Teach Me to Walk in the Light (3rd verse)

Mother’s Day

Last year I used the last verse of “Teach Me to Walk in the Light”  and the song “Teacher/Mother Do You Love Me”  for the Mother’s Day Primary songs in sacrament meeting. I exchanged the word “guidance“  for the word “mothers” in this verse to help it go with the Mother’s Day theme.

Preparation

• Print the song pages. Cut out the four word cards and attach them to Popsicle sticks. Cut out the words “songs of delight” and tape it to the front of a hymn book.

Presentation

Explain that the verse starts out like a prayer.

• Who are we talking to when we pray? (Heavenly Father) After we address our Heavenly Father what do we do in our prayers? (We thank him.) So the song starts out with “Father in Heaven we thank thee this day.” (Put this song page on the board.)

Point out that we use the same type of prayer language in this verse as we do in our prayers. Ask if anyone can identify the special word we used to address Heavenly Father. (Thee)

• What are we going to thank Heavenly Father for in this song? Hint- who will we be singing this song to? (For our loving mothers.) Ask the children if they remember the part in the chorus of “Mother Do You Love Me” were it talks about a mother’s example and teachings helping show them the way to be like Jesus. Explain that in this song we are thanking Heavenly Father for loving mothers who show us the way. So the next part of the song is “For loving mothers to show us the way”. (Put this song page on the board.)
• What are we going to do to show are gratitude for our mothers this next week in sacrament meeting? (We are singing to them.) We also show are gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all he does for us by singing songs each Sunday that honor and praise him.
• How does Heavenly Father feel when we sing these songs to him? (delighted)  The next part of the song is “grateful we praise thee with songs of delight”. (Put this song page on the board.)

In the song “Mother Do You Love Me” it talks about our Savior’s love lighting the path home. The Savior shows us the way back to our Heavenly Father. In “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” we end with saying “gladly, gladly we’ll walk in the light”. Which means we will gladly do the things Jesus has taught us to do. (Put this song page on the board.)

Have the children sing the verse. (You may wish break it down and sing a line at a time with junior Primary.)

Memorizing the Verse

To help the children remember the words, have a few volunteers act it out.

“Father in Heaven we thank thee this day” – Have a child kneel as if praying. (You may wish to put two chairs together so the child can kneel on the chairs and be seen easier.)

“For loving mothers to show us the way” – Have a mother hug her child and show the child the way by pointing to a picture of Jesus.

“Grateful we praise thee with songs of delight” – Have a child hold a hymn book with the words “songs of delight” taped to the cover.

Gladly, gladly we’ll walk in the light” – Have a child hold a flashlight or lantern and then walk in the light it casts. Explain that the light of a flashlight shows us the way to go in the dark. The words “walk in the light” means doing the things Jesus has taught because he shows us the way to our heavenly home.

Temporarily take the song pages off the board, and show the children the individual word cards. Have the children tell which acted out part each word card goes with. Review the words to each part as the word cards are placed. Have the actor hold up their word card during their part.

Put the song pages back on the board and have the children sing the verse again. Point to specific actors as the children sing their part.

Remove a song page and the child acting out that part, and sing the verse again. Continue removing pages and actors until the verse is memorized.