FHE: Being Good Friends

Discussion:
What does it mean to be a good friend?  What do you like about your friends?  What makes you want to be around them?

"Friendship is a loving relationship between two people. Friends respect each other, care about each other, remain true to each other, and overlook and forgive each other’s faults."  (Family Home Evening Resource Book, p. 187)

True friends will support you even if they don't share the same beliefs.  They won't try to persuade you to do something wrong.

Discuss the secret of friendship: that if we want to have good friends, we first have to be a good friend.

Scripture Story:Use these flannel board pictures to review the story of the Good Samaritan.

http://lds.org/friend/1999/05/the-good-samaritan?lang=eng

What did he do that made him a good friend?  (compassion, willing to help someone even when it wasn't easy, cared more about others than self, etc.)

Game: Fishing for Friends
List on slips of paper ways to make and keep friends and ways not to make and keep friends.
(See #2 under Friendship, Family Home Evening Resource Book, p.188)
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=4321a41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=198bf4b13819d110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD

Attach each slip to a paper fish with a paper clip.  Make a simple fishing pole by tying a magnet to some string and attaching it to a dowel.  Take turns "fishing for friends".  With each fish caught, read the slip of paper and decide if this is a good way to make friends or not and put the fish in the correct pile.

Application:

Give everyone a copy of this quiz from the May 2009 Friend.

http://lds.org/friend/2009/05/what-kind-of-friend-are-you?lang=eng

Tally points (individually) and discuss ways to improve and be better friends. 
Set goals to work on over the next week.

Testimony:

-importance of being good friends and following the example of our Savior
-challenge to be a good friend at home, school, church, etc.