The Iron Rod

The Iron Rod is Hymn 274. This is a great song relating to the vision of the Tree of Life that Lehi and Nephi saw. The vision from Lehi can be found in 1 Nephi chapter 8, and then Nephi’s vision and interpretation can be found in 1 Nephi chapter 11 thru 14.

In the children’s Come Follow Me lessons, they will be discussing the symbols in this vision and what they represent. It would be a great idea for us as Music Leaders to carry over those ideas with our teaching of this song.

Music Method

In this song, you will notice that the verses are in 3/4 time signature, and the chorus is in 4/4 time signature. These two time signatures should feel different and could be a fun way to have the children move and feel the difference. A great tool to use for this movement would be rhythm wands.

During the 3/4 time signature of the verses, the children could make a circle with their ribbon wands. They could change the direction of the circle for each phrase. Then, during the 4/4 time signature of the chorus, they could move the ribbon wands straight up and down or straight side to side, (or mix that up too).

Another musical feature of this song is the concept of verse and chorus.

A verse is a section of a song that is used to tell a story. It usually takes multiple verses to complete a full story for a song. It can be used to tell about people, places, emotions etc.

A chorus is a part of a song that is repeated after each verse, usually with a topic or theme that the composer wants to emphasize or teach a lesson to be learned.

You can use this concept as you repeat your singing of this song. Children could stand when they sing the chorus and sit when they sing the verse. You could teach a specific hand motion to be used throughout the chorus and then be still through the verses etc.

Visual Aids

I have created a flipchart to go along with this song. You can download it here.

Another great visual would be to bring a rod to primary. This could look very different to everyone. A few ideas would be a fishing rod, a curtain rod, a shower rod, a tent rod, pipe or stick etc. You could talk about the job of a rod and its attributes. (keep things straight, hold up things, support, guide, direct, it’s strong, it’s smooth, it’s easy to grasp etc.) Here are some questions to ask your children about the rod that Nephi saw. What did the rod help with in Nephi’s vision? What did the rod do for the people that walked through the mists of darkness? Where did the rod direct the people to go? Was the rod what helped the people or was the rod a symbol of what could help the people?

Gospel Teaching

A symbol is a thing that represents or stands for something else. Some common symbols they might see and understand now might be a heart (love), flag (country), red (danger or stop) crown (royalty) etc. The Lord often uses symbols to teach us. The Holy Ghost can help us understand what symbols mean if we ask for help. When we talk about holding to the rod, what are we actually saying? (Hold to the word of God, in the scriptures, from the Prophet, from our leaders, from God Himself through our prayers and Holy Ghost).

This song has some words that need to be explained. Here are a few ideas to help you with that.

seer: someone who can see what the future holds

vision: an experience of seeing someone or something in a dream or trance

holy word: scripture

sublime: amazing and excellent

peril: danger or difficulties

nigh: close by, around us

implore: beg or ask for something

tis: a combination of “It is”

twill: a combination of “It will”

Download a copy of The Iron Rod Flipchart here