Sharing Time 2014 January Week 2- Heavenly Father provided a Savior and makes it possible for me to return to His presence.

Preparation:
Prayerfully study and think about what the specific needs of your primary are and how you can teach them this doctrine.

Identify the doctrine: Heavenly Father Provided a Savior and Makes it Possible for Me to Return to His Presence. Identify this through out the sharing time.

Help the Children Understand the Doctrine: Print Out the printables and cut them out. Place them on the board. To help the children understand the doctrine use the printables to explain the process and path we are on and how the atonement is the only way we are able to continue on our path to live in God's presence.

Help them apply the doctrine in their lives: Prepare to share your testimony on the atonement. Prepare to ask them to think about how to apply the atonement in their lives and ask them to share their feelings on the atonement.

Free Printables

Children: (To represent all of us)

Path and Bridge: (To represent our life on earth and our need for a Savior) 

 Eternal Life With our Heavenly Father: (Where our path here on life leads)

Sharing Time Instruction:

Begin by asking the children to stand up if they chose to come to earth.  Thank those who stood and ask them to sit back down again.  Explain to them that all of us that have came to this earth and will come to this earth all made the choice in Heaven to follow our Heavenly Father's plan and come here.  Put the picture of the boy and girl on the left hand side of the board.  Ask the children since they decided to come to earth, why are they here? What are they to do?  Are they to stay on the Earth forever?  (Hopefully, some of the answers might be that they are here to obtain a body, to learn and gain knowledge, to keep the commandments and receive essential ordinances, to be tested and tried, to endure and to eventually return to live with their Father in Heaven.)  Place the Path on the board horizontally, connecting the two pieces.  Explain to the children that we are on this path on earth and the path leads to somewhere we want to go. Place the picture of the sun (Eternal life) at the end of the path.  Explain that our path leads to eternal life with our Heavenly Father.  Ask the children to raise their hands if what you have said is correct.  Thank them for their participation in raising their hands.  Explain to the children that since we are on this earth to be tested and tried we are going to make mistakes.  Pull apart the two pieces of the path to leave a gap in the path.  Heavenly Father knew that we would make mistakes and that we could not return to his presence by ourselves and that in order for us to be with him, there had to be something or someone that could help us fix those mistakes.  So, what did Heavenly Father do? (have the children raise their hands to answer the question)  He sent his only begotten son Jesus Christ to Earth, to be an example to us and to ATONE for our sins.  Show a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, a picture can be found here. Explain to the children that Jesus suffered pain for every mistake we make, he suffered pain for all of the sadness we may go through. Ask the children why he did this?  Explain that he did this because he loves us and it was the only way for us to be able to overcome our mistakes so we could return to our Heavenly Father's presence.  Place the bridge across the gap in the path.  Explain that the Savior's atonement is like a bridge.  If we repent of our mistakes and obey the commandments we will be able to live eternal with our Heavenly Father.  Move the two little children cutouts across the bridge to the end of the path to eternal life with Heavenly Father. Ask the children to take a moment and each think about how they can personally use the atonement in their lives.  For the younger kids in primary ask them to think about something that they do sometimes that makes someone else sad, have them think about how they can say sorry and try not to do that thing anymore. Ask if anyone would like to share any of their feelings about the atonement.  Bear your testimony on the atonement.

***Basic ideas for this sharing time came from the 2014 Sharing Time Outline, you can find a link here
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