[Teachldsseminary] Daniel and the Lions' Den

Tue May 6 09:52:16 MDT 2008

I'm also there tomorrow and am going to use the new DVD clip.  I think a
main point of Daniel is that God is showing through Daniel who is the real
king and God and has the real power.  Each king in Daniel admits that
Daniel's God is God even though they are rulers of the most powerful empires
in the world and actually bear testimony to that and that Daniel's God is
the one with  power and not them.   The new DVD brings this point out.

There's also a great talk from April 2004 Conference by Dennis Simmons
(third speak on Sunday Morning) "But if not. . ." about the furnace and
Shadrach, Meshack and Abednigo that has a lot of great points to bring up
with our youth.  

Daniel has a lot of similarities to Joseph and I plan on discussing how
these two men  and Daniel's friends were youth who were not swayed by the
world or peer pressure, not matter what the consequences.

From: teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com
[mailto:teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com] On Behalf Of Valerie
Reese
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 11:32 AM
To: Free Email list for LDS Seminary Teachers
Subject: Re: [Teachldsseminary] Daniel and the Lions' Den

I am teaching Daniel and the Lion's Den tomorrow.  We're going to briefly
review the chapter headings of Daniel 4 and 5 (so the students can see the
history of the three Kings and understand time has passed since chapter 1)
and read Daniel 5: 29-31, to set the stage for chapter 6. 

Then, I'm going to show the Veggie Tales DVD of Daniel and the Lion's Den.
It's about 20 minutes and tells the story of Daniel in a fun way.  After the
DVD, we'll read Daniel 6: 21-28 and talk about the positive consequences of
Daniel's choice.

An alternative to the DVD would be to act this story out.  My students enjoy
role-playing and I usually give them a prop or two to help them get into the
acting mode.  This would be a great story to act out, as someone reads the
story from the scriptures.

Also, if you have access to the new CES DVD, there is a short (less than 2
minutes) movie showing Daniel coming out of the lion's den, unhurt.  I must
admit I wasn't overly impressed with it and chose not to use it.

Re: Daniel choosing to obey God or the laws of the land:

Daniel had many opportunities to choose.   He didn't eat the King's food in
Chapter 1, and I imagine that was pretty serious.  In Chapter 3, Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego choose to not worship an idol, even at the risk of
death.  I don't consider these choices to so much against the laws of the
land as to be choices between right and wrong.  Possibly Daniel even knew he
was being "framed" by jealous servants of the king in order to get him to
pray to the king instead of God.  The important thing is Daniel did what was
right...no matter what.  I'm having the students underline Daniel 6: 10, as
Daniel heard the new law and continued living exactly "as he did aforetime".
He didn't change his standards or beliefs or actions because of difficult
circumstances, and the students can follow the great example of Daniel and
do the same today.

We're going to end the class discussing situations they might find
themselves in today that would require them to make a difficult choice and
decide how Daniel would handle it.  I'll crown them all Daniels and
Danielles at the end...if they choose the right!

Sorry this is so long, but hope it helps.  I, too was surprised this story
wasn't in the manual, because it's a great one!

Valerie, in the Netherlands

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Nancy Decker <mailto:hotstuff0517 at hotmail.com>  

To: teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com 

Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 4:14 PM

Subject: [Teachldsseminary] Daniel and the Lions' Den

I wanted to cover Daniel and the Lion's Den and noted there wasn't anything
in the manual. I was reading some suggestions regarding teaching Daniel and
they mentioned things like..."What would you do if you lived in a country or
time when it was against the law to pray in public and private unless the
prayers were printed in an official prayer book?  Suppose you were asked to
pray in Sacrament Meeting and two government officials walked in just then.
How would you pray? 
The more I started thinking about it the more I realized we can't teach
this. We are asking our kids to go against the law and we as LDS obey the
law. It is what sets us apart.

What do you tell the kids when they ask about choosing between obeying the
law and not bowing down to the golden statue or King Neb?

Are you guys skipping Daniel and the Lion's Den? I could use some ideas.

Thanks, Nancy in Sicily

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