Lesson for Young Women
Note: Use all or some of these steps to create
your own special Daughter of a King
evening.
1) Summarize information in
The
Making of Daughter of a King to show the
challenges involved in the publishing of the
book.
2) Read Daughter of a King and use the
PowerPoint
pictures from Rachel Ann Nunes’s website.
3) Share the following lesson, using either the
examples here or from your own life:
Like Katie, each of you here is a princess, a
daughter of a Heavenly King! It doesn’t matter
what you look like, what clothes you wear, or
what kind of a house you live in. What does
matter is the way you act, if you are kind to
others, if you choose the right. It matters if
you face your trials and overcome them. If you
endure to the end.
Once, we all lived with our Father the King in
the heaven (or the Crystal Palace)! And we all
want to return because we love Heavenly Father
and Jesus and because we want to be with our
families forever. When we leave this life, we
won’t take our clothes, our jewelry, or our
houses, what we will take is the knowledge we’ve
gained and the relationships we’ve developed.
Of course it’s not easy being a princess all the
time. Like Katie we sometimes find it hard to
remember who we are. Sometimes people tease us
about trying to do right or try to convince us
to step off the path. The world says we’re
missing out on all the fun. We are inundated
with commercials, movies, and music that tell us
it’s okay to ignore the commandments of the
Lord. We know they’re wrong, but sometimes it’s
hard to resist. Occasionally we fall, like Katie
did when she stole the pie.
We have all been taught that we can choose to
sin, but we cannot choose the outcome of the
sin—the consequence. For a simple example, an
author could choose to work on her novel on
Sundays, but then could not expect the Lord to
inspire her while she’s breaking His
commandments to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
Understanding this makes is easier for an author
to never write on Sundays.
For an example, Rachel Ann Nunes, the author of
Daughter of a King used to teach Sunday School,
and two boys stood out in particular. One, we’ll
call him Bob, was a young man who didn’t like
obeying the commandments. He thought they were
too confining. He dated early and soon go into
trouble. He and his girlfriend found they were
expecting a child and hurried to get married.
Suddenly, Bob had no freedom at all. He couldn’t
go to college, he couldn’t even take his wife
out for a nice meal and a movie because he was
too busy working three jobs to make ends meet.
His choices had become limited. After three
years, he was divorced and sharing custody with
a woman who doesn’t share his values. It’s taken
him years to begin a higher education, and he’s
still very much lost in life, both spiritually
and emotionally.
On the hand, another boy, Jim, was careful to
follow the guidelines in the Strength for Youth
pamphlet, despite the poor example of his
siblings. He was the first child of eight in his
family to serve a mission, go to college, and to
marry in the temple because he never let go of
what was important to him and to the Lord.
We must all realize that the choices you are
making right now will affect your eternal lives
and the eternal well-being of your children.
Please, please don’t let what you want right now
get in the way of what you want most. And what
is that? Eternal life.
Now we all make mistakes. Falling from the path
could be something big or something very small,
but the important thing in any situation is that
we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and
get back on the right path. Our Father has
prepared a way for us to return to Him in spite
of our sins—repentance. You all know that there
are several steps to repentance, but they bear
repeating:
First we must feel sorry for what we’ve done as
Katie did when she took the pie and then lied
about it. Second, we must give back or repair
the damage we’ve done—to our very best efforts.
If you look at Katie’s pie in the picture,
you’ll see that her pie’s a little lopsided and
that it doesn’t look nearly as tasty as Widow
Shoemaker’s but it was the very best she could
do. The third step is to ask for forgiveness.
That’s sometimes the most difficult part. From
whom do we ask forgiveness? From the person
we’ve offended and from our Heavenly Father.
Sometimes we need to talk to our bishop so that
he can help us complete the fourth step which is
to never fall back into that sin again.
This is a glorious principle (teacher should
bear testimony of principle). Each of you is
loved by your Heavenly Father much more than you
can ever comprehend, and He yearns for you to
come to Him. In fact, His entire work is to
bring you back to Heaven, to happiness. If there
is anything in your lives that you need to take
care of, do so. Your Father is waiting with so
much love.
Sometimes when our lives race on, we forget
what’s important. Like Katie, we start to lose
our vision of the Crystal Palace. We are so busy
with school, work, and friends, that we forget
the most important thing we can learn in
life—and pass on to our children later—that we
are daughters of Heavenly King! That Jesus is
our brother who sacrificed His life for us
because we are SO important to him.
As in the story, our Heavenly Father’s oldest
Son made a path for us to follow. It is also
long and narrow and steep, but it is the only
path that will lead us back to the King. In
fact, Jesus’ entire life was an example to us.
Though He had no sins, He was baptized by
immersion by someone who had the authority. He
did this because it was a commandment from His
Father, and because He had to be baptized to
enter the kingdom of God. He also received the
Holy Ghost, He was kind to others, he always
obeyed His Father in all things.
Besides the example of Jesus, our Heavenly King
has given you other people to help you along the
way. We are never alone. If you look around you
tonight, you can see parents, teachers, friends,
and leaders who help you remember the King and
the Palace. In the early part of my story Katie
had her parents, a good friend Alexandra, and
her husband to help her remember that she was a
princess.
