“Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority”

Contributed by McKelle A

Elder Richard G. Scott


Here is the PDF

FHE Lesson centered on Elder Richard G. Scott’s talk “Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority” from the Oct 2014 General Conference
“Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to actively exercise our faith. Such exercise invites the positive, faith-filled power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives. Our Father in Heaven has given us tools to help us come unto Christ and exercise faith in His Atonement. When these tools become fundamental habits, they provide the easiest way to find peace in the challenges of mortality. Today I chose to discuss four of these tools. As I speak, consider evaluating your personal use of each tool; then seek the guidance of the Lord to determine how you could make better use of each one of them.”

Because our family has young kids with short attention spans, we split this lesson into two, over two weeks, with two of the tools discussed on each weak. We made up clues to have them guess what each tool was.
W began the discussion asking our kids why we were sent to Earth. We talked about how part of the reason was so that we could learn through difficult experiences. Just like the times when riding a bike is hardest that is building our muscles, so it is with hard times in life. Then I told them that Elder Scott spoke in general conference about four things we needed to do in order to exercise our faith even when we have hard things.
Prayer:
Clues:
* When we do this, we are talking to someone
* We do this with our arms folded
* We often start this by saying “Dear Heavenly Father”
Blessings mentioned by Elder Scott:
o “Your heart will fill with peace.”
o “Protect your children from daily worldly influences by fortifying them with the powerful blessings that result from family prayer.”
Important quote: “Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life”
-ask them what nonnegotiable means, and discuss what this means we need to be doing EVERY DAY.
Scripture Study
Clues:
* Elder Scott says that doing this is more important that school, work, tv, or even sleep!
* This involves reading.
* We do this every night as part of bedtime.
* We read the words of the prophets of old, like Nephi, or Moses.
Blessings mentioned by Elder Scott:
* Studying the scriptures will help “children to recognize, understand, and act on the promptings of the Spirit”
Come back to Elder Scott’s statement “Feasting on the word of more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!”
Weekly Family Home Evening
Clues:
* It is a lot of fun
* We do it together as a family
* We are doing it right now!
Blessings Elder Scott mentioned:
* A time to bear testimony in safe environment
* Learn teaching, planning and organizational skills
* Strengthen family bonds
* Develop family traditions
* Talk to each other
* Have a marvelous timetogether!
Quote “Do not let…anything else become more important than that time you spend together at home with your family.”
Temple Attendance
Clues:
* Mommy and Daddy sometimes go here on dates
* It is a place where we do service for other people
* It is a house of God
* It is where families get sealed together
Blessings
* Come to understand the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ


Summary quote: “When we are consistently praying morning and night, studying our scriptures daily, having weekly family home evening, and attending the temple regularly, we are actively responding to His invitation to “come unto Him.” The more we develop these habits, the more anxious is Satan to harm us but the less is his ability to do so.”