The Lord Gave Me a Temple

This month, August 2019, the theme in The Friend, as well as The New Era and Ensign, is the importance of our mortal body.  In the song,"The Lord Gave Me a Temple," p. 153, it compares our body to the temple.  Use theses publications as a resource in teaching the song.

Choose a picture of a Temple - line drawing or of a temple near you.
Use a picture of children or a boy and a girl or a child dressed in white before baptism.  A bride and groom in front of a temple could also be used.

Display the pictures that you have chosen.

Tell the children that inside the temple everything is clean and beautiful and there is a reverent atmosphere there as well.  Our bodies are the "temple" of our spirit.  Heavenly Father wanted our bodies to be clean so our spirits could live there- both our minds and physical bodies.

How can we keep our bodies healthy, clean and pure for our spirits?
(Let the children give suggestions on keeping their bodies clean and healthy.)

Sing "The Lord Gave Me a Temple" or use a recording of it.  Ask them to listen for rhymes in the song.

• Sing the first 2 1/2 lines.
• point out the rhyming words
• Ask the children to sing with you (3 times)
• Where did we live before our birth?  Heaven
• Why do we call our body a "temple?"
• Sing the last 2 1/2 lines
• Ask the children to sing with you (3 times)
• What can we do to keep our bodies "bright?"
• sing the whole first verse

Second verse - Sing the second verse.

• What ways can we protect our bodies?  Listen to the second verse. (keep it clean, pure and habit-free)
• sing the last 2 1/2 lines
• What does heavenly father promise us if we keep our bodies clean and pure? (I'll live in celestial glory and live in heaven.)
• Sing the last 2 1/2 lines - 3 times with the children

Review this song again next week.