"Love One Another" Visual Aids

Just sharing visual aids I created (using the Children's Songbook illustrations) for the classic song "Love One Another". Whether you're a Primary chorister or you just want your family to learn the song, this might help.

Love Quote Matching Game

You may recall that our homeschool curriculum for this year is all about life and as part of that, we host Biography Club once a month. At each gathering, before the students give their presentations, we play some kind of game relating to people. (We've gone through the Who cards of Smart A**, played The Name Chase Historical Figures Edition, etc.) Today, in honor of February, I created a matching game where you match a quote about love to the famous person who said it. (Before beginning, though, I went through the list of people to make sure everyone knew who the people were, or at least a little something about them. For instance, no one knew who William Goldman is off the tops of their heads, but I made sure they knew he was the author of The Princess Bride, something everyone was familiar with.)

Check it out. Play it with your family.  If you need an answer sheet, ping me in the comments.

Secret Valentines - Emulating God's Love

Growing up, February 1-14 was always a little extra exciting in my house. At some point during my childhood, I forget when, my mother instituted Secret Valentines. Everyone in the family drew names on February first and from then until Valentines Day we did secret acts of service for whomever we drew and made Valentines to leave them. My mother would make huge heart-shaped sugar cookies and we would each get solitary time in the kitchen (so as not to be seen and figured out) decorating one for our Secret Valentine. There would be a Valentine making station and a pool of treats to incorporate into our Valentines. For two weeks we'd dote on a family member daily and then on Valentines Day we'd have a nice family dinner where the table was set with some little gift at each place setting that each of us had secretly purchased for our Secret Valentine and then before eating we'd each try to guess who had drawn our name. I especially remember when my father drew my name because he sent me flowers at school!

This year I wanted to incorporate Secret Valentines into our Love and Home Month, but we are just doing it for one week. This morning we drew names and I distributed a paper bag with goodies inside for us each to use in our Valentine capers.

Of course, treats are nice, but the real meat of this activity is to learn to serve each other. We sang the hymn "Come, Follow Me" and discussed each line of verse. Jesus Christ didn't just say he loved us, he showed us in everything he did through acts of service, including the greatest service of them all when he atoned for each and every one of us. 

This week we are revisiting lessons past when we learned about God's love using "14 Days of God's Love" from Not Consumed. This time, we're getting very specific in discussing how we can emulate God's love among each other within our family relationships.

Happy February!

Love at Home Tree of Life

You may recall that we began our school year with a study of the Tree of Life. We continued the theme with a gratitude tree (didn't get that one posted yet!). For February, we now have a Love at Home Tree of Life to help us overcome sarcastic habits. This is a tree of compliments and sincerity, value and support, an effort to bear fruits of love in how we think of and speak to each other.

It would be easy to create such a thing yourself (I have done it with our gratitude tree and other things) but I did happen to come across this super cheap Classroom Kit at Walmart and because it is plastic, I can reuse it if I'm careful.

It fits perfectly on a door (I did cut for the doorknob.)

The goal is for each member of the family to write one thoughtful, sincere compliment or appreciative/supportive statement about another family member every day throughout the month until our tree is crazily blooming in love.

Off to a good start:

Aiming at Love - New Meaning for an Old Symbol

Everyone is familiar with the Valentine image of Cupid or a heart with an arrow shot through it. I've never thought too much of it before, but as I've planned out our Love at Home devotionals and activities, I came across  Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Aiming at the Center" article and it has given real purpose and meaning to this symbol for me (and I hope now, my family). 

While I read the entire article to my children (and please do read the entire thing) the point I emphasized was that Christ taught us to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Mattew 22:37-40) This means that every other commandment, every other thing we are supposed to do or not do, come back to being categorized under these two commandments. (I  had the kids name off commandments off the top of their heads and we tested each one to see if these two great commandments were at the "heart" of every other we could think of. They are!) Then I asked the kids who their closest "neighbors" were. Each other, of course! 

Elder Uchtdorf had begun his article with the example of archery, and how you shoot at a target that already exists, not that you shoot the arrow at a blank wall and then draw the target around it. Using this powerful archery example and the scripture, I wanted to turn the Valentine symbol into something with more meaning, to remind us of what we're aiming for:  LOVE. Loving God and loving each other.