Choosing good friends is very important,
especially when you start dating. Let our
sacrifice for our friends and for our families
be that we study and learn and obey and follow
the Spirit so that we become true friends
Katie also met an old blind man name Bartimaeus,
who showed her the path made by the King’s
oldest Son. In real life, Bartimaeus was a blind
man in the Bible who was healed by Jesus. I
imagine that after he was healed, Bartimaeus
must have shared his testimony of the gospel
with many people. He would have set their feet
on the path made by the King’s oldest son.
Katie’s dream was to return to the Crystal
Palace. Can anyone tell me what the Crystal
Palace reminds you of here on earth? (A temple.)
Exactly. We are so fortunate to have the temples
in our lives. Right now you girls can do
baptisms for the many, many spirits who are up
in the spirit world just waiting for that work
to be done. And later, you will go there to
receive your endowments and to be married.
Someone once said that if the daughters of Zion
could understand the true importance of temple
covenants, they would crawl across the entire
American continent on their knees if needed to
reach the temple. There we learn important
things that will help us get back to heaven with
our families.
This life is a journey for us, like Katie’s in
the book. I won’t tell you there won’t be
challenges or hardships. There will be. In fact
many times in your life you will be very
discouraged, angry, sad, or afraid. But I
promise you that during these times, your Father
knows who you are and He will send help. Not
only can you pray and feel the comfort of the
Holy Ghost, but you will meet people who will
guide you and help you. In turn, you will also
be called upon to help others. I firmly believe
that many of the experiences and challenges we
face in life are given to us not only so we
could grow from them, but so we can have the
experience necessary to help others. Know that
can make trials easier to bear.
The Lord has also promised His help. Think of
Alma in the Book of Mormon when the priests of
Noah heaped such heavy burdens upon his people
in Mosiah 24:14-15.
“And I will also ease the burdens which are put
upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel
them . . . (then further down) . . . I, the Lord
God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
And it came to pass that the burdens which were
laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light:
yea, the Lord did strengthen them they they
could bear up their burdens with ease, and they
did submit cheerfully and with patience to all
the will of the Lord.”
The Lord didn’t take away the burdens
immediately, but he made them light. The Lord
won’t take away our burdens, either, but he will
make us equal to them. He will strengthen you.
It’s not going to be easy. Of course not!
Anything worthwhile in life will not be easy! To
play the piano well, you must practice; to excel
in school, you must study; to be close to your
family, you must spend time with them. To earn
your parents’ trust, you must be obedient. To
learn the scriptures, you must read them; to
feel God’s love, you need to obey His
commandments and follow His counsel.
The trials you go through in this life are what
will make you worthy to become a Queen in
heaven. The pathway to becoming queens is never
easy, but so worth it in the end. Realizing that
you are a daughter of God is an essential
ingredient in becoming the woman you were meant
to become. The queen you were meant to become.
It’s the leavening in the dough that if we leave
out, ruins the batch of bread. Likewise, if we
don’t really believe and understand who we are,
our lives fall flat and have little purpose. Do
you believe it? I hope so. I know you are
daughters of a Heavenly King.
Sometimes, even though we believe we are His
daughters, we have trouble understanding His
great love for us. We feel inadequate, not
worthy of His love. You know, the biggest fear I
think we have in life is that we’re not good
enough—haven’t you felt that? It’s one of
Satan’s biggest lies. That you’re not good
enough and that someone’s going to laugh at your
efforts. We’ve all felt this before. Isn’t that
sometimes why we go with the crowd and do not
object to things we should object to?
Satan wants us to feel this way. He wants us to
compare ourselves to others or what we believe
others to be. It’s kind of like comparing
ourselves when we wake up in the morning, to
what someone else looks like all dressed up for
church. We know why God loves them, but we might
not be so sure about our value to the Lord. Or
our value to anyone.
(Give personal example of a time when you felt
the above challenge and when you finally
internalized the knowledge that you were a
special daughter of a Heavenly King.)
Look around at each other for a minute. Look
around. Do you see a friend? Someone you don’t
know well? Do you see someone who may have hurt
your feelings? Do you see someone who is shy? Do
you see someone who’s considered popular?
Someone who’s short or tall? Someone who’s
smart?
I’ll tell you what I see. I see strong young
women who will become queens one day. Each of
you is special in the eyes of the Lord. You are
not just a daughter, but a daughter of the
covenant, endowed with special talents and
abilities that are uniquely yours. You are put
here at this time and in this place to
accomplish something that no other person can
accomplish. That is part of your divine
heritage. Each of you is needed for who you are
and what you can be.
I promise you that your Heavenly Father loves
you. He knows you personally. He knows your
strengths, your fears, your secrets, your
weakness—and He still loves you. He also knows
what you are capable of, and he expects great
things from you. He expects you to stand as a
witness, He expects you to be kind to others—no
matter who they are. (Possibly stress that
daughters of a Heavenly King would never
ridicule or talk badly about others. As
princesses, that is simply beneath us.) He
expects you to find your way home.
He is waiting with open arms, just like the King
in this story waited for Katie and Michael.
Remember, in the end, it doesn’t matter how you
look, how much money you have, or how worn your
clothes are—what matters is what’s in your
hearts.
4) Bear your testimony.
5) Have the girls all sing "I’m a Daughter of a
King" by
Annette Darling, or another similar song.
6) Refreshments (unless the program follows a
dinner).
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