Come Follow Me

Our church came out with the Come Follow Me resource this year and we tried our best to work as a family to study the New Testament every morning and learn from the scriptures and the manual and our favorite YouTube channel, Don't Miss This.  There were definitely mornings with fighting and arguing and we wanted to give up.  But the moments where we felt the spirit and bonded as a family made it all worth it.  We hope that as we teach the kids to live the gospel they can become converted and gain a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and his role in their individual lives.

Early on we had to incorporate a lesson on stealing.  Adeline wanted money, so she scavenged around the house and rounded up over $80!  When Teagan and Eloise finally discovered where their missing money had gone and wanted their money back Adeline felt like there was a gross injustice, she had found it after all.  Hopefully she knows better now.

One of the favorite activities involved walking throughout the yard barefoot getting our feet all dirty like the feet in Jerusalem would have been.  Then we drew names and took turns washing each other's feet.  It was a little gross and made me grateful that I don't have to do that on a regular basis.  Everyone loved getting a turn with having their feet rubbed.

In the week before Easter we talked each day about what was happening in Jerusalem 2000 years earlier.  On the night of the passover we had our own passover dinner.  I made flat bread (with cinnamon and sugar of course) and we drank grape juice from wine glasses.  The kids loved getting dressed up and we watched Grandma Packer's video she made of all the different versions of The Last Supper in art throughout the years.  I felt the spirit and I think the kids did too.  This will definitely become a tradition for years to come!

On Easter Sunday we made donuts and everyone loved it!  We try to make Sunday our special treat day after we finish our Come Follow Me lesson.

We learned about gratitude from the story of the lepers and challenged the kids to write down 10 things they were grateful for, one for each leper.  Nobody could think of anything which aggravated me to no end.  So I told them that anyone who could think of 100 things would get their own personal  Crumbl cookie.  Amazingly enough, they were all suddenly full of amazing ideas.

One experience that isn't pictured, but should be told.  One Sunday I had a lesson and had the feeling that I needed to have my kids be more involved in teaching our Come Follow Me lessons.  That day I decided to ask Teagan to teach.  He willingly accepted and taught a fantastic lesson.  Fast forward one week to Sunday.  Teagan wasn't feeling great and wanted to skip church.  On his own, he decided to pray and decide if that was the right thing to do.  Just before we were leaving he hurried into his suit and said he was coming and felt like he should be there.

Marj Killian brought a magazine that had printed an article about Teagan and his sunflower (remember that post from about 5 years ago?!?) and showed it to me after sacrament meeting.  I took her copy and decided to go show Teagan real quick before his lesson started.

When I opened the door to his class he was sitting in the teacher's chair.  I immediately told him to go to his normal seat and not be disrespectful.  Then I learned that Teagan was in charge of teaching the lesson.  My OCD planner heart had a little freak out moment.  Why hadn't anyone told us?!  He wasn't prepared!  This was ridiculous for those leaders to pawn a 50 minutes lesson off on an 11 year old boy!  Then I remembered the Come Follow Me lesson.  "Teagan, you can give the lesson you did for Come Follow Me last week."  His eyes lit up and a few seconds later Zac appeared with the iPad that he had grabbed last minute (for no good reason).

From what I heard, he gave a fantastic lesson, they had a great discussion and it ended up being a learning experience for Teagan.  Come Follow Me saved the day!