Scripture Reading Young Women’s Activity – Candy Ball Object Lesson

I loved Elder Wilford W. Andersen’s General Conference talk, “The Music of the Gospel,” where he explains it isn’t just enough to teach our children to dance, but we have to teach them how to hear the music. It is a great parallel for the difference between going through the steps of the gospel and fully living the gospel with all our hearts. I feel that this is particularly applicable to reading the scriptures. So this Scripture Reading Young Women’s Activity is designed to show our youth how to really dig in and feast on the words of Christ.

Originally, I planned this lesson for Family Home Evening. We do family scripture reading every morning, but I can tell that my kids often read without even comprehending what is going on. At least we are developing an important habit, but I wanted them to understand the importance of really engaging with the scriptures.

So whether you use it as a Young Women’s Activity or a Family Home Evening lesson, this activity is designed to grab our children’s and teen’s attention and let them see firsthand how our effort can impact our experience.

Of course, I had to work in one of my favorite games as an object lesson. Candy Ball!

Scripture Reading Young Women’s Lesson

• When someone invites you to a feast, what do you expect to see there?
  • Food? A lot of food? What kind of food?
  • What are your expectations? Do you expect to leave hungry or full?
  • What do you come ready to do? Do you come ready to eat?
• What are some ways you come prepared for a feast?
• Did you know that the Lord has invited us to a feast?
• Read Scriptures:
  • 2 Nephi 32:3: “Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”
  • 2 Nephi 31:20: “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”
• What kind of feast is Nephi inviting us to?
• What do you expect from this feast? And what kinds of promises have been made or what should be your expectations of this feast?
  • We are promised that the words of Christ will tell us what we should do and we are promised eternal life. Pretty big promises!
• What are the ways that you come prepared for this feast?
  • Does it say to pick at your food? Or to squeeze in a snack here and there? No, it says to FEAST.
  • At a feast, we come prepared to eat. We sit down and take our time. Instead of snacking while running around or thinking of something else, we focus on the food. We fill ourselves.

Scripture Reading Young Women’s Activity

Before the Scripture Reading Young Women’s Activity, you will want to make the candy ball. You can follow my instructions from Candy Tape Ball Individual Worth Youth Activity. For the handout inside, I created this “Feast Upon the Words of Christ” printable. Make enough copies so that each person can have one to take home.

Download “Feast Upon the Words of Christ” Printable

Activity Plan

Explain that the greatest nourishment from the scriptures comes when we really dig in. So tonight we are going to play a little game. I have a candy ball. Looking at this ball you can’t see all the wonderful treats waiting for you inside. Maybe you can glimpse a few, but to get at all the sweet things, you are going to have to really dig in and take some time.

How to Play:
Sit on the floor in a circle and have everybody roll a pair of dice to see who starts. The person with the highest number is first. Hand them the ball and let them start to try to remove as much candy as they can. But they can only use their hands. No teeth, scissors or other tools. At the same time, the person to their left will start to roll the two dice to see if they can get doubles. Once they get doubles, they get the ball and the person to their left starts to roll. The ball keeps moving around the circle from player to player until there isn’t any candy left.

Handout:
Once they get to the middle, let the person who has the ball unwrap the handouts and pass them around. Talk about some of the parallels between how they dug excitedly into the ball and how we should dig into the scriptures. Ask if they would have gotten much sweetness out if they had been half asleep or daydreaming? Were they excited to get the candy out? Are we that excited about the sweet things the Lord has in the scriptures for us?

Is there a time that you have read the scriptures and especially felt fed? Or maybe a scripture has helped you know what to do?

Share your own testimony about feasting on the word.