Teaching Help for "How Is Jesus Christ a Light in My Life?"
This post may contain affiliate links meaning I make a commission on products purchased through my links. See my full disclosure for more.
Are you ready to talk about ways that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ at church? Let's go over some ideas for the lesson, “How is Jesus Christ a light in my life?” This is typically taught on January 22, 2023 in the Young Women's and Aaronic Priesthood Quorums. Keep reading for ideas to help you teach in your class.
Save it for later (and spread the word), pin it now!
Watch or Listen to teaching helps
There's a great quote from President M. Russell Ballard in the January 2023 For the Strength of Youth that you can use to start off your lesson:
“In our day, Satan is working overtime to shut out the Savior’s light. But you can never be in a place so dark that the light of Jesus Christ cannot shine for you if you will come unto Him. His light is always there.”
Christ's light always wins. It always is shining. We must be diligent in allowing the light in our lives with Satan working overtime, and we need to know and recognize where that light comes from, which is Jesus Christ.
Find Your Way Through the Maze
Grab a sheet of graph paper or you can print my grid page and let’s make a maze. Put a circle for the start spot on one end of the paper and diagonally across, a star for the finish line. The rules of the maze are you have to stay on the grid lines in order to get to the finish and there are invisible walls along the way. If you hit an invisible wall, you must start over. The idea being that it can get pretty frustrating pretty quickly when you don't really know where to go.
If you add a little light (grab a flashlight) and shine it underneath the paper, it becomes increasingly clear where the right way is to go. The answer sheet is behind the grid page and shows up when you shine the light through.
Invite your class to ponder the questions “How is Christ a light for them, both in the past and the present, and perhaps in the future? What does Christ's light do for us?”
President Ballard in the Liahona January 2023 says that Christ can:
Lighten our loads
Lighten our hearts (because of the gift of repentance)
Lighten our minds, helping us see clearly where we need to go.
Three great points to bring up as you discuss this object lesson.
Mix-Up Poem
Let's make a mix-up poem of light. Use one of the hymns in the hymn book such as “Lead Kindly Light” then write each word on a separate sheet of paper or a 3x5 index card. Place all the cards on the board and mix them up.
Then invite your class to try to put it together in the correct order. If they make up a totally different poem about light that works, go with it. The whole point is to get people to participate and to end up with a positive message about light.
Next, review some of the words, and talk about the truthfulness of those words, and how we know they are true. You can look up some scriptures that go along with it (check the bottom of the hymn page) and some definitions of words. Finally, invite your class to write their own poem of light. To get them started, have them pick three of the index cards off the board to use in their poems. The poems will not be shared with anyone. It's completely for themselves. It's time to ponder the light of Jesus Christ and what it means to them and how it's been used in their lives.
Light Experiments
Flashlight and a Wall
Time for some light experiments! For this first one, you're going to need a flashlight and a wall (I used a small whiteboard to show you on the video). Turn it on a fair distance away from the wall. In the beginning, the light is cast over the wall in a wide direction. It does illuminate, but not very well.
As you bring the light closer, the light gets brighter as it narrows in on a specific spot. Then talk about what that might symbolize for your class. There are lots of great answers.
One thing this can represent is as we come nearer to Christ, our light shines brighter. Another one is, as we try to do everything, our light can't be very bright. It's going too many places, but as we narrow in and put the things of God first- first things first- (remember that lesson from December) then our lights become more focused and bright and we're able to attract more people because of that. We could be like a bug zapper, right? Attracting others towards the light of Jesus Christ so that they may feel the Spirit themselves
3 Objects and a Light
For this next experiment, you will need a flashlight, a mirror, a paper plate, and a see-through object such as a plastic, see-through cup works, or magnifying glass- something that the light can shine through.
Present these three objects to your class and ask them what they think is going to happen. It's pretty obvious, but say those things anyway. For example, the plate most likely is going to block the light from going through. Then show the results of what happens when you hold up a flashlight to each of those objects.
The light doesn't go through the plate. For the mirror, it reflects. And for the cup that is see-through, the light shines through. Next, invite your class to answer the question, “What object do we want to be like and why?” There are a lot of great answers. The key is we probably don't want to be like the plate because it doesn't allow light to go through. We could be like a mirror reflecting light for others to see, but even better, we could be like this cup where the light shines through us and brings others to that light.
If we have a plate that blocks light in our life, how can we get rid of it and other light blockers? And what might light blockers be? The scriptures in the manual tell us that anything that doesn't edify, brings darkness and things that do edify bring light (see D&C 50:23-24). What are some of those things that we can take out of our lives? It could be a TV show that's questionable. It could be music. Those are kind of some obvious things, some of the answers are going to be unique to you because you're unique. Other things are going to be more universal.
We want to get rid of those light blockers so that we can have more light in our own lives. Another example is when we don't repent, we block out light.
Making Yourself into a Lantern
Ponder as a class, how we can let Christ's light shine through us more. What are some things that we can surround ourselves with? A great activity that you can then do with this is by making your own paper lanterns. Give everybody a blank sheet of paper and invite them to draw on it some things in their lives that bring light.
I've printed this paper lantern as a quick example. It has a fountain on it and some lights and trees. Behind this paper though, tape a picture of Jesus Christ. Then fold the paper into a cylinder and staple shut.
As you place a light inside the lantern, you can see Christ shining through. Are the things that we are surrounding ourselves, letting us shine that light, or is it blocking that light?
Those are just a few interactive ways that you can get the discussion going in your class as you talk about Jesus Christ being a light in our lives. Make sure you also head to the manual as there are brilliant ideas in there as well. Chat with you next time as we listen to someone share their light with a story of faith.
