Stars and Dots

We've been struggling over here lately with self-worth.   Yesterday, as I sat down for story time with Jonas and Mason, I noticed that Mason had picked out the book, You are Special. As we read, I knew this was what I needed to use for my FHE lesson. Later that afternoon I cut out a bunch of gray dots and gold stars to use for an object lesson.

Shortly before dinner, I handed out a bag of dots and stars to everyone.  I asked them to give out dots when we didn't like what someone did or said and to hand out gold stars when they did something we liked.  A few minutes into this, and I began to wonder if it had been such a good idea as we started sounding off our frustrations with each other.

When we finally sat down to do our FHE Lesson, we talked about how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father and how he knows each of us individually.  Then we read the book.  If you've never read it, I would highly recommend it. We discussed how, just like the little wooden people, everyday we get dots or starts put on us by other people.  Then I pointed out how we wanted to be like Lucia, who had no dots or stars because they wouldn't stick to her.  She had decided that what Eli (the woodcarver) thought of her was more important that what others thought. Then we all took off our dots and stars and talked about how we needed to focus more on what Heavenly Father thinks than what others do.

(Sorry about the dark, grainy photos...I only had time to snap a few pictures on my phone)