Learn how the Friend magazine can help your family understand a different sensitive topic each month.
Children learn early to group people by similarities and differences. We can help children learn that all types of people deserve respect﻿—whether they are different culturally, physically, or in other ways. Here are a few ideas for starting the conversation.
A Latter-day Saint boy visits a Buddhist temple with his family and learns about respecting other religions and cultures. Page 6 includes an activity idea for using this story for family night. What beautiful things do you notice in other religions or cultures? Page 38 follows a similar theme, featuring a Latter-day Saint girl with a Catholic friend.
This story is about a girl who befriends a new classmate who is being picked on. During family night, you could role-play standing up for people in different situations. Does anyone at school or church need your family’s extra kindness?
Jesus Christ is a perfect example of treating others with kindness. Read this story and talk about other times Jesus showed love. How can you follow Jesus’s example this week? If you haven’t done so already, help your child send the Friend a heart with an act of love written on it. The magazine is collecting them until October 2017!
Church should be a haven, but sometimes meanness and bullying still happens there. Talk with your children to see what their Primary experiences are like. Are there ways they can be more kind? Is there anything they need your help with?
Christ’s teachings (Matthew 22:37–40): Jesus told us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” (verse 39). Talk about what this means. Can you think of different ways Jesus taught people to love one another?
We believe … (Articles of Faith 1:11): Memorize the eleventh article of faith as a family and clarify what the different words mean. Why do we believe in letting people worship how they want? What do we hope for in return?
King Benjamin’s teachings (Mosiah 2:17): When we treat other people with kindness and respect, who else are we showing love for?
Children of the Most High (Psalm 82:6): Each person is a child of God. For older children, you could talk about how every person on earth chose to follow Heavenly Father’s plan in the pre-earth life.