple. I pointed out that on the Savior’s right side, there were angels coming with Him but on the other side, Satan and his minions were gone-they’d deserted those they’d led astray. On the Savior’s right, people were looking at Him and either approaching or were on bended knee. On the other side, they couldn’t bear to look at Him. Some were sorrowful, some ashamed, but none looked angry. To the righteous, the Savior’s hand was extended but to the wicked, His hand was turned. The thing that really made them catch their breath though was when I pointed out that there were no children on the ‘wicked’side.  I told them that we know the Savior is coming again. We need to be the one to make sure we’re ready.  Then we talked about how we could put oil in our lamps.  The Spirit was strong in our Primary that day.