Here is the end product:

We followed this up with...

This would make a great Family Home Evening lesson and treat!

And if you're wondering what I'm doing with things like this little project...

Love From Home Art

Our second day of Love at Home Month we made color-diffused, snowflake-style hearts to send as Love FROM Home Valentines to our missionary. If you like how these look, here's how to do it.

Get a stack of coffee filters. (So cheap! I bought a bulk package at Sam's Club years ago and it's still going strong.)

Fold the filter in half and cut a heart shape like you would with a folded rectangle.

Now fold it back in half, then fold into thirds.

Cut shapes out just like you would when cutting a paper snowflake.

Open it up and, VOILA!

Now for the color! Using Crayola washable markers, color the heart. You can use just a little bit of color here and there, or you can fill it in a little more, depending on the look you want. You do not need to color the entire piece. In fact, don't! The colors will spread in the next step, when you spray the entire thing with water. (And too much of too many colors will just make everything brown.)

Here is a lightly colored example:

Here is a more heavily colored example (don't color more than this):

The colors WILL drip, so either place your creations in a shallow baking pan to spray them or, weather permitting, spray them outside. Use just a spray bottle filled with water. (We just used an old hairspray bottle refilled with water.) Have a towel very nearby to quickly remove the wet hearts to and allow them to dry.

Once dry, you can either tape them to a window for a lovely display or, as we did, affix them to some colored cardstock to make cards and write our Valentine messages.

This is the dried version of the
more heavily colored one above.

Yep, even Dad got in on the action!

Love at Home Art Project

Today I declared February Love at Home Month. I love doing Valentine-y Love things all month long in February but I really believe it's important to explore real love, especially inside the home with family. Sometimes it's hardest to be your best loving self at home; we tend to think of charity as what we do and give others outside of our families. But if you can't make love work at home, what's the point?

I created a little art project today to kick off the month. It begins with the template I made below. Print this on 8.5x11-inch cardstock and grab a black Sharpie marker.

The first step is to draw sections of "rays" or diagonal lines behind the house.

Next draw stripes inside the house. You can make them uniform or not, any width you'd like.

Doodle a different design in each section.

When you have designed each section, cut a heart out of tissue paper and fix it to your cardstock with double-sided tape. Doodles can be simple or complex, but give each person the freedom to create in his or her own way.

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Our Christmas Presence readings continued with Pamela Kennedy's The Other Wise Man, which is a retelling of Henry Van Dyke's The Story of the Other Wise Man. (I didn't realize I was getting a retold version, but it turned out fine, especially since it made for a nice picture book. Still, I can't wait to read the original.) This is a story of a man set to travel with the other magi to find the Christ child, to present his own gifts of jewels, who ends up never actually setting eyes on Him because every time he gets close, he sees someone in desperate need and he cannot turn away. In the course of his journey he sells the jewels meant for the King in order to help the people he sees in need. At the end of his life he is disappointed that he never actually achieved finding the King, but is told that through his acts of love and service, he actually did.

The day after reading The Other Wise Man I read Carol Lynn Pearson's The Lesson to my children. The main lesson in The Lesson is that life's most important lesson is to teach us how to love. There are other things to learn, as well, and this is a good short read.

I then read some excerpts from Thomas S. Monson's "The Search for Jesus", we had a discussion of all these readings, and then we watched the video below. After that, each child made a small poster on the theme, "Wise Men Still Seek Him" for themselves, using old Christmas cards or graphics from the computer.

ARK Week

February 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day and February 9-15 is International Random Acts of Kindness Week.  In honor of GOD'S LOVE IS KIND (and PATIENT, because sometimes the greatest kindness you can show is patience) and to culminate our month of Valentine devotionals and "be doers of the word and not hearers only," we spent many days the second half of February in RAK, or ARK. (I like the sound of the acronym ARK better than RAK and it ties in with the suggested movie at the end.)

