I have a very special group of Activity Day girls. Many only come to Wednesday activities (because my co-leader and I pick them up). There was a time when I would have worried about that, but now, I’m happy that they’re there for that time and that I can love them and teach them.
I love the website, Mormon Activity Days, and modeled my lesson from this particular plan on Heavenly Mother. I also used the Facebook group, Feminist Activity Days, and our Exponent II Facebook group. (Special thank you to all of you who offered suggestions and advice.)
Though I wanted the focus to be on Heavenly Mother, I also hoped to be respectful of how some families choose to talk (or not talk) about Her.
Activity:
1. Provide some background on how the prophet, Joseph Smith, received revelation about our Heavenly Parents, and the poem/hymn Eliza R. Snow created from that doctrine.
Illuminating Ladies: a Coloring Book of Mormon Women: http://www.exponentii.org/magazine/illuminating-ladies-a-coloring-book-of-mormon-women-2
“O My Father”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOjB8bRPN8
2. Spend some time looking at how people talk about and draw our Heavenly Parents on the My Heavenly Mother website together, reading quotes from prophets and apostles, sharing some of the poetry, and admiring the artwork.
I brought some art works from my home (see picture), and we talked about how each artist depicted Heavenly Mother and what symbols we saw in the art.
See more art here: https://myheavenlymother.wordpress.com/artwork/
Listen to our leaders here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VzPGA-7Xwo&t=63s
Suggestions of books and poetry for girls to read to see different ways people choose to related to their Heavenly Parents:
Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen
Our Heavenly Family, Our Earthly Family
Mother’s Milk (free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited!!)
3. Discuss what the girls have learned about their Heavenly Parents from this exploration.
Ask them to imagine what Heavenly Mother might look like to them. Reassure them that there are NO wrong answers here! Here are some more questions to help them (thank you, Exponent II Facebook group)
Art Project
Creating art helps us develop faith and a testimony of the Gospel principles we are studying. Here are some questions to think about as you create your artistic representation of God.
- What attributes of your earthly parents do you find godly?
- What attributes of Heavenly Father that we know are likely shared with Heavenly Mother?
- How is Christ a reflection of his Heavenly Parents?
Think of a person here on earth who loves you.
- How do you know that person loves you?
- How do you feel when you’re around that person?
- How do you think your Heavenly Parents feel about you?
- What if they were here right now?
- What would that look like?
Create a picture only you could create.
Tell them that they are going to create some artwork that reflects their feelings about Heavenly Mother. They should try to not just make it a portrait, but think about how to incorporate some emotion into their artwork. (You may want to go over some of the artwork again and discuss what emotions each piece invokes.)
Explain that for this project, their artistic skills don’t matter as much as the emotion and love they put into it.
I also prepared this handout for the girls to take home and encouraged them to teach a Family Home Evening lesson on what they learned.
