A few weeks ago for Family Home Evening we had a lesson using stars. While I was preparing I came across a more full text to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I've never heard these verses before but they teach something great. We sang this song, then read President Hinckley's experience with the North Star. It was a Conference lesson so we talked about how the Prophets and Apostles and their counsel can be our guiding stars and we talked about what we are going to do to follow their counsel.
There are so many ways you could look at the words in this song and experience though. Instead of the Prophets and Apostles being the guiding stars to us travelers, we could be the little star shining for those around us and when President Hinckley continued in his talk he spoke of love being the North Star.
For our activity we went outside and cuddled up on a blanket and looked at the stars. For our treat we had brownies cut in the shape of stars, yum-yum. It went well and we had fun.
I've had my mind on FHE lately since I came across this FHE Planning Blog - Check it out
HERE!
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
President Hinckley
When I was a boy, we lived on a farm in the summer. It was in the country, where the nights were dark. There were no streetlights or anything of the kind. My brother and I slept out-of-doors. On clear nights—and most of those nights were clear and the air was clean—we would lie on our backs and look at the myriads of stars in the heavens. We could identify some of the constellations and other stars as they were illustrated in our encyclopedia. Each night we would trace the Big Dipper, the handle and the cup, to find the North Star.
We came to know of the constancy of that star. As the earth turned, the others appeared to move through the night. But the North Star held its position in line with the axis of the earth. And so it had come to be known as the Polar Star, or the Polestar, or the Lodestar. Through centuries of time, mariners had used it to guide them in their journeys. They had reckoned their bearings by its constancy, thereby avoiding traveling in circles or in the wrong direction, as they moved across the wide, unmarked seas.
Because of those boyhood musings, the Polar Star came to mean something to me. I recognized it as a constant in the midst of change. It was something that could always be counted on, something that was dependable, an anchor in what otherwise appeared to be a moving and unstable firmament.
President] Harold B. Lee said, we should let these conference addresses ‘be the guide to [our] walk and talk during the next six months. These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.’ ” (Ensign, May 1988, p. 84.)
