This is a new children’s song #1026 in our new hymnbook for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can find a link for this song on the church’s website here. It was written by Sherrie Manwill Boren. You can find a link to her website here.
This song is a beautiful reminder to our children that there are holy places that can be found on the earth and it encourages them to stand firm and true in them.
A Few Tips for Teaching
I will start my discussion with the children by asking them what holy means. (dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose, sacred) Do we have any holy places on earth? I’m pretty sure they will come up with the answer “temple”. This will lead right into teaching the 1st verse.
I will teach a phrase at a time using the teaching pictures you can find here. Feel free to discuss these phrases and get their thoughts on what the words mean to them. (you might put the pictures of the temple, home, and heart in protective sheets, if you are using tape to attach the circle pictures)
Here is a picture of how my board will look.
Here is the picture of the boy and girl standing in the temple. Move them into the home and heart as you sing those verses. This would be a fun activity for a “great singer” to do as you get to that part of the song.
For the chorus, I will have my primary children stand on the word stand, and place their hands over their heart on the word heart. I will have them raise both hands and lower them slowly as we sing about Christ returning.
The words holy, clean and new feel really long to hold out. We will spend some time on this concept, and have them help me direct this part by stretching out one hand on holy, the other hand on clean and then both hands extending out on new.
This is a great song to work on stopping their singing at the end of the song as the conductor gives them the sign to end. That means they need to be watching you. I always tell my primary singers, that they never know how long I will hold them on that ending note. They have learned to keep their eye on me! Sometimes I super exaggerate that last note and see how long they can go. They enjoy the challenge.
Visual Aids
You can download a copy of the teaching pictures here.
Here is a video for you to learn and practice the song with
Happy Singing!