The Little Maid - Learning and Living the Gospel

We met at park with a large rock wall. If I had the budget, I would have prefered to meet at a rock climbing gym and, after the lesson, spend the whole time rock climbing. But we work with what we have! If you don't have a park with a rock wall or a budget for a rock climbing gym, any big obstacle will work just as well.

To start, each girl has their assignment: Opening prayer, opening song, Article of Faith, Gospel Standard, taking attendance and snack! After doing all that we passed out the snack and I told the story while they were eating.

The Little Maid

In 2nd Kings is the story of the Little Maid. That’s what the scriptures call her; “The Little Maid”.  It doesn't say her name, but we know she was young, probably your age, so we are going to give her your name. Her name is _______ or __________ or ___________ (name the Activity Days girls). Whatever your name is, that is her name.

When you were a little girl there was a war between Syria and Israel.  Syria won.

Naaman was the captain of the army of Syria.  Because he won he took riches and captives back with him to Syria. One of those captives was you.  You are taken away from her home and family forced to go to Syria, where you don’t know anyone, don’t eat the same food, don’t speak the same language, and don’t believe what they believed. Naaman gave you to his wife as a present. Can you imagine being given as a present? You are a person! Not a thing! But now your job is to be a maid to this strange woman. What do you do?

There is someone there to help you. When you don’t know what to do, when you are lost, alone, afraid, when nothing is familiar to you, when everyone is a stranger to you, who will help you?

You prayed, and your Heavenly Father helped you. He helped you to learn the language, to eat the strange food, to be kind to these people who has stolen you.

Naaman had leprosy. He was very very rich, he was very very powerful, but no one could cure him.

You knew the Prophet, Elisha, could cure him through the power of God. But these people don’t believe in a prophet, and they don’t believe in God. Naaman was the one that took you away from your family.

You have a choice to make. You can keep quiet and watch Naaman suffer, or you can bear your testimony of the prophet and of Heavenly Father’s miracles.

What do you do?

You chose to stand as a witness and bear your testimony! You tell Namman’s wife that there is a prophet is Samaria who can cure Naaman.  You have been so honest and trustworthy with these strangers that they believe you and tell Naaman what you said.

Naaman believes your testimony. He makes the journey to the prophet Elisha but Elisha won’t even see him. Elisha tells his servant to tell Naaman “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” Naaman becomes angry! He is rich, he is powerful, he came all the way from Syria, and Elisha won’t even see him? And he just wants him to go and wash in some dirty river? There are better rivers than Jordan!

What do you do? Do you apologize and say you were wrong so he won’t be angry at you? Or do you bear your testimony of the miracles of Heavenly Father?

Namma’s servants (that would be you and your fellow servants) continue to believe in miracles. They tell Namman that if Elisha had told him to go do some might quest, Namman would have done it, so why doesn't Namman just do this simple thing and go wash in the Jordan river?

Naaman does, and because of your faith, he is cured.

Naaman and many in his household now believe in the Prophet and in Heavenly Father.  Through you, Heavenly Father worked his miracles and converted this rich and powerful man and his household.

When you have Faith, you can overcome anything! You can be happy in a situation you were forced into. You can be kind to people who are mean to you. You can forgive. You can bear your testimony. You can do all these things because Heavenly Father knows you and loves you. Through you, just like through this Little Maid, he will work miracles, if you have faith in him.

If you have Faith, you can overcome anything! Even this giant wall! If it seems hard, if you are scared, just remember that Heavenly Father helped the Little Maid, and he will help you. If you have Faith He will give you courage and strength and work miracles!  

We then sat everyone down in front of the rock while and climbed it youngest to oldest. We had one leader at the bottom and one leader at the top. While one girl was climbing the others were shouting encouragement.

How it went:
This activity had a lot more power for my Daisy (1st grade) Girl Scouts! The 8 and 9 year old girls were not afraid of the wall, so there really wasn't a lesson about overcoming hard things, it was just fun. Only one girl was scared, but with the encouragement of her peers she shot up the wall! I really would have preferred to give them more of a challenge.

The entire (opening, lesson and wall climbing) was over in 20 minutes. Good thing we were at a park! We played friend tag (aka missionary tag, team tag) and a few Article of Faith games for the rest of the time. We also let the run around and play on the playground. They played hard and we had one girl fall and scrape her leg and another pair bonk heads. Good thing we had a first aid kit!

Materials needed:
A place to overcome an obstacle (Rock climbing gym preferred).
A First Aid Kit
The girls need to come in close toed shoes
Waterbottles

Faith in God:
Learning and Living the Gospel -  Plan your own activity