A Shoe About You

(This activity was described to me by an Aunt, who heard it was done in a unit in West Jordan, Utah, USA.)

As people arrive at the activity, they place thier shoes in a heap on the floor. As you go around the room, each person pulls their shoe from the pile and describes why that particular shoe represents them.

Here are some examples: ballet shoe — a dance lover; hiking boot — loves the outdoors; flip-flop — dream vacation is Hawaii; dance shoe — was on a dance team; barefooted — loves the feel of grass between toes. The possiblities are endless!

You could give the meeting a spiritual overtone by inviting each person to place a paper with their favorite scripture reference inside their shoe, and to describe why that scripture is their favorite.

Here are some LDS articles related to shoes:

Mary Ellen Smoot, “Pioneer Shoes through the Ages,” Ensign, Nov. 1997, page 12

Howard W. Hunter, “Bind on Thy Sandals,” Ensign, May 1978, 34

Matthew Baker, “In Another Man’s Shoes,” New Era, Aug. 2001, 26

Norma King, “My Dad’s Shoes,” Friend, June 1988, 3

David B. Haight, “A Time for Preparation,” Ensign, Nov. 1991, 36

You might also tell the story of Moses and the burning bush Exodus 3:1-5.

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How one unit did this activity

On Saturday 30th September, the St. Albans (England) Stake R S used your idea for a very successful and quite beautiful meeting. We called it ‘The Worth of Soles/Souls is Great’ and invited all the Stake to a ploughman’s lunch to focus them for the recorded transmission of the General RS Conference which was scheduled to start half an hour after we had finished.

We had about 30 sisters share their shoes and give us an insight to why they had bought them, and then they shared their scripture. We had various kinds of shoes, an ice skating boot, a pair of walking boots that had done a large number of night hikes, a ballet shoe and a flipper, which was probably the most emotive , because the sister who brought it told us that she had taken up scuba diving to try to distract her after the loss of one of her young children.

Every scripture was different and very varied, and I hope to publish them in a small book to distribute around the Stake as a source of uplift and encouragement.

We hoped there would be enough shoes to fill the time, but just in case no one had remembered I was prompted to take along a bowl, flannels, soap and towels, so that if there was too much time we could wash the sisters feet.

As it happened the time ran out but there were still four or five more shoes in our pile, so we extended the activity until all had spoken. The Lord knew what He was doing, because we finished with just five minutes to spare before the start of the Conference.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed this meeting and the sisters were able to enjoy the talks from Bonnie D Parkin and her counsellors all the more for it.

Thank you again.
With best wishes,
Janet C.