Items needed
- a suitcase with a lock and key
- two other keys
- a set of scriptures inside a scripture cover
Hold the suitcase up and tell your class members that inside this suitcase is a very valuable treasure. If they posses the treasure they will have the answers to all of the questions that they could ever have.
Ask them if anyone would like to have your treasure. Hand it to the child and ask them if they feel wiser just by holding the "treasure." Of course they say no and need to open it to see what is inside, but the lock holds them back.
Offer a key and ask them to pull out the treasure once it's opened. The child will pull out the scriptures inside their cover or carrying case.
Ask them now if they feel wiser, or more special because they are carrying around the scriptures. They will say "no" and then you can lead into the comparison that just as we needed to unlock the suitcase to discover the treasure we need to open the scriptures with "three keys" - search, ponder and pray. As we use these three keys we can unlock the treasures of knowledge and guidance that await us as we read the scriptures.
2 Nephi 4:15
15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children.
Moroni 10:3-5
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truthof it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
Mosiah 1:6-7
6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.
7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.
