The Widow of Zarephath - Learning and Living the Gospel (4)

Read a recent conference address given by the prophet. Decide what you can do to follow the prophet, and do it. -  Learning and Living the Gospel (4)


This lesson was to get us ready for General Conference! We met at my house. I had a big area set up with chairs in a circle and then a table with chairs. Our group is getting a little small (all our girls are turning 10!) so we invited the older group to join us. I wanted more for people to play the games. Any number of girls can play, I thought it would be more fun with more girls.

We did our opening stuff and I gave my lesson:

Widow of Zarapeth 

Back in the days when wicked queen Jezebel ruled Israel there was a woman who lived in the same city as wicked Queen Jezelebal. This woman was not a Jew, and was not born in the covenant, but she loved God and tried to always do what was right. She married and had a son. Jezebel was so wicked that God sent a drought: There was no rain. Not a single drop of rain. All the rivers, creeks and brooks dried up and all the crops died. The people couldn’t grow food and they began to starve. This woman’s husband died, leaving her a widow. She still had to care for herself and her son, but there was no food for them to eat.

In her house she had a barrel of meal (wheat) and a cruise of oil and that is what she and her son ate, but only a little at a time, because there was no way to get more. She was always hungry, and so was her son. Slowly, the oil in the cruise and the meal in the barrel got lower and lower, until, one day, the widow knew that there was only enough for one more meal. After that there was no way to get more food and she and her son would starve.

 She wanted to cook the meal and the oil together for their last meal, but to do that she would need to build a fire. To build a fire she needed wood to burn. Usually she would go collect sticks and logs from outside the city, but she was so hungry and weak for not getting enough to eat that she didn’t have the energy to go farther than the city gate. She picked up two sticks from the ground and heard a man call to her and say: “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” She didn’t have any bread! Didn’t this man know they were in the middle of a famine, with people dying from starvation every day?

She answered: “As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not bread, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

 But the man answered “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little bread first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.

The widow knew two things: One: There was no way there was enough meal or oil left for both this man and her and her son. If she made him some bread, all the meal and oil would be gone. Two: The spirit testified to her of the truth of what the man said.

 What would you do?

 The widow went home with her sticks, built a small fire, and made bread for the man. After she gave him his bread, she went back to the barrel, and it still had meal. She went to the cruse, and it still had oil. She made bread for her and her son. And they ate it. The next day the barrel still had meal, and the cruse still had oil, so she and her son, and the man, whose name was Elijah, ate bread that day, and the next, and the next, and the next. Elijah stayed with the widow in a loft in her house. The widow fed him everyday. Elijah told the women he was God’s prophet and that Jezebel was looking for him to kill him. He taught the widow and her son the Gospel.

 But the story is not over! One day her son became sick. He got worse and worse until there was no breath left in him, and he died. The widow said to Elijah: “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?”

Elijah said “ Give me thy son” and she did. Elijah took him to his loft and laid him on his bed. And then he prayed: O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. The woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

This woman listened to the prophet. She did everything the prophet asked her to do, even though she didn’t really understood who he was, or even believed everything he said. But she listened to him, and she did what he asked her to do. And because of it, she had enough food to last the whole drought, which lasted three and a half years. Because she listened to the prophet, and did what he asked her to do, her son was resurrected. Because she listened to the prophet, and did what he asked her to do, she finally gained a testimony that the Prophet was a man of God, and everything he taught her was truth.

 This is how it is in our lives. God has sent a prophet to us, just as he sent Elijah to the widow. If we listen to the prophet and do what he asks us to do, even if we don’t understand, even if it’s hard, even if he is asking us to sacrifice everything we have, all that we have left, even if it takes us to the very edge of our faith, God will save us every time. He will bless us with way more than we gave up. God didn’t reward this woman with just the meal and oil she had sacrificed for Elijah, he miraculously kept her fed for the rest of the famine. When Elijah asked her to give her the body of her son and she did, God gave her back her son full of life. God will always give back more than we give to him. It is by listening to the prophet and doing what he asks us to do that we gain our testimonies and that our questions are answered.

 In 9 days God will send his Prophet into your homes. The Prophet will speak, and he will ask you to do something. Will you listen? Will you do what he asks you to do? Will you sacrifice so you can gain back more, and so you can gain a testimony? Listen to general conference next week. Pay attention when Russell M Nelson, our new prophet says. If you listen to him and if you do what he asks you to do, you will gain a testimony that he is Man of God, and that what he teaches it truth. If you listen to him and if you do what he asks you to do, God will give you back so much more than what you give up. I know this is true.

The lesson went great! The girls were really interested in the story. It was then time to play the games!
Each girl got a paper with the names and pictures of the (new) First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which right now only has 10 people. I told the girls to hurry and memorize the names and faces!

Three minutes later I told them they could keep their "Cheat sheets" and use them when they needed them. I passed around a hat. In the hat was pictures of the First Presidency (but no names). Each girl got one picture. Ideally, 9 or more girls would play so 3 or more girls would have drawn the same picture, but in our group we only had 7 girls playing so I put in 3 pictures of Elder Oaks and 3 pictures of Elder Eyring and 1 picture of the Prophet. The game is Fruit Basket: All the girls each sit in a chair. The chairs are in a circle facing each other. There is one less chair than girl so one girl stands in the middle. She calls out the name of one of the members of the First Presidency. Every girl with a picture of that person has to abandon their chair and find a new one. The girl in the middle takes on of their chairs, leaving a new girl in the middle, and the game repeats. Every 4 or 5 rounds I'd pass out new pictures.

The next game we played at the table: I have, who has? (Link 1 link 2 link 3) It's a very easy game: Pass out all the cards to each girl until all the cards have been passed out. Start with the Prophet: Who has Prophet Russell M Nelson? The girls look at the pictures on their cards. One card has a picture of Russell M Nelson. That girl places her card on the table for everyone to see and says "I have Russell M Nelson, who has..." and reads the name on her card. Play continues until all cards are played. We reshuffled and played about three times.

Then we did our craft! I bought 13 brown paper lunch sacks for each girl (you have to buy 15 if this activity is done again, to add in the missing Qurum members). The girls cut up their cheat sheets, glueing one name and picture to each brown bag. The girls were instructed to take the bags home and fill them with treats and snacks. During conference, whenever one of them gives a talk, you can grab his bag and eat the treat inside while you listen to his talk. I made sure to point out some healthy treats you could put in the bags, and that this activity was for the whole family, so make sure you pack enough treats for siblings.

The last game was the best: I had red and blue face paint and painted half the girls with red football marks and half the girls with blue marks. The game is blue team vs red team. We moved back to the circle of chairs: Three chairs were black, the rest were brown. The goal is to get the black chairs filled with your team. Each girl took a name out of the hat. inside the hat were the names of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: just one name per person. Each girl picked out one name, no girl had the same name. The drawn name was now the name of that girl. One girl stands in the middle and says a name (of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) the girl with that name has to stand up and they trade places: The caller sits in their chair, the called now says a name. The idea is that you want to call the name of the girl that is not on your team that is sitting in a black chair. If you call her name, you can sit in the black chair and your team is that much closer to winning. You can't call the name of the person who called you. If you call a name no one drew, you simply call another name. It took a round for the girls to understand the rules and the strategy, but then they loved this game and played until it was time to end.