Opening song and prayer
2 minSing Dare to Do Right (Children's Songbook 158), then invite a child to offer the opening prayer.
The Missing Step
4 minBefore class, lay sheets of paper on the floor like stepping stones leading to a bowl of treats on a chair across the room. Leave one gap in the middle that is far too wide for a child to step across. Quietly hand one child a single extra sheet of paper on their way in and ask them to keep it in their pocket for now.
Tell the class the floor is a river and the papers are the only safe stones. Invite them to try to reach the treats. Let them discover the gap and get stuck. Let a few of them try before you say anything.
Then ask the child with the extra paper to take it out. Let them lay it down to bridge the gap so the whole class can cross and share the treats.
- Could anyone reach the treats before the last paper went down?No. The gap was too wide for everyone, no matter how hard they tried.
- Did the child with the extra paper get it because she was faster or stronger than everybody else?No. It was simply given to her. She just happened to be the one holding it.
- What would have happened if she had kept it in her pocket and said nothing?Everyone would have stayed stuck. What she had only helped if she was willing to use it.
God put Esther exactly where she needed to be
6 minEsther was a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai. She was not a princess and she had no famous family. Then the king of Persia chose her, out of everyone in the kingdom, to be his new queen.
Nobody knew why yet. But an evil man named Haman was making a secret plan to destroy all the Jews, and Esther was the only Jew in the whole world who could walk into the king's palace.
- How did Esther become queen? Did she plan it?No. The king chose her. She did not apply for the job or expect it at all.
- Mordecai told Esther she may have become queen 'for such a time as this.' What did he mean?That God had put her in the palace on purpose, so that she would be in the right place to save her people when the danger came.
- Esther kept it secret that she was Jewish. Why would that have made speaking up scarier?Because telling the king meant admitting she was one of the people Haman wanted to destroy. She would be putting herself in the danger too.
- Has Heavenly Father ever put you somewhere you did not expect to be?Let children answer. A new school, a new ward, sitting by someone lonely, being the only member of the Church in their class.
Esther was scared, and she was brave anyway
6 minThere was a law in Persia that said if you walked in to see the king without being invited, you could be put to death. Esther had not been invited for thirty days.
So she did two things. First she asked every Jew in the city to fast and pray with her for three days. Then she put on her royal robes and walked in anyway. Being brave did not mean she stopped being afraid. It meant she went in while she was still afraid.
- What did Esther ask everyone to do before she went to the king?Fast and pray for three days. She asked God for help before she did the hard thing.
- Esther said, 'If I perish, I perish.' What was she deciding right then?That she would do the right thing even if it cost her everything, including her life.
- Do you think Esther felt brave when she walked into the throne room?Probably not. She was likely terrified. Courage is doing the right thing while you are still scared, not waiting until the fear goes away.
- What is something right that feels scary to do at school?Let children answer. Sitting with someone alone, saying no to something wrong, telling the truth after a mistake, standing up for a kid being teased.
It is your turn now (optional)
optionalEsther was young. She had no army and no power of her own. What she had was a moment, a choice, and Heavenly Father's help.
You will get moments like that this week. They will probably be smaller than Esther's, and nobody may ever find out about them. They still count.
- What made the fox in the video valiant?He chose the right thing even when it was uncomfortable and even when others were not choosing it.
- Who is one person at your school who could use somebody brave this week?Let children name a real person. Naming someone specific makes it far more likely to happen.
In the scriptures
5 minRead these together and talk about them.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
- 'Holdest thy peace' means to stay silent. What was Mordecai warning Esther about?That staying quiet was itself a choice, and it was the wrong one.
- Mordecai said God would rescue the Jews another way if Esther refused. So why did it matter what Esther did?Because God's work would go forward either way, but Esther would have missed her part in it. He invites us to help, He does not need us to.
- What is your 'such a time as this' right now?Let children answer. Their family, their class, their team, this year of their life.
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
- Esther did not go alone. Who helped her?Her whole people fasted and prayed with her, and Heavenly Father answered. Hard things get easier when we ask others to pray with us.
- Who could you ask to pray for you when something hard is coming?Let children answer. Parents, a sibling, a teacher, a friend, or the whole family in family prayer.
Write it on the bridge
optionalBring the class back to the paper stepping stones from the beginning of the lesson. Hand out markers.
Ask each child to write on one of the papers a brave thing they will do this week, then lay it back down in the path. Let them read a few aloud if they want to.
Point out that together the class has now built a whole bridge out of small brave choices. That is what Esther's one choice did for a whole nation.
Latter-day Kids lesson bundle and coloring pages for this week