Family Home Evening for Psalms 1 2; 8; 19-33; 40; 46

 Read Psalms 24:3-5

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Discuss

What might hands represent in this psalm? 

• Hands represent our actions. It’s what we do.

What could the heart symbolize? 

• Hearts represent our feelings and our desires

Activity

You will need washable paint, bowl of water or sink, and a towel.

Have one of your child open their hands, above the bowl. Have other family members think of some actions that make their “lives dirty.” This could be things like lying, hurting your siblings, disobeying your parents, doing something that hurts another person, saying bad words, etc. With each suggestion, put a drop of paint on your child’s hands (different colors would be great). After several suggestions, have your child rub their hands together with this “sinful soap.” Show your family these hands, and ask them if these are the clean hands that the scriptures talk about. Now tell them that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, these hands can become clean again, if we repent. (Help your child rinse their hands in the bowl of water or sink.)

Discuss

What can we do to spiritually cleanse our hands?

Activity 

Cut a heart out of red construction paper, and one of the same size out of black construction paper. Cut the black paper into a few pieces. Have your children think about feelings or desires that could “un-purify” our hearts. This could include things such as holding a grudge, thinking you are better than someone else, not thinking about how others feel, thinking that you are always right, wanting to do things that are not good, being jealous, wanting what other people have, and not listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. With each suggestion put a piece of the black heart over the red heart. At the end, ask your children if this heart is pure anymore. 

Discuss

What can we do to spiritually cleanse our heart? (Remove pieces of black paper with each suggestion.)

Click the picture below to see how we did this lesson