Look, Feel, and Help

By Karen Ashton

Now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light … (Mosiah 18:8).

When Jesus lived on earth, He healed the sick. He fed the hungry and blessed the children. The Savior was often a friend to those who had no other friends. When He looked at others, He used His spiritual eyes and His heart. In this way He could understand how people felt and what they needed. He helped many, many people. He is the best example of someone who looked with His spiritual eyes, felt and understood with His heart, and then helped.

Our prophet is also a good example of someone who looked with his spiritual eyes, felt and understood with his heart, and then helped. President Gordon B. Hinckley was only twenty years old when his mother died. He had younger brothers and sisters at home, and everyone in the family was very sad. Ramona was sixteen and about to graduate from high school. She had no dress for that special occasion, and she thought nobody noticed. But her older brother Gordon saw her need, understood how she felt, and helped. Using some money he had saved for graduate school, he bought her a new dress. His kindness made her feel loved.

You can look at others with your spiritual eyes, feel and understand with your heart, and then, after careful thought, give help. When you look at others, try to imagine how you would feel in their situation. Then prayerfully decide what you can do to help and do it. Small, simple acts of kindness are often the most helpful. There are people who need your help everywhere, every day. Each time you look with your spiritual eyes and feel with your heart, you will become more sensitive to others, and when you are kind to someone and help them, you are showing love to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Instructions

Mount page 45 on heavy paper.

Image

Helping Hands Badge

Carefully color the pair of Feeling Glasses, the ear pieces, and the Helping Hands badge, then cut them out.

Feeling Glasses; Ear Pieces

Attach the ear pieces to the glasses by gluing, taping, or stapling.

You can wear these items to help you remember to look both with your spiritual eyes and with your heart, and to help in some way—or you can hang them on your wall as a reminder.

Sharing Time Ideas

1. Sing “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” (Children’s Songbook, p. 57), and explain that reading stories about Jesus helps us understand how He helped others. Help the children find and read these stories in the scriptures, discussing how Jesus showed His love: Jesus heals a blind man (see John 9:1–7); Jesus eats with Zacchaeus (see Luke 19:1–10); Jesus feeds the four thousand (see Mark 8:1–9); Jesus prays for the little children (see 3 Ne. 17:19–21). Help the children mark these stories in their scriptures, then discuss how they can follow the example of Jesus and show their love for others in small ways.

2. Explain that one way to show kindness toward another is to learn and use his or her name. Clear a space in the middle of the floor. Have the children sit in small circles, with an adult in each circle. Using the clapping rhythm—clap on knees twice, clap hands together twice, wave right hand over left twice then left hand over right twice—say the following: All: Who are the friends in our Primary? All: Alice (say a child’s name) is a friend in our Primary. Alice: Who Me? All: Yes, you! Alice: Glad to be! All: Now who? Alice: Jacob (Alice chooses another child) is a friend in our Primary. Suggest that the children play this game with their families during family home evening. Practice the game using the word family in place of Primary.

3. Invite two or three ward members who work in the community to explain what they do to make the community a better place to live. Have them involve the children in discussing ways the children can make their neighborhood or community a better place to live. If time allows, let the children draw pictures of the ways they will improve their neighborhood or community.

4. Invite five adult members or older Primary children to dramatize the story of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29–37) for the children, with a member of the presidency as narrator. Invite the children to think of people who need Good Samaritans today. Discuss with the children how they can be Good Samaritans. Have the children mark this story in their scriptures, and suggest that they share it with their families.

5. Explain that the words we use to describe people can be very kind or very harmful. We always want to use kind words in describing others. Divide the children into two groups. Give each group a set of alphabet cards with extra vowel cards and a few extra consonant cards. Distribute the cards among the children in each group. Explain that you will select a child to come to the front. The groups will then have just thirty seconds to arrange some of the children holding their letters into a positive word or words that describe the child at the front. Encourage them to not repeat words and let as many children as possible have a turn at the front.

6. Explain to the children that kind actions come from kind thoughts. When we think kind thoughts about another person, it helps us appreciate that person and love them more. Divide into classes. Pin a card containing another child’s name on each child’s back. Then have the children help each other discover the names on their backs by giving positive clues and comments. For example: The person is a good sport. The person has a wonderful smile. The person plays the piano well.

7. Invite the younger children to sit in a circle, with one child standing in the center. Sing “When We’re Helping” (Children’s Songbook, p. 198). Alternate words—father, grandma, grandpa, etc. When you get to “tra la la la,” the child in the center chooses and pantomimes some way he might help Mother, Father, etc. (The leader may need to help the child think of something to pantomime.) The other children guess what the child in the center is doing to help, with the child who guesses it correctly taking the next turn in the center of the circle.

8. For additional Sharing Time help on the topic of kindness in thoughts, words, and actions, please see the following Friend Sharing Time pages: “Go the Second Mile,” Aug./Sept. 1982, p. 47; “Family Love,” Apr. 1983, p. 17; “Be a Friend,” Feb. 1984, p. 33; “Friendshipping with Love,” Feb. 1986, pp. 42–43; “Being Kind Like Jesus,” Apr. 1987, p. 34; “Live the Golden Rule,” Sept. 1987, p. 12; “Try to Be Like Jesus,” Sept. 1990, pp. 12–13; “Give Yourself Away,” Dec. 1990, pp. 38–39; “Showing Respect, Honor, and Love for Parents,” July 1992, pp. 12–13; “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus,” Dec. 1994, p. 23.

Painting by Del Parson

Illustrated by Dick Brown and Janae Westoff