POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY. MY TESTIMONY OF JESUS weak or strong plant builder. Youth can learn ways to grow a strong testimony by gathering leaves (actions) and placing them under the matching STRONG or WEAK plant.
USE FOR: COME FOLLOW ME, Primary and Home lessons, Family Home Evening, Young Women, Activity Days, Sunday School, Bible Study
POST-AND-PRESENT Activity
My Strong Testimony of Jesus – weak or strong plant builder
OBJECTIVE: Help children/youth desire to gain a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. They can learn ways to make their testimony grow STRONG and ways their testimony can grow WEAK.
POST-AND-PRESENT ACTIVITY:
1. Tell children/youth the story “A Growing Testimony” (Ensign, Nov. 2000) about President James E. Faust gaining a testimony of Jesus Christ. You can say, “When President Faust was a child, he had a nightmare and woke up crying. His grandmother hugged him, comforted him, and told him they were safe because Jesus Christ was watching over them. He went peacefully back to bed, assured that Jesus does watch over us.”
2. Tell children/youth that Jesus Christ watches over us, and if we want to increase our faith in Him, we need to do things that will help us gain a strong testimony of Him. Take turns gathering leaves that will show ways to make your testimony strong, and place them on the smiling “My Testimony of Jesus Grows STRONG” plant. Watch out! Some of these actions will make your testimony WEAK, making you sad. Place these on the “My Testimony of Jesus Grows WEAK” plant.
3. Review the STRONG plant leaves. Tell children that as they do these STRONG actions by choosing the right, their testimony will continue to grow STRONG and they will always be happy.
TO MAKE Print activity in color or black and white. Mount the planter boxes and leaves on the poster as shown; then laminate the entire poster. Laminate the leaves, and place double-stick tape on the back.
THOUGHT TREAT: Testimony Leaf Cookies. Cut out sugar cookie dough into leaf shapes, bake and frost. As children/youth eat their cookie, talk about ways you can build a strong plant or testimony. This way when temptation comes you will not be weak, you can be strong and say “no.” You might say to the youth, “What a ‘re-leaf’ it is to have the gospel that helps our testimony-plant to be strong.”
IDEA FROM THE TALK (below/video right)
To Replant the Willow Tree & Me)
“We once lived in a home surrounded by majestic trees. Next to the entrance was a beautiful willow tree. One sad night a mighty storm blew, and the willow came crashing down. It lay on the ground with its roots pulled out and was a sorry sight.
I was ready to rev up the chainsaw and cut the tree up for firewood when our neighbour came running out to stop me. He chastised me for giving up on the tree, and he emphatically urged us not to get rid of it. He then pointed to one root still in the ground and said that if we propped the tree up, cut off its branches, and nourished it, the roots would take hold once again.”
“Return unto Me … That I May Heal You” Talk,
April 2025 general conference By Elder S. Mark Palmer
MORE …
“The willow would never have survived without constant care and nourishment. You will nourish your faith and your testimony as you feast at the sacrament table each week and as you worship in the house of the Lord.”
