Ever since my boys were old enough to take the bread and water without spilling or spitting, I’ve sat next to them as they take the sacrament and whispered something in their ears. “We eat the bread so we can remember that Jesus loves us. That he helps us. That he wants us to be righteous, to keep his commandments. We drink the water to remember that we can repent.” It varies. I thought that they weren’t old enough to understand the symbolism of His blood and His body. But this Sunday, as I sat next to Charlie, he turned to me with his big bright eyes and said, “Mommy, why do we drink the water?” I realized that they were plenty old enough for that lesson and that they deserved a serious treatment of it from me.

Age Range: Star, CTR

Song: Follow the Prophet (It was Charlie’s week to pick the song, and I didn’t know a good children’s song about the sacrament.)

Scripture: The First Sacrament Scripture Story (Max’s week for the Scripture.)

Lesson:

We have the Primary 3 Manual and Picture Set, and that’s where we got the pictures for this lesson. First I pulled out a picture of the Last Supper (Image 3-22).

I asked the boys which man was Jesus. Then we talked about what they were doing. Since we had just read The First Sacrament Scripture Story, it was easy for them to tell me about Jesus breaking the bread and giving it to the Apostles, then giving them a drink (although they don’t know what wine is and I decided not to get into that side conversation this week). I asked them what Jesus told them to remember, and they correctly said His body and His blood. I asked them if they knew what that meant and they fell silent.

Next I pulled out a picture of the Crucifixion (3-71).

We talked about how Jesus died, and then was resurrected, and how because of that, we can be resurrected when we die. When we eat the bread, we are supposed to remember that Jesus died for us, and was resurrected for us, so that we can be resurrected too. (We had to take a moment here to soothe Charlie, who protested that he didn’t want to die, and who was going to put nails in his hands and his feet?! After we reassured him that he wasn’t going to be crucified, we went on.)

Finally, I showed them the picture of Jesus in Gethsemane (3-46).

We talked about the Atonement; how somebody had to pay for our sins before we could go to Heaven, but we could never do it. I told them that Jesus paid for the sins of everyone in the whole world at the same time. I asked them if they thought that was easy or hard. Charlie said easy (because he’s Jesus!) and Max said hard. I told them it was hard – so hard that it hurt Jesus until he bled. Because he did that, though, we can repent so we can go to Heaven. I told them that when we drink the water, we need to remember that Jesus suffered until he bled so that we could repent.

I finished by bearing my testimony to them of the Atonement, the Resurrection, and how important the Sacrament is. It was a very spiritual lesson.

Activity: We played one of Charlie’s favorite games, Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down. Our game tonight was “What Should we Think About During the Sacrament?” We went around taking turns, thinking of things we should (or should not!) think about or do during the Sacrament. If it was something we should do, everyone put their thumbs up and made a bright “ding!” If it was something we shouldn’t do, the thumbs go down and make a loud buzzer noise. Some of the answers got very silly, but the kids came up with some good ones and they always knew whether it was good or bad to do.

Treat: Cinnamon bread with dipping icing. Yum.

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