This week's FHE lesson topic comes from the Come, Follow Me reading in Matthew 18 and Luke 10. Check out this week's Come, Follow Me study ideas on LDS Living for additional resources and suggestions.
Thought
“I know that each of you bears a concern for a loved one. Give encouragement, service, and support to them. Love them. Be kind to them. In some cases, they will return. In others, they will not. But in all cases, let us ever be worthy of the name we take upon ourselves, even that of Jesus Christ.”
(Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Concern for the One,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2008)
Scripture
"For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost."
Lesson
Hide cash, candy, or any other highly desired object in the room before the family home evening begins. Tell family members that this desirable item has been hidden in the room and that whoever gets it first keeps it (alternatively, hide that night’s treats and tell the family they can only eat the treats if they find them). After the item has been found, ask family members how their search might have been different if they had lost
- $1000
- $10,000
- A family pet
- A child in your family
Have a family member read Matthew 18:11–14. Ask your family to contrast finding lost money or a lost pet to finding a lost soul.
Read together Doctrine and Covenants 18:11–16 and discuss what more we learn about helping those who are lost. As a family, think about someone you might be able to help bring back to the fold and talk about ways that you could help that person.
(Adapted from: Dennis H. Leavitt and Richard O. Christensen, Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families: The New Testament, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006])
Story
Read President Thomas S. Monson’s recounting of the “lost battalion” and consider the ways we can valiantly save those who are lost:
As a boy, I enjoyed reading the account of the “lost battalion.” The “lost battalion” was a unit of the 77th Infantry Division in World War I. During the Meuse-Argonne offensive, a major led this battalion through a gap in the enemy lines, but the troops on the flanks were unable to advance. An entire battalion was surrounded. Food and water were short; casualties could not be evacuated. Hurled back were repeated attacks. Ignored were notes from the enemy requesting the battalion to surrender. Newspapers heralded the battalion’s tenacity. Men of vision pondered its fate. After a brief but desperate period of total isolation, other units of the 77th Division advanced and relieved the “lost battalion.” Correspondents noted in their dispatches that the relieving forces seemed bent on a crusade of love to rescue their comrades in arms. Men volunteered more readily, fought more gallantly, and died more bravely. A fitting tribute echoed from that ageless sermon preached on the Mount of Olives: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Forgotten is the plight of the “lost battalion.” Unremembered is the terrible price paid for its rescue. But let us turn from the past and survey the present. Are there “lost battalions” even today? If so, what is our responsibility to rescue them? Their members may not wear clothes of khaki brown nor march to the sound of drums. But they share the same doubt, feel the same despair, and know the same disillusionment that isolation brings.
(Thomas S. Monson, “Lost Battalions,” Ensign or Liahona, April 1971)
Lead image from Shutterstock
