2012 Theme Introduction Fireside

As we are getting ready for the new year, I have been brainstorming ideas of how to really make this year's theme {Arise and Shine Forth} a central part of our year. A great way to do this, is to make an event out of it. Hence, the fireside. I think it is important to make the theme relevant to the girl, and boys for that matter.

BRAINSTORM:

Things that Rise: balloon, sun, bread, seminary bound teenager

Rise to the occasion

SurpRISE

Arise for the Prize

ANYWAYS...

I love the word ARISE. It is a verb. To ARISE takes a choice. The willingness to act on your own accord. In the world at this time, the youth really do need to make that conscious choice. So how do we teach them that?

A fireside, especially for the youth shouldn't be so long that they lose interest, but needs to get the point across. By having 3 talks, one tailored to the girls, one to the boys, and one to all the youth, maybe one or two musical numbers, followed by a culminating activity, and delicious refreshments, you will have an event that will resonate with the youth. One that they can remember. As long as it is accompanied by the Spirit, of course.

FOR THE GIRLS:

As soon as I heard the new theme, and thought about my girls, I immediately thought of the story of Christ raising the young maid from the dead. She has passed on but the Lord beckons her "Daughter, Arise". She has a choice. She can choose to follow his call, or she can stay where she is, in the peace and comfort of the next estate. When she decides to return to this mortal existence, she is not only becoming who she was before. She is now a standing witness of the divinity of the Savior. Everywhere she goes, she testifies of His power. As we are each baptized, and we ARISE from the water, we too are witnesses of our Savior. We testify of Him everywhere we go by how we live, how we treat others, how we shine.

FOR THE BOYS:

The men of the Church are commanded to serve a mission. We all know, either from experience or witnessing it, this is no easy task. Especially since several years ago the brethren RAISED THE BAR. Since the bar is higher, the young men need to arise to reach it, to be worthy to serve and to stand as a witness to all nations of our Savior. They need to prepare now, not between their 18th and 19th birthdays.

Hymns that could apply:

Awake and Arise

Lead Kindly Light

Teach Me to Walk in the Light

The Lord is My Light

There is Sunshine In My Soul Today

Guide Me to Thee

Musical Number Ideas:

Daughter Arise (Kenneth Cope)

Beacon in the Night (Jenny Phillips)

Reflect the Light of the Gospel (Deanne Cummings)

Here Am I; Send Me (Thomas and Tuiofu)

FOR REFRESHMENTS/TAKE AWAY:

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As a take away mini loaves of bread

Or serve different yummy breads (bread rises right???)

Can I get a shout out for Great Harvest?!?!

FOR INVITATIONS:

But of course, instead of a mother's day note write the fireside information.

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DECORATIONS:

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ACTIVITY:

I saw this activity idea and fell in love with it (the whole post is darling)

Lesson Organization: Color Coding

I color code. Everything. My filing cabinet at home, when I taught school each class period was a different color, my clothes in my closet hang in rainbow order. It is kind of ridiculous, I know, but it makes things so easy to find. This applies to my YW lessons as well. I have a system so that when I glance down at my lesson, I know what is coming next, and don't have to read verbatim or have awkward long pauses while I find my place. So, here is the system. It is all about highlighting.

I don't even bother with the manual I get at the beginning of the year. I just copy and paste the lesson into Microsoft Word. I then open a second document to copy and paste the quotes and scriptures I will hand out to the girls before class, so they are ready to be cut up and handed out.

To do the highlighting, I don't actually use the highlight tool in Word...I use "Shading". If you don't know how to use shading, here's how it is done:

1. Highlight desired text

2. Select the FORMAT menu

and then BORDERS AND SHADING

3. Select SHADING and your color choice

3a. This is just personal preference, but I like to just have the text colored, not all the way to the margins, so I like to select text instead of paragraph

4. And Voila!

I have attached here the link to my highlighted Lesson #1 as well as the scriptures and quotes ready to be printed, cut up, and handed out

link to Daughter of God Poster

Link to Father and Daughter labels for top of columns

Lesson 1: A Daughter of God

As this is the first post on STAND, I wanted it to be amazing. I can't live up to my own hype, but I will do my best. I think it is so important for the girls to see their relationship with their Heavenly Father as they do with their own dad. At least in my life, I have a great, trusting relationship with my dad. I want to find ways to convey that trust, and encourage them to cultivate that trust and communication with their Heavenly Father.

I remember an analogy of a phone call. Imagine calling your dad to ask him a question, and before he has the opportunity to answer, saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. Clearly, we would never do that (unless you don't want to hear the answer, I guess). It is the same way with prayer. If we ask the Lord a question, be patient and listen for the answer. Strive to have your relationship with the Lord be open communication, in both directions.

click here for printable

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DISCLAIMER:
I have to admit, that when creating handouts with background images, I don't usually hold the copyright to the image. I do a lot of searching on google images to find good backgrounds. I don't know if it is adequate, but when I use someone else's image, I will post my source below the handout. Hope that is enough to keep me out of trouble, at least for now. By posting the link to the source I am not advertising any other website or their message.