The Presidents of the Church Lesson 30: Preparing for an Eternal Home

Remember how I was complaining about needing a forum to help me with my Sunday School Lesson Plans? I still haven't found such a forum, but I did discover more reasons why I need one:

I came across lesson thirty in which it gives a great idea:

Activity
 Have the necessary items ready to use in the activity, including the wordstrips. You may wish to give the wordstrips to class members, and, as you name a particular “ingredient,” have the class member holding that wordstrip bring it to the table and place it in the mixing bowl.  Put on the apron and hat, if you have one, and act out the following recipe using the large bowl, mixer, spoon or spatula, and ingredients (wordstrips). As you mix, say the following: 
 These are the ingredients for a heavenly home. First, at the very beginning, invite the Holy Ghost to your home to stay. Crush Temptations and Sin and set them aside outside the bowl. Blend in one Temple Marriage, one Mother (who loves Dad), one Dad (who loves Mother). Gradually add Children. Quickly stir in Living the Gospel: Scripture Study, Prayer, and Meeting Attendance. Sprinkle liberally with Courtesy and Communication. Garnish with the Word of Wisdom: Exercise, Proper Diet, and Rest. Pour Love over everything. Serve with Unselfishness. 


When you have finished with the ingredients, uncover the cookies or other food that you prepared before class. Let each class member take one. Tell them that just as the good taste of the cookies (or candy, etc.) can last, the success in a marriage can last forever if the ingredients are all included. 

 What a delightful idea. But it's kind of sad to put wordstrips into a bowl. How about I put the wordstrips on actual ingredient containers and put real food into the bowl?! We could actually make cookies! What a wonderful lesson to keep the attention of teenagers!

So I searched the internet for an actual cookie recipe that goes along with this lesson. I needed a cookie recipe with the same amount of ingredients, two eggs, and that didn't take much time to bake.

I could not find a recipe. I cannot be the first person ever to change this lesson into an actual cookie-making session. I cannot possibly be the first person to make not-pretend cookies. I found a few blogs referring to family home evening activities where the above lesson was used but none of them actually made the cookies out of the recipe. They just read the recipe and then brought out cookies. Again I cannot be the first person to want to connect the two.

And yet I found myself making up my own cookie recipe to fit the above description and even tweaking the above description to fit my recipe. SO: For all you twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Teachers who find this blog post because you want to make actual cookies: YOU ARE WELCOME.

I printed out the recipe card for each student. The recipe said this:


Recipe for a Happy Home
 “It’s possible to make home a bit of heaven. Indeed, I picture heaven as a continuation of the ideal home.” David O. McKay 


First, at the very beginning, invite the Holy Ghost to your home to stay 
Mix in Scripture Study, Prayer and Meeting Attendance 
Create a temple marriage by blending together one Mother (who loves Dad) and one Dad (who loves Mother). 
Beat together the Temple marriage and unselfishness. 
Add Word of Wisdom. 
Crush Temptations and Sin, and add. 
Stir Temple Marriage mix in with dry mix.
Gradually add Children 
Sprinkle with Courtesy and Communication 
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets and bake in Love 

And on the back I had this:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour = Holy Ghost
1 teaspoon baking soda = Scripture Study
¼ teaspoon baking powder = Meeting Attendance
1 teaspoon salt= Prayer 
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened = Unselfishness
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar = Mom (who loves Dad) 
3/4 cup packed brown sugar = Dad (who loves Mom) 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract = Word of Wisdom 
1 teaspoon nutmeg = Courtesy 
1 teaspoon cinnamon = Communication 
2 eggs = Temptations and Sin 
2 cups Chocolate chips= Children 
1 small mixing bowl = Temple Marriage
Bake at 375-degree for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown = Love

 I did have class in the kitchen and we did actually make the cookies. Beforehand I had re-labeled the ingredients to look like this:

 At the beginning, I had each student pick out an ingredient (or two or three). I read the recipe out loud and every time we used an ingredient the student read the label out loud and then added it in. To make the labels I used what was in the manual but sometimes I thought the manual was dumb. Other times the manual didn't have anything so I made it up. Had I had more time (read: Had I not had to make everything else up on my own) I would have had a scripture or David O. McKay quote on each label. As you can see with some labels I just got lazy (Meeting Attendance is labeled: It's important)

If I had my forum where I tell other teachers how my lesson went I would say something like this: WARNING: You know how you are not supposed to use the church ovens to bake anything? I thought that was just because they didn't want you to burn the church down so I baked the cookies in the oven anyway. As it turns out you're not supposed to bake anything because the wonderful cookie smell goes through THE ENTIRE CHURCH and your whole ward will come in asking for cookies and asking if you actually baked in the ovens even though there is a sign right above them telling you not to.

But this activity really did hold the kid's attention. And they did listen and have a great discussion. And the cookies were delicious.