Bearing Each Other's Burdens {Alma Baptizes} Family Home Evening

 I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted a family home evening!  

Slacker :)

I have a few to share, but I thought I would start with the one we did this last Monday.  It was very simple and provided a great visual for my kids to refer back to.

We continued our lessons from the Book of Mormon by learning all about Alma baptizing at the waters of Mormon.  We started off by looking at this printable I made with the lyrics from one of my favorite Primary songs.

We read from our Book of Mormon Stories all about Alma and the Nephites he baptized.  We talked about how when we are baptized we are clean, and we reminded the kids about the covenants we make at baptism.  I told them that for that night we were going to focus on the promise we make to bear one another's burdens and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.

To get started, we had to learn all about what BURDENS even are.  After I explained to my kids that burdens can be trials, sad moments in our lives, or hard things we deal with we talked about what it meant to BEAR one another's burdens.  My wonderful sister in law Cara shared a great idea she used to teach her kids about chores and sharing household responsibilities that I thought could be adapted perfectly to suit our needs.

To get started I grabbed a bunch of cans out of my pantry and then covered them with construction paper.  Then I wrote different burdens that we may already face, or may face someday.  Some that I did were:

Feeling lonely

Losing a loved one

Wondering if Heavenly Father really loves me

Feeling guilty about mistakes I make

Fighting with your mom and dad

Being teased at school

Feeling like I'm not good enough

Once I had all our cans ready I had the kids take turns.  Skylar started by holding an empty green bucket.  One by one we read what the cans said and placed each one in the bucket.  You could see her struggle a little more with each can we put in.  I talked about how sometimes in life this is how we feel...completely weighed down and overwhelmed with different burdens we face.  Finally when we had them all in I told her she needed to walk up and down the stairs.  The poor girl got upset and said there was NO way she could do that...she could hardly hold it standing totally still!

At this point we were able to show the kids...THIS is how important it is to bear one anothers burdens!  One by one the rest of us took turns taking a can at a time out of Skylar's basket.  As we took out each can we said a way we could ease that burden, maybe by praying, being a good friend, or serving.  By the time we had each taken 2 or 3 we all had helped ease her burdens and she was able to easily run up and down the stairs with just a few cans in her bucket.

I couldn't help but cry as I watched my kids rush to ease one anothers burdens.  I bore testimony of trials I have faced, and how others around me have served me and made those burdens seem bearable.  We have a sacred responsibility to keep our baptismal covenants...and there is no better way to do that than by bearing one another's burdens, especially those of our own family!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and reading.  It means so much that so many of you take the time to do that :)  Have a fantastic day!!