Week 12: Spiritual Growth (Parable of the Mustard Seed & Leaven Bread)
Morning Meeting (Parable of the Mustard Seed & Leaven Bread):
- Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32). Hold up the picture of a mustard seed and a mustard tree. Talk about the picture and read the verses together. Explain how amazing it is that something so little can turn into something so big. Relate to our lives. Just as our bodies grow from eating food, our spirits can also grow. Ask your children: What do you think helps our spirits to grow?
- Parable of the Leaven Bread (Matthew 13:33). Hold up the picture of yeast and bread. Talk about the picture and read the verse together. Explain how yeast helps bread to rise and grow. Relate to our lives. As we grow, we grow bigger, stronger and wiser. How can we grow spiritually?
Family Home Evening:
1) Teach dad about our morning meeting.
2) Make Bread in a Bag. This recipe is from Your Home Based Mom. We are going to make one mini loaf WITH yeast and one mini loaf WITHOUT yeast. I halved the ingredients and you can find the halved recipe on my PDF (link at the bottom of the page). As you make the bread, talk about how important the yeast is. The mixture with yeast with bubble and rise, while the other loaf will not. Note: Taking the bread mixture out of the bag is sticky and a little messy. I ended up doing this part while my kids were getting ready for bed. You may prefer to make bread in a mixer instead.
4) Bread Puzzle. While the bread is resting, relate the yeast and growing bread to our lives. The yeast is similar to things we can be doing to grow spiritually - such as reading our scriptures and praying. These activities help our spirits to grow, just as the bread grows. Before the lesson, hide the bread puzzle pieces around the room. Have your children find the puzzle pieces (each puzzle piece has a way we grow spiritually - talk about them) and put the pieces together to make a loaf of bread (our spiritual growth).
5) Bake the Bread and Enjoy! While the bread is baking, we are going to tub and get ready for bed. We added butter and cinnamon sugar to our slices of bread. Yum!
Print everything for Free! Parable of the Leaven PDF