What do you think of when you think of CPR? Do you think of an ambulance with the sirens blaring? Or maybe a dramatic moment in a movie? CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and is a procedure that saves lives every day. When your heart stops and you can’t breathe anymore, pumping your diaphragm rapidly can restart it and fill your lungs with air again. Anyone can learn how to perform CPR.

 

There’s a type of CPR that can help us spiritually, just like how cardiopulmonary resuscitation helps us physically. Spiritual CPR can bring life back into our relationship with Heavenly Father, invite the Holy Ghost to be a part of our lives, and aid us in the resistance against Satan. The activity below demonstrates how spiritual CPR works and can be done by yourself, in a Sunday School class, or with your family as a Family Home Evening lesson. Try it out!

 

Object Lesson:

You Will Need:

-3 plastic cups

-A Sharpie or 3 Post-It Notes

-A physical copy of The Book of Mormon

-A flat surface, like a table

 

Activity:

Place 3 plastic cups upside down on a table in a pyramid shape. (Place them flat on the table, not stacked on each other.) Label each cup as you put it on the table, by either writing directly on the cup with a Sharpie or writing it on a Post-it Note and sticking it to the cup. One should be labeled Church, another Pray, and lastly Read. 

 

• Church represents attending your church meetings, partaking worthily of the sacrament, and holding a calling, if you have one.

• Pray stands for praying personally and as a family daily.

• Read represents reading your scriptures with your family and individually, reading conference talks, and studying Come Follow Me each week.

 

Place the Book of Mormon on top of the cups. The cups are a foundation for a testimony of the truth and a foundation for your personal testimony. As you do each of these three things--going to church, praying daily, and reading your scriptures--your foundation remains strong and stable. 

But if you decide to skip church one week or neglect personal prayers one night, what happens? See what happens by taking away one of the cups from the pyramid. The Book of Mormon will fall and the cups will scatter. 

 

Ask Yourself:

What happened to your foundation? What does this object lesson teach us about doing “the basics” every day, even when we don’t want to? How can we increase our testimonies through prayer, scripture study, and regular church attendance? Why is spiritual CPR a protection against “the fiery darts of the adversary?” (Helaman 5:12)