Hold to the Rod

This activity was really fun. I brought my pancake griddle to the church, plugged it in, placed a jelly roll pan with an inch of water on top of the hot griddle, and then set bowls of white chocolate melts inside it. This makeshift "double boiler" let me melt enough chocolate to have 6 bowls full to divide among 12 girls. Working with a partner-- and taking turns-- each girl was able to make about 8 pretzel rods to take home. And they had a lot of fun doing it!

For this activity you will need:

• White chocolate candy melts
• Pretzel rods
• A variety of different sprinkles (you could ask parents to send a jar of sprinkles if they felt so inclined)
• Waxed paper for each girl
• Sturdy bowl and spoon for holding/melting the chocolate
• Pretzel rod bags (available at Walmart) to carry home the pretzel rods

Lesson on the Iron Rod

What is a dream? (let the girls share answers)

What is a VISION, and how is it different from a dream? (let the girls share)

Many prophets receive visions from God. Sometimes even people who are not prophets have a vision. A vision is a dream with a meaning. Sometimes people who have the dreams do not know what they mean. God sends a messenger; sometimes the Holy Ghost, or an angel, or a prophet, to explain what the vision means.  A vision tells a story, then a messenger explains what the story means. Because it is a story it is easier to remember.

Lehi and Nephi, and many people who read the Book of Mormon, love the vision of the tree of life. It explains many things about our life on earth and how to return to God, and tells us a story that is easy to remember.

Lehi and Nephi both saw a VISION of the iron rod. 

Does anyone know what else they saw in this vision? (They also saw a beautiful tree, a great and spacious building, a river, and mists of darkness.)

Tell, or let one of the girls tell, the vision of the tree of life.

Talk about what the tree, iron rod, and mists of darkness represent.

Lehi's vision, the tree of life.

The tree is the love of God and eternal life

The rod leads to the tree

There are mists of darkness and a treacherous river between us and the tree.

The rod of iron will get us to the tree if we hold to it.

The rod of iron represents the scriptures.

The river and the mists of darkness are temptations, trials and other dangers in life.

The tree is heaven, eternal families and being with God. It brings us true joy.

Let’s focus on the iron rod. 

What does it mean to hold to the iron rod? Do we hold our scriptures wherever we go? Do we find an iron pole and hold on to it?

No, to hold to the rod means to:

1) read our scriptures/learn the word of God

2) hold on to what we learn in our hearts

So to hold to the rod, we learn about the commandments and we keep the commandments.

To hold to the rod we learn about Jesus and try to be like him.

To hold to the rod we learn about the gospel plan and live it.

If people try to tempt us to do things that are not right, like lie, or steal, or be mean, or even something like drink coffee... we think about what we have learned in the scriptures and hold on to what we know is right. We make a good choice, and we know that we choose things because they are right and will lead us to God.

That is what it means to hold to the iron rod. 

It's not just to hold our scriptures. Not just to read our scriptures. 

It is to LEARN from the word of God, and let that learning help us make good choices.

It starts with the learning. We can't make good choices if we don't know right from wrong.

So how can we learn the word of God? Reading our scriptures is one way. Can you think of other ways?

Listen in primary and FHE

Listen to parents

Read the friend magazine

Listen to conference

Listen to scripture stories on lds.org

Like many other things in life, God has asked us to do something for Him-- he asks us to read our scriptures, and learn his word. But really, if we do it, it turns out to be very good for US.

When we hold to the iron rod it lead us to eternal life, and fruit of the tree is very sweet and delicious.

Now I was thinking about how God uses visions… he tells a story to make it easier to remember his message. And I was thinking I wanted to do something fun to help you remember the iron rod. So I got…

Pretzel Rods! They are straight, and we are definitely going to be holding on to them tonight!

You know what else? I was thinking of the tree in Lehi's vision how it was covered in WHITE fruit (show the white candy melts) and how the fruit was delicious to taste.

And then I thought of all the different ways (show the different sprinkles) there are for us to hold to the word of God/the iron rod: and I wanted you to understand how sweet and delicious it can be to choose the right because we love God.

And that all came together in this: we're going to make dipped pretzel rods and kind of go crazy with different sprinkles. There are so many ways that we can hold to the iron rod, so all our rods are going to look different and unique-- but all will be delicious!

When you share them with your family, tell them about Lehi's vision, and the true way to hold to the iron rod! You can also tell them that Alma says when our testimony grows, the word of God is delicious to us! (See Alma 32:28)