Purpose: To help family members understand that we lived with Heavenly Father as spirit children before we came to earth, why we are here, and that we can live with him again after this life.
Possible scriptures: Moses 2:26-31; Moses 3:5; Genesis 1:1; Job 38:4-7; Ecclesiastes 3:2-1; Jeremiah 1:5; Hebrews 12:9; 1 Corinthians 15:44; 2 Nephi 22:21, 24-27; Alma 42:5-15; Doctrine & Covenants 29:31-38; Doctrine & Covenants 59:18-20; Doctrine & Covenants 76:22-24; Doctrine & Covenants 88:14-17; Doctrine & Covenants 93:29; Doctrine & Covenants 104:13-17; Doctrine & Covenants 138:56;
Possible Songs: I Am a Child of God, hymn 301 or Children’s Songbook page 2; I Lived in Heaven, children’s songbook page 4; Families Can Be Together Forever, hymn 300 or Children’s Songbook page 188; God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son, hymn 187; I Stand All Amazed, hymn 193; O Thou, Before the World Began, hymn 189; Teach Me to Walk in the Light, hymn 304 or Children’s Songbook page 177; He Sent His Son, children’s songbook page 34; I Will Follow God’s Plan, Children’s Songbook page 164; The Third Article of Faith, Children’s Songbook page 123.
Possible Materials: pictures to represent the plan of salvation in the best way to explain it to your family. I like this one the best, I think. There is also this picture strip that I recommend for younger lesson-givers. Also, a picture of Viktor Frankl.
Preparation: Begin with prayer. Read the suggested scriptures, The Plan of Salvation from True to the Faith, 2 Nephi 2, Alma 12:24-37, and Alma 42. Read through the lesson, including any links, and carefully select the most relevant material for your family. Children: Watch this video called Our Heavenly Father’s plan, and this one about the Three Kingdoms of Heaven.
Lesson:
Discuss how last week’s challenge went.
Introduction: Tell your family we are going on a pretend hike. You can have everyone get ready for the hike with shoes and hiking clothes, or even pass out water bottles or trail mix. You could also just keep it simple and tell your family you have a map about your hike’s path. Tell them this hike will take us on the trail of Salvation.
- Start your trail off with the Council in Heaven. Before we were born, we didn’t have bodies. We lived with Heavenly Father as spirits. Heavenly Father created a plan that would let us get bodies and learn to be like Him and then come back to be with Him. Have your family read Abraham 3:24-26 (keep it open). We were so excited we shouted with joy! Have your family shout, “hooray,” with their fists in the air, and then pretend walk while you go to the next spot on our map.
- War in Heaven: Tell your family that part of Heavenly Father’s plan required a volunteer. We needed someone who would give his life for us so we could return. Jesus volunteered. Have your family read Abraham 3:27 and Moses 4:2. Tell your family that we had another brother that did not want to follow Heavenly Father’s plan. He wanted everyone to have to do what he wanted instead of choosing what we wanted to do. He also wanted everyone to think he was the best instead of Heavenly Father. Now have your family read Abraham 3:28 and Moses 4:3-4. Pretend walk in place while you move on to the next place on our “map.”
- The Atonement: Heavenly Father knew we would make mistakes, so Jesus Christ became our Savior and atoned for us so that we could have a chance to repent and make it back to Heavenly Father. Ask a family member to read or recite the 3rd Article of Faith. Pretend to walk over a bridge, because Jesus is our bridge to connect us back with Heavenly Father.
- When we were born, we came to earth, we forgot what it was like in heaven. We needed to be away from Heavenly Father and we needed to forget our time with Him so that we could learn things that we couldn’t learn if we remembered what it was like while we lived with Him. Messing up and learning from or mistakes was part of Heavenly Father’s plan. Have your family start curled up and small and grow “tall, tall, tall.”
- We were so excited to live our mortal lives with our families and to get bodies so that we could be like Heavenly Father. Have your family read Alma 34:32 and ask your family how we prepare to return to be with Heavenly Father. Make sure the answers include keeping the commandments, getting baptized and going to the temple. Ask your family to take big loud steps now and enjoy that their physical body can move.
- Death is part of what it means to be alive. It is an important part of Heavenly Father’s plan and how we can make it back to Him. Have your family read Hebrews 9:27. Now have your family make little quiet tiptoe steps for this part of their “hike.”
- After we die, we spend some time in the spirit world. It is a time for us to either learn about the gospel or to share it with others. Alma 40:11-13. Ask your family to put their hands up over their eyes like they’re looking for someone to teach, or looking for the “path.”
- The Resurrection. Jesus provided a way that we can get our bodies back. When we are resurrected, our bodies will be perfected, but they will still be our bodies. We will look like our best selves. Ask your family to read Alma 11:42-45 and Helaman 14:17. Now continue walking, but walk as tall and as gracefully as you can!
- After we are resurrected, we must work with Jesus and stand for our Final Judgement. Have your family read 2 Corinthians 5:10. Ask them how they think they will feel to know that Jesus helped us by making everything – all our mistakes and sicknesses and hard or ugly things – all better. Now have your family hold still and tell them there are different paths on our map now, and we need to talk about where we will be going next.
- When we get to this part of our path, we get a choice! We can choose to live with Heavenly Father and our families again, but it requires that we live like Heavenly Father asked us. Have your family read Doctrine and Covenants 76:69-70. Talk about the Celestial Kingdom and how it is the only place we can live with Heavenly Father and our family. Then read verses 77-78. Talk about the Terrestrial Kingdom. Thirdly, read verses 81-82 and talk about the Telestial Kingdom.
From World History: Ask your family if knowing Heavenly Father’s plan changes how they feel about hard times. Hold up a picture of Viktor Frankl and tell them that he lived during World War II when evil people were trying to kill him because he was a Jew. Before the war, he was studying some important questions, like “who am I? Where did I come from? And, where will I go after I die?” While he was in a concentration camp, he realized that the people that had a purpose, a reason for living, stayed alive much longer than those that did not. Viktor realized that understanding the Plan of Salvation (though he didn’t refer to it by that name) made living through hard times easier and even possible. Open this link and pick a topic from the list that fills the needs of your family.
Further Discussion:
Add to the categories above by including the Creation, the Fall, more on the Atonement, the veil of forgetfulness, and Resurrection. Divide ante-mortality into deeper categories: Pre-mortality and living with God; Council in Heaven; War in Heaven; Satan’s fall (and his 1/3 of the hosts of heaven); Foreordination; and Waiting to be born. Go into more detail of the Kingdoms of Glory/Perdition (Outer Darkness) by reading Doctrine and Covenants 76 and 137 in their entirety.
Also talk about the truths we learn about the Plan of Salvation from the Proclamation on the Family.
Recent Conference talks to consider in your discussion: For the most recent conference talks, click here.
Challenge:
Reread Alma 34:32. Challenge your family this week to think of things they can do now so that they can be with Heavenly Father again someday. If your family is old enough, challenge them to memorize the verse.
Giving due credit: as usual, I read and learned from the Sunbeams Manual Lesson 2 (Nursery Manual lesson 3), True to the Faith chapter on the Plan of Salvation and the Kingdoms of Glory, Gospel Principles Chapters 2 and 5, and the Family Home Evening Resource Manual Lesson 17.
