"Please bless that people are different."

Our church service yesterday was special.

One, major, thing that I have learned from having church at home is that it needs to be simple.

There are lots of reasons it needs to be simple for OUR family...

We have small children. They don't last long sitting and being quiet.

Our children are young. Their mental capacity doesn't call for deep, spiritual content.

I have found that the main reason why church needs to be simple though is.....

That's how God intended it.

When we make things complex, we are driving far away from anything God ever meant for us.

When we over complicate it... we are inviting confusion and exhaustion, rather than inspiration and rejuvenation.

I have been so amazed at how the Come Follow Me lessons are perfectly aligned with current events.

This curriculum, produced by the Church, has been written years in the making.

It has been set in stone for some time. And yet.... our Father in Heaven knows exactly WHAT we need to hear WHEN we need to hear it.

Like many other times, this week's lesson fell perfectly in line with what I felt like I needed to teach my kids.

For our lesson this week I chose six, large printed photos that we have from our library of gospel pictures. They all have varying types of people.

Babies, young children, adults.

People representing almost every skin color.

Different nationalities and cultures.

Women, men, boys, and girls.

I laid out these pictures and then held up a picture of Christ.

I asked Grace and Hunter...

"Okay.... we are going to play a game. This is a tricky game. You need to think hard...."

They looked at me eagerly.

I had their attention....

They were ready to show me how smart they are.

"I need you to look at these pictures.... and decide.... WHICH picture... is a picture of who Jesus loves."

I could see the wheels in their heads turning.

"Think about it! Don't tell me yet! Look at all the pictures..... which ONE shows who Jesus loves?"

Now let's remember, my kids are very young. They are people pleasers, just by the pure genetics they were given. They wanted to pick the right one! They wanted to be correct.

I asked Grace to pick first.

After careful consideration, she chose the picture with the MOST people present. The people were doing something that the Savior asks us to do... take the sacrament.

I told her that was a good choice.

I then asked Hunter to pick.

He chose a picture of a boy who was coloring a picture.

In his absolute, three year old innocence, he picked what he thought was right.

Jeff and I then revealed to them that the answer was indeed ALL the pictures!

The answer was that Jesus loves EVERY person in EVERY picture.

We discussed how the people in the pictures all look different. We first asked the kids to tell us how they look different.

Grace told us that some were boys and girls. Some were old and young.

We asked her to identify other differences, but she shyed away from it.

We told them about how the colors of their skin are different.

And we told them again, that Jesus loves all of the people. The color of someone's skin does not matter to Jesus.

It does not change the person's worth to God.

We talked about how Jesus loves everyone no matter what they look like.

We then decided to be very open with them and talk about how some people in the world view skin color differently than Heavenly Father and Jesus do. We talked about how people can be hurt, because of how they look.

I told my kids that we can and WILL always choose kindness, because that's what Jesus does. I told my kids that they are already wonderful examples of kindness. Truly, my kids do really well being friendly and nice to others. I want them to always remember that they CAN and should be kind.

We sang the song: "I'll Walk With You" and I just cried through the whole thing.

Grace sang it loud and proud.

The lyrics for that song are:

If you don’t walk as most people do,
Some people walk away from you,
But I won’t! I won’t!
If you don’t talk as most people do,
Some people talk and laugh at you,
But I won’t! I won’t!
I’ll walk with you. I’ll talk with you.
That’s how I’ll show my love for you.

Jesus walked away from none.
He gave His love to ev’ryone.
So I will! I will!
Jesus blessed all He could see,
Then turned and said, “Come follow me.”
And I will! I will! I will! I will!
I’ll walk with you. I’ll talk with you.
That’s how I’ll show my love for you.

In our closing prayer, Hunter said it by himself. He usually says the same 3-4 things with each prayer, but I always know whether he was listening if he adds on something about the lesson in there.

In his prayer for this lesson he said at the end: "Please bless that people are different."

Perfect ending, buddy.

I know God made us all uniquely different. I know that's what makes us who we are.

I pray that in a world where we can be anything we want to be....

We will be kind.