The Parable of the Ten Virgins: An Object Lesson

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     For years, I was the music leader for the Primary children at my church.  But, recently I was released from that  job that I loved and was given a new job to love.  I am working with the young women in our church who are ages 11-18 years of age.  This is a much busier job, and it is stretching my creativity as I help these girls grow into responsible, faith-filled young women.  
     One of the experiences that I just had this past week was working with a 12 year old girl as she prepared a lesson to teach the other young women in their Sunday meeting.  She asked for my help in a specific aspect of her lesson and I was so happy to be a part of her excellent lesson!  Click to read more about how we presented The Parable of the 10 Virgins.

What is the Parable of the 10 Virgins About?

      If you are unfamiliar with this Parable, you can find it in Matthew 25 of the New Testament.  
      The Parable starts out with 10 virgins who are waiting for the Bridegroom to come and invite them into his wedding.  It is a long wait and they have brought their lamps to light the way when the time comes.  As they wait, they sleep and rest.  But then the cry comes that the Bridegroom is coming, so they wake up, excited to meet the Bridegroom.  5 of the young women were wise and brought enough oil to use in their lamps, but there were 5 foolish virgins who did not have oil. They asked the wise virgins for some of their oil, but the wise virgins had to turn them down or they wouldn't have had enough for their own lamps.  They told the foolish virgins to go and buy some quickly.  But, alas, while they were gone, the Bridegroom came and took with him the wise virgins and the foolish ones were shut out from the feast.  

Image from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

     The point of this parable is as follows:
The Bridegroom represents the Savior and his second coming.  No one knows the hour when he shall come, but we must be prepared for it.  
The Virgins represent  each of us who love the Lord and desire to be with him. But, we can't be just hearers of The Word, we must also be Doers! (James 1:22, Romans 2:13)
The Oil represents our spiritual preparedness to be with the Savior when he comes.  

      The 5 wise virgins had prepared to meet the Savior through their righteous actions, thus gaining oil in their spiritual lamps drop by drop.  This is not the type of oil that one can share.  Each of us needs to develop our own testimonies, obedience to God's commands, and holiness individually.  We can be good examples, show love and encouragement to others, but each person must ultimately fill their own lamp with oil on their own.  

     Our Object Lesson:

     The young woman giving the lesson discussed how we need to prepare ourselves spiritually and develop a relationship with our Savior.  I explained the Parable and gave each person in the room a "lamp" of her own to symbolically fill.  I had printed a label for each lamp that said, "I can add oil to my lamp drop by drop."  I have a printable label that you can print off if you wish to use it.  I'll put all of my links below.
       After the girls all had their lamps, we used Hershey Kisses to act as the "drops of oil" in the lamps.  Our instructor asked everyone to suggest ways that we can add oil to our lamps and for each idea, we would add a "drop."  The idea was stressed that to add righteous actions and attitudes to our lives takes time and won't be achieved over night.  Our relationship to the Savior needs to be nurtured and developed throughout our lives.  We had a lot of good discussion with our girls about all of the things we can do to add to our spiritual growth.  Finally, I gave each of them a battery powered tea light to put on top of the candy to represent our light that burns bright because of our spiritual oil.  My hope is that as the girls take their lamps home and reach into grab a piece of chocolate, they will remember a bit of our lesson and discussion that will remind them to find ways to fill their spiritual lamp. 

     Putting this little lamp together was so simple and effective.  The young instructor and I had talked about how to present it and we thought it would be nice for the girls to have something to take home that would be a reminder about the lesson.  So, I headed over to Dollar Tree to find something inexpensive that we could give to all of the girls that would work as a lamp.  These little candle jars were the first thing I came to! I can't find this style on line to order in bulk, so you may have to look in your own store.  
     But, these are online and may also work for you:
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     I also found battery powered tea light candles in the store, which I do not see on the dollar tree website.  But this 12 pack from Amazon is probably a better deal! 

     If you need labels for printing the ones I put on the lamp jars, you can't beat this deal on 2" round labels!  They are totally compatible with Avery products!  Then, all you need are the Hershey Kisses, which I suggest you shop for the good prices on Christmas Chocolates now! 
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Click on this picture for pdf link.

     This lesson was not only a good reminder to the Young Women, but a good reminder to me as well.  I hope that this idea can help you out the next time you are teaching this Parable!  And I hope the lessons from it stay with us all. 
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A Couple Other Church Lesson Helps We've Talked About:

• "Would You Rather" Singing Review for Come Follow Me
• Singing Time Version of "Don't Eat Pete!"