Conference Talk:
For more information on this topic read “Forget Me Not,” by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, Nov. 2011, 120.
Thought:
If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.
(President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Forget Me Not,” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 120.)
Song:
“My Heavenly Father Loves Me,” Children’s Songbook, p. 229.
Scripture:
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
(Psalm 8:3–5)
Object Lesson:
Materials Needed: Several soft items and several hard items. (Example: cotton balls, feather, scarf, rock, stick, marble.)
Procedure: Display the items. Ask the family to arrange them into two groups: soft items and hard items.
Ask which senses were used to help with this task. (Sight, touch, etc.) Point out how quickly and skillfully they were able to discern the difference between the hard items and the soft ones. Explain that our senses help us discover and treasure the many different things around us. We enjoy the soft because we have seen and felt the hard, we enjoy sweet because we have tasted sour, etc.
(adapted from Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, Sharing Time, Family Time, Anytime, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992], p. 14.)
Stories:
The Parable of the Dandelions
One weekend my girls and I took a drive together. We passed through acres and acres of farmland. My eyes were drawn to the overwhelming number of dandelions that had taken over the fields. The green landscape was dotted with a mixture of bright yellow flowers and white, fluffy balls of seeds.
We had spent weeks trying to kill the dandelions in our own yard, and I thought about what a job that farmer would have trying to clear those weeds from his landscape.
My daughters saw something different: acres and acres of dandelion fluff just waiting to be blown from the stem.
A thousand weeds or a thousand wishes.
It’s all in your perspective.
My girls were able to discern something good in an object most of us view as an irritant or a bother. The lesson in this parable is so clearly defined: Our eyes see what we want them to see.
(Emily Freeman, Love Life and See Good Days, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011], p. 32.)
A Matter of Perspective
Shauna Gibby
During Christmas 2001, we had two sons serving missions. Our eldest, Curtis, had been in Maracaibo, Venezuela, for about twenty months, where the year-round average temperature is around 90 degrees. Our second son, Scott, was serving in Wellington, New Zealand, and had been there for just four months.
When Curtis telephoned us on Christmas day, he said that it had been quite cold in the remote mountain town where he was now serving. I asked him how cold it was, and he said that yesterday it had gotten down to 74 degrees! We laughed at that and told him he was going to be in big trouble when he came home to Utah if he thought 74 was cold.
An hour later we were talking to Scott. He had survived an unusually cool, wet spring and said he was glad it was finally summer there. He remarked that it was hot there now. I asked him how hot it was. He exclaimed that yesterday it had been 74 degrees!
(Sunshine for the Humorous Latter-day Saint Soul, [Salt Lake City: Eagle Gate, 2002], p. 176.)
Activity:
Give everyone a pencil and the following scrambled words. Have them decipher the actual words.
iepattn
eciedfrenf
pyaph
gurdeatit aublfueti rtgefo pgelos odvlebe
(Answers: patient, difference, happy, gratitude, beautiful, forget, gospel, beloved.)

Refreshment
Chocolate Rolo® Cookies
1 (18.25-ounce) chocolate cake mix, any variety
1⁄2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 (13-ounce) package Rolo® candies
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, butter, and egg. It will seem dry but keep mixing. Form dough around a Rolo® and make into a ball that just covers the Rolo®. Place on a greased or sprayed cookie sheet and bake 9 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake!
Makes 41⁄2 to 5 dozen cookies.
(Janet Peterson, Remedies for the “I Don’t Cook” Syndrome, [Salt Lake City: Eagle Gate, 2001], p. 279.)
To access the PDF version of this lesson, click here.