Our devotionals continued through the month, but the remainder were focused on kindness, tied in with charity. We spent a lot of time in 1 Corinthians 13, reading, pondering, and discussing meanings and applications. We made heart garlands for reminders:

We partook of so many scriptures I'm not going to list them all. (If you have an LDS Hymnal you will find most of them at the bottom of all the hymns listed below.) We memorized Ephesians 4:31-32. We read and discussed the scope and details of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Another activity we did was to make conversation hearts out of paper and write on them the things we would like to hear other people say to us. This was an individual assignment. I thought of this activity last Valentine's Day and I learned so much about my children in seeing what they wanted to hear that I wanted to do it again this year as we discussed being kind to one another in our speech.

I would much rather be quietly anonymous about this next part but I decided to share because I hope it is catching. This world is in sore need of kindness; I don't know anyone who couldn't do with more of it. Every day we made a point to purposely plan and execute some out-of-the-ordinary act of kindness. Some acts were big, some were small, but each one changed our hearts. The family catch-phrase all day for many days (and it continues) was "that was a random act of kindness." Sometimes it was said in jest, other times I caught my kids being just a little more aware of what they were doing and saying. For my part, being in this ARK frame of mind changed how I looked at every person and every situation for two weeks (and counting) and influenced my reactions. As a result, this is something I want to continue, with at least one purposed ARK day per month. We should be kind always, in all things, but it's too easy to fall into ruts and routines and not really notice and think about what you are or aren't doing so I think having some standout days will help keep the fire burning.

I don't want to share everything we did, but I will list a few of our kindness adventures.
     -Made smiley-face-stickered, heart-shaped notes saying, "You are loved" and went to the high school and taped them to cars in the parking lot.
       -Took a box of donuts to a nearby urgent care clinic for the doctor and nurses there with a note of thanks for the great care and long hours. (We had recently been there twice for x-rays for two different kids and on one of those days these people were so busy they were nearly worked into the ground and the doctor didn't get any break whatsoever.)
       -Baked cookies and took them to our bishopric (ecclesiastical leaders) with notes thanking them for their testimonies, service, and examples.

The remainder of this post shares many of the things I used in our kindness devotionals.

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.”  (Marvin J. Ashton)

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation

"9 Ways Random Acts of Kindness Can Heal a Lonely Heart"

Let's Do Some Good Today

"101 Easy Ideas for Random Acts of Kindness"


"Have I Done Any Good?"
"Lord, I Would Follow Thee"
"Kindness Begins with Me"
"A Special Gift is Kindness"
"Love One Another"
"Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words"

Think Before You Speak!

T    Is it true?

H   Is it helpful?

I     Is it inspiring?

N   Is it necessary?

K   Is it kind?

I also shared the following story that I have remembered since the first time I heard it. I searched and found it in Gordon B. Hinckley's "Some Lessons I Learned as a Boy."

“An older boy and his young companion were walking along a road which led through a field. They saw an old coat and a badly worn pair of men’s shoes by the roadside, and in the distance they saw the owner working in the field.

“The younger boy suggested that they hide the shoes, conceal themselves, and watch the perplexity on the owner’s face when he returned.

“The older boy … thought that would not be so good. He said the owner must be a very poor man. So, after talking the matter over, at his suggestion, they concluded to try another experiment. Instead of hiding the shoes, they would put a silver dollar in each one and … see what the owner did when he discovered the money. So they did that.

“Pretty soon the man returned from the field, put on his coat, slipped one foot into a shoe, felt something hard, took it out and found a silver dollar. Wonder and surprise [shone] upon his face. He looked at the dollar again and again, turned around and could see nobody, then proceeded to put on the other shoe; when to his great surprise he found another dollar. His feelings overcame him. … He knelt down and offered aloud a prayer of thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife being sick and helpless and his children without bread. … He fervently thanked the Lord for this bounty from unknown hands and evoked the blessing of heaven upon those who gave him this needed help.

“The boys remained [hidden] until he had gone.” They had been touched by his prayer and felt something warm within their hearts. As they left to walk down the road, one said to the other, “Don’t you have a good feeling?” (Adapted from Bryant S. Hinckley, Not by Bread Alone, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1955, p. 95.)

The film Evan Almighty is a pretty good family flick that has a great message. (There is a little potty humor in it, I'm sorry to say.) The premise is that if you want to change the world, you do it one act of random kindness at a time (ARK).

This February has been life changing for me with these Valentine devotionals. I hope I never forget what I learned and felt. And I hope that everyone will catch the ARK and be a little kinder.

