The Ten Commandments

TEN COMMANDMENTS

Each of the commandments has a correlating story in the scriptures with either positive or negative consequences associated with it! Here is my list, and some ideas for sharing time with this list:

No other Gods before me:
Mormon 4:14-16
Lamanites take the Nephite women and offer them up as sacrifices to their idol gods. The Nephites come back in battle and beat the Lamanites. This begins a nasty cycle of war between the two peoples.

Name in vain:
D&C 63: 61 - 63
The Lord admonishes members for using His name without authority and tells them they are under His condemnation.

Keep the Sabbath Day:
Matthew 12: 10 - 13
Christ heals the crippled man on the Sabbath Day and explains that good works are good to do on the Sabbath.

Honor thy Father and thy Mother:
Genesis 22: 7 - 15
Isaac goes with his father Abraham to the top of Mt. Moriah, even though he wonders about the firewood and stones for offering a sacrifice.

Thou shalt not kill:
Alma 24: 12 - 26
The Anti-Nephi-Lehies covenant with the Lord that they will no longer kill. Many come into the church because of their example.

Thou shat not commit adultery:
Story of Joseph and Potipher's wife. Paraphrase!
Because Joseph was truthful and did what he knew was right, he became a righteous leader of Egypt.

Thou shalt not steal:
JSH 1: 59 - 60
Joseph Smith is warned by the Lord to keep the gold plates safe. He finds out why, and the Lord helps to protect them.

Bear false witness:
Mark 14: 66 - 72
Peter denies knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crows. He feels terrible and weeps.

Covet:
2 Samuel 11;12
David and Bathsheba, paraphrase! David was a righteous leader who wanted another man's wife to be HIS wife. So, David had her husband killed so he could marry her. Because he did this, David was cursed by the Lord, and many things went wrong for him.

Ideas

1) Go over the stories, and ask the children which commandment it goes with. You can make this a match-up game with pictures from the library and "tablets" with a blank rectangle drawn on it for the picture. Above the rectangle, put the commandment.
2) Give the children paper with "good" written on one side, and "bad" written on the other. As you read the story or tell it, have them hold up "good" if the people kept the commandment and had good consequences, and "bad" if the people didn't keep the commandments and had bad consequences. Ask the children for examples, big and small, of consequences that can come from keeping or not keeping the commandments.
3) Using "tablets" with the commandments on them, and tablets with the numbers 1 - 10 on them, see if the kids can get everything in the right order. As they get commandments in the right place, go over the commandment, the meaning and an example.