All Things Work Together For Good

This object lesson and activity can be adapted to teach many concepts.

It would be a great way to end the year by reviewing all of the doctrines and principles taught over the year. 

This reinforces working together, every one (ingredient) is important, follow the Lord's recipe, put on the whole armor of God (not just a few ingredients) etc. Just be careful to focus in on one concept and not go all over the place with too many abstracts. Otherwise, the lesson is lost in all the objects and comparisons.

Romans 8:28

All things work together for good...

As class started, we reviewed Romans 8:28 (All things work together for good) and the 13th Article of Faith
(We seek after these things...) We focused in on the word THINGS and named what those THINGS are that work together for the good and what things we seek after.
We listed specific commandments such as, Prayer, Good Thoughts, Clean Language, Love to others, Scripture Study, Seminary Attendance, Worthily partaking of the Sacrament, Dressing Modestly, etc.
I explained that one without the other is not as effective and that when you omit one of these things, you don't receive the full blessings available to all.
I explained that leaving out a commandment will weaken your spiritual armor.
Next:
I showed my students a recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that I have used for many years.
As long as I follow the recipe, I get delicious cookies every time. The end result is sweet.
I told them about one time I tried to make substitutions and omissions from this recipe and that the results were not so delicious and sometimes not so sweet, in addition, time and ingredients are wasted when the recipe is not followed.
I told them that I was going to share these cookies with them.
We moved to the kitchen where I had a cookie sheet covered with a dish towel in the center of the counter island.
At that point, I uncovered the cookie sheet containing all the ingredients necessary for the cookies (see photo above)
I asked who would like a cookie.
Of course, they all said yes and so I began to hand each student an ingredient (i.e. a stick of butter or bag of oats) and told them here is a cookie, enjoy.
When they told me this is not a cookie, I explained that it was part of the recipe, it should be fine just to eat the flour, or egg, butter, etc.
I began to ask questions such as:
Why should we use all the ingredients (things)?
Why not just a few ingredients (things)?
Why should we mix these ingredients together?
What will happen if we only use a few of the ingredients?
Why should we keep all of the commandments (use all of the ingredients)

After this discussion, we mixed up the ingredients, following all the directions, and baked the cookies.
As we worked on mixing and placing the dough on cookie sheets, I continued to teach and reinforce the message of All things work together for good.

This was a fun lesson and we were able to complete it in the 45 minutes allowed, with little time to spare. I made sure I was very organized with the ingredients and supplies and that I stayed focused on the main thought of all the Lord's commandments will work together for our personal benefit.

Just a few more days of Seminary left. I will try to get caught up on sharing some of our lessons (maybe over the summer)
Happy Teaching!