I Will Read and Watch Pleasing Things
by Shauna Gibby

How do you learn to think? By reading the scriptures; by conversations with good people, leaders, others; by reading good books; and by watching good television. . . .

I will only read and watch things that are pleasing to Heavenly Father.

(Faith in God guidebooks, back cover)

Thought:

How do you learn to think? By reading the scriptures; by conversations with good people, leaders, others; by reading good books; and by watching good television. . . . Children, fill your minds with good thoughts, take in good information, read good books. What a wonderful thing it is that we have minds to work with!

(Elder Richard E. Turley Sr., “Friend to Friend,” Friend, Apr 1999, 6)

Song:

“I Have Two Ears,” Children’s Songbook, p. 269.

Lesson:

Help your children realize that they should select their reading material wisely. Let them know that if they were to read a book a week (and few will) for the next seventy years, they would read 3,640 books in that period of time. A remarkable number, they might reasonably thing, until they learn that there are more than 15 million volumes in the United States Library of Congress and that new books are spewing from the presses of the world at the rate of a thousand titles a day, which means there will be more than 25 million additional volumes in seventy years. The message: There is no time for trash or for reading anything in print that is not helpful and uplifting.

A sensitive father described how they are solving two problems: “When we became aware of how many hours each day our children were watching TV programs of little or no value, and some that were actually extremely sordid, vulgar, and violent, we decided that some changes needed to be made. We invested in a video recorder and then made an agreement that each week we would go through the TV listings and together with our children select the programs we considered to be of greatest educational and cultural worth. We would program the recorder to record them. Then on Saturday, the children could look forward to a few hours of choice entertainment and learning. In the process we built up a good library of excellent programs. We noticed that immediately our children’s grades shot up. The children were happier. Their self-esteem increased because they were accomplishing more and they didn’t seem to miss the hours they used to spend with trashing movies, game shows, and cartoons. Television has become a tool for progress in our home rather than a mammoth negative intrusion in our lives.”

(Barbara K. Christensen and Joe J. Christensen, Making Your Home a Missionary Training Center, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985].)

Story:

My father was the twelfth of thirteen children. They were very poor, and each child had to go to work to help support their immigrant father. In those days they felt it their duty to work and develop a good trade rather than spend more time in school. While my father was still in elementary school, he decided that he was through with school, which was not uncommon in those days when school would often be interrupted by dropping out to work to help support the family. He wrote in his personal history, “Then a new teacher came to town. He met me downtown and asked if I was going to school. When I said no, he said to me, `Why not try it for three or four days and see if you won’t like it?’ I was like a great many other boys, restless, and education didn’t mean much. My parents were very poor and my father encouraged me to learn a new trade and not worry about school. But I couldn’t resist the new teacher’s challenge. He brought a new awakening in me. He never answered a question outright but rather told us where to find the answer in a book. He would write the name of a book on the board. My urge for information-finding never left me. When I read a good book, I am in a new world.” My father continued to learn. He had a real thirst for learning, cultivated by his teacher’s love of books. One of my cherished memories of both my parents is of them with a book in their hands. They both became very well education—beyond most earned degrees.

As I grew up there was never a birthday nor Christmas at our home without our receiving the gift of a well-chosen book. Mother always wrote some appropriate lines in the inside cover. When we were young and money was hard to come by, and also because some of my mother’s favorite books were out of print, I remember going with her to secondhand stores to buy books. We would look through stacks of them and sort out the ones she wanted to use as gifts. Then we would take them home and sterilize them in the oven before she made the presentation. I have listened by the hour to my mother recite poetry and stories with great morals.

(Barbara K. Christensen and Joe J. Christensen, Making Your Home a Missionary Training Center, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985].)

Activity:

1. Give everyone a pencil and piece of paper.

2. Have everyone write at the top of the paper the first sentence of what might be a story. You could let the stories be a surprise or assign a topic.

3. Have everyone pass his paper to the person on his left. Everyone writes on the new paper a second sentence that continues the story of the first sentence.

4. Have everyone fold the top of his paper over the first sentence so only the sentence he just wrote is showing. Have everyone pass his paper to the person on his left.

5. Continue in this manner, each person writing a sentence, folding over the sentence written by the person just before him, then passing the paper to the person on the left.

6. After a dozen or so sentences have been written, each person in turn unfolds his paper, stands, and reads aloud the entire story.

(George and Jeane Chipman, Games! Games! Games!, [Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 1983], p. 62.)

Refreshment:

Thumbprints

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

¾ cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

2 ¼ cups flour

½ tsp. baking soda

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 tsp. vanilla

jam of your choice

Beat cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar in large mixing bowl at medium speed. Add flour and baking soda and mix well. Add chopped nuts and vanilla and chill for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Indent centers and fill each with 1 teaspoon of your favorite jam. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool on wire rack. Use a variety of jams—the cookies will look beautiful on a serving plate.

(Hollee Eckman and Heather Higgins, All That Jam, [Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2003], p. 73.)