Lesson Helps on Law of Sacrifice
by Kelly in California


 

I sat in on this lesson recently and the presentation/handouts were excellent! I'll share the outline from what I remember, and maybe it will help bring some ideas for someone else.

The teacher started by explaining the history of sacrifice (presumably right out of the lesson... Adam/other prophets sacrificing up until the time of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, why we sacrifice, what God wants from us, etc.). She said that sacrifice is giving up something for something better.

Then the class came up with a list of worthy goals (things worth sacrificing for) and put them on the chalkboard. Our list looked something like this:

Temple marriage
Graduating College
Graduating Seminary
Serving a Mission
Fasting on Fast Sunday
etc.

The teacher asked the girls to think of a goal, either one from the list or another worthy goal. As we thought about our goal, she handed each class member 3 peanuts (whole, in shell) and said that these represented things that we were willing to give up in order to get the thing we desired.  She went to each girl and asked them what their goal was. For the girls who first said "Temple Marriage" the question was asked, "What do you need to
sacrifice to have a temple marriage."  They gave her answers (and the class helped if she got stuck) such as... you can't wear what all your friends might be wearing if it's immodest or you can't go do the immoral things your friend might be doing or you have to be honest in all your dealings, pay tithing, etc.

She then asked each girl if she was willing to give that up and as they replied yes, they put a peanut back in the bowl. She continued this process until all the young women had answered and "sacrificed."  (The other goals were actually a little easier with more tangible items like, for seminary you have to get up early, pay attention, and study... for serving a mission you had to study, be worthy, save money... for fasting you had to pray, ponder, and give up food, etc.).

After making the rounds and hearing each girls goal and sacrifices, she asked them to repeat the definition of sacrifice... and she gave them a symbol of "something better" - A king size snickers bar. She asked them if any of them wanted to trade back the snickers for their peanuts. Of course, no one did.

She also used the reference during the lesson that compared to what you're really getting, the things we sacrifice along the way are just "peanuts."

The handout had a half of an empty whole peanut shell hot glued to it with a note about sacrifice. In small print she wrote something like, "peanuts, or king sized snickers bar?" It also included a scripture or a quote from the lesson.  It was outstanding and the girls really "got" the lesson.

PS - One other thing she did was give each girl a small brown paper bag to put their candy bar in... She told the girl that sometimes it's hard to see others walking around with goodies in church. I thought that was a very classy idea. The girl respected it and in fact, I didn't see any candy bars being eaten at church. The girls acted like they had a prized possession and were more dignified!