Sunshine in the Soul

Today's Valentine Devotional was on GOD'S LOVE REJOICES, Zephaniah 3:17.

We began with the hymn "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today."  This is such a happy, happy hymn that really conveys rejoicing. Not only does God rejoice in His love for us, but with so much light and love we can't help but rejoice ourselves. In Our Latter-Day Hymns the author writes, "This hymn is simply an expression of the happiness that comes to a person who accepts and follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. Such expressions benefit us all; when we rejoice in the happiness that righteousness brings, we lift our own morale and encourage one another's good efforts.... Since the joy of discipleship is difficult to express in words, the author of the text sought to make this joy more vivid through comparisons. She likened it to things that naturally suggest pleasure and contentment: sunshine, 'glorious and bright'; music, 'a carol to my king'; and springtime, with birds and flowers." (POETRY!)

Isaiah 60:19 and Psalm 19, especially verses 9 and 11 went along.

I was already planning to read a particular story about this song that touchingly talks about the second verse and, interestingly, one of my sons kept asking about the second verse regarding Jesus hearing songs we cannot sing. It didn't make sense to him. So it was a perfect segue to our reading "Jesus, Listening, Can Hear.

To then equate God's love with how we should love, we returned to a couple of scriptures we read last week with some new examples.  We talked about how not every person has sunshine in his soul and it is up to those of us who do--who know of God's love for us and rejoicing over us--to spread that sunshine and love.

Sometimes it takes courage to do that.  We read "Talking to Lenny" from the March 2014 New Era and revisited 1 John 4:18.

Then we read a new Valentine book purchase that I immediately fell in love with, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch  by Eileen Spinelli. This book perfectly, in both word and illustration, shows the difference feeling loved makes in a person's life and the joy that is felt and shared.

We revisited Doctrine & Covenants 18:10-16 and talked about the joy that comes from sharing the gospel, because all missionary work should be motivated by love. Missionary work begins with kindness and service and genuine love for our fellowman.

A rejoicing kind of love also cheers others on and congratulates and is genuinely pleased with the triumphs in others' lives.

Now, after doing all this, one of my sons was bothered and at this point he asked, "How can love rejoice?" That just didn't make sense to him, especially if we're always saying that love is a verb. I'd been saying that light is a manifestation of love, that God gives us light and direction (we even mentioned Hebrews 12:6 and chastening) plus all our blessings because He loves us and that love makes Him and us happy; but from a grammatical perspective a verb follows a noun, not a verb. So I went back to the first concept of God is love. Love is a noun in this sense, God being the embodiment of it, and because His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, He rejoices in that work. When you really think about it, everything comes down to love. God IS love thus God DOES love as a result. That satisfied my son.

We ended with a writing/drawing activity. I had found some wonderful Mary Engelbreit notecards a while back (okay, I collect them!) and had been saving them for the perfect time, which all of a sudden was today. Inside they were supposed to draw and write scriptures and thoughts and images that meant something to them from our lesson today. The cards had a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. which was perfect for today's devotional. It's hard to read it on the image below, so here it is:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

God Gave Us Love

Friday's focus for our Valentine Devotional was GOD'S LOVE IS A GIFT. I didn't think the scripture suggested in the download for this one was "right," so I changed it to James 1:17.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

We sang the hymn "Because I Have Been Given Much"  (Can't link to it because of copyright.) Then we spent some time in the Topical Guide under "God, Gifts of" discussing the many gifts of God and the purposes of the gifts, which always, in the end, come down to His love for us. We talked about gifts and giving in general and what those two words imply as to motivations and expectations. Then we read a new Valentine book purchase, God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Perfect!

We read and discussed Jacob 2:17-19, Mosiah 18:27-19 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-7:

"But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity:  for God loveth a cheerful giver." 

For a visual reminder of the lesson we went to this great site for making Word Hearts.  Everyone took turns reflecting on the scriptures, discussion, lesson and taking what stood out to them and turning it into something neat for decorating the house with. (We LOVED doing these and found it kind of addicting. My daughter later made several different ones to send to her missionary brother and I stayed up late making a whole bunch of them for my husband with phrases from "our song" and other things and "heart-attacked" his office door with them.)