Faith and A Family Planting Project – The Good Seed (she: Rachel)

Rachel is back, sharing another wonderful family activity idea. Today it’s a family planting project, perfect for getting everyone working together and understanding faith a little more.

I love the Biblical metaphor equating faith to a seed. It is scattered a few different places, but Matthew 13 expands on the concept well (check out Alma 32 if you use the Book of Mormon). Explaining faith as a seed is such a magnificent way to help children understand an abstract spiritual concept. Cultivating faith, indeed choosing faith, is an important value that I hope to pass on to my children. Planting a few fruit bearing plants (pumpkins, radishes, beans, or sunflowers are all easy options) can really drive this lesson home.

Diving a little deeper into this metaphor is a perfect Sabbath activity. Spend some time in Matthew 13 discussing how faith is like a seed. Help your children make a list of ways to nourish faith, to “receive seed into the good ground”: think of things like obeying commandments of God, reading the scriptures, and speaking kind words. Review things that make faith more difficult. Talk about how seeds need regular, consistent care in order to grow and explain how faith is similar. Faith sometimes requires care and time to grow. But the fruits of faith (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness from Galatians 5:22-23) are worth every effort.

Then plant something simple together! Summer is a perfect time to watch a tiny plant grow into a fruit or flower.

If you have young children, you might try using this simple worksheet to really drive home the abstract concepts. After printing, you’re meant to fold on the dotted lines and cut on the solid lines. When it’s done it will look a little bit like a science fair project display board, with two sides that fold in to the center. The kids can fill out fruits of the spirit (or faith) on the front of the worksheet if you’d like.