Sharing Time February 2014 Week 1: Heavenly Father has a plan for His children.

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 has a plan for His children. Gather a few examples of plans, such as a house plan and a game plan. Print the printable "Heavenly Father has a plan for His children."

Help the Children Understand the Doctrine: Print out the printables. Also print out the scripture reference page. Also, study before hand "True to the Faith pg 115-117"

Help them apply the doctrine in their lives: Prepare to ask if any teachers or children would like to bear their testimonies about Heavenly Father's plan and how they can receive happiness by following it.

Example of how to place pictures: 

Free PDF Download

Update: I am posting another printable.  On lds.org the word judgment is spelled two ways, "Judgment" and "Judgement".  In the scriptures it is spelled, "judgment"  So, I am offering both spellings. 

Sharing Time Instruction:

Begin, the sharing time by asking the children if they know what a Plan is.  Explain that a plan is a bunch of steps or actions used to achieve something.  In sports there is a game plan.  The coach usually goes through plays and describes a way that their team can win the game.  A builder has a plan for a house.  It is a drawing and steps of what the builder needs to do to accomplish the finish object of a correctly constructed house.  Our Heavenly Father has a plan for His children. Have the children repeat: "Heavenly Father has a plan for His children."  Explain that we are going to talk about this plan.  If we follow Heavenly Father's plan we will have happiness. With a piece of chalk, divide the board into three different sections. Ask the children where they lived before coming to Earth?  

Place the printable, Premortal Life on the the board in the first section.  Explain that this is where our Heavenly Father's plan began.  Ask the children what they know about our Premortal Life.  Help them by explaining that we lived with our Heavenly Father as his spirit children in Heaven.  We had our free agency and we developed our identity and increased our spiritual capabilities.  While in Heaven all of Heavenly Father's spirit children attended a council with Heavenly Father. At this council Heavenly Father presented his Plan of Happiness. Jesus Christ, our Father in Heaven's first born spirit child said that he would be our Savior.  Lucifer, another one of Heavenly Father's spirit children, rebelled against the plan.  He did not want free agency.  He and his followers were cast out of Heaven and would never receive physical bodies or experience mortality.  We chose to follow our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and were permitted to come to earth to gain bodies and progress towards Eternal life.

Place the printable, Mortal Life on the board in the second section. And the word strip "Birth" on the line that separates Premortal Life and Mortal Life. Ask the children what they know about Mortal Life.  Explain that part of Heavenly Father's plan was for us to be born here on Earth and receive our bodies. We no longer could remember our Premortal life. Our Heavenly Father sent us to families to help us learn and grow and progress.  We are here to prove ourselves, to use our free agency, to follow the Savior and to prepare and qualify for eternal life. Part of the plan was that we needed a Savior to atone for the pains and mistakes we would make in this life. We would also need to seek repentance, which was provided through the atonement.

Place the printable, Life After Death at the top of the third section.  Place the word strip Death on the line separating Mortal life and Life after Death.  Ask the children what they know about life after death?  Explain that part of Heavenly Father's plan is that we will die when our time on Earth is finished, our body and our spirit will separate.  Our body stays here on earth and our spirit goes to the spirit world to wait for the resurrection.  In the spirit world there is Spirit Paradise and Spirit Prison.  Place those word strips on the board. Spirit Paradise is for those who have been baptized and have remained faithful.  Those who go to Spirit Prison have the opportunity to learn the gospel, to repent of their sins, and to receive ordinances of baptism and confirmation by the work performed on their behalf in the temple.  When they do these things, they are able to enter paradise.  At the time of the resurrection our bodies and our spirit will be reunited and made perfect.  We will then be judged.  Place the word strip "Judgement" on the board.  We will then be placed into a Glory.  The glory we inherit will depend on our obedience to the commandments and our testimony of the Savior. Place the different Glories on the board: Celestial, Terrestial, and Telestial.  Explain that it is our goal and Heavenly Father's plan for us to receive the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom, so we can dwell in his presence along with the Jesus Christ and live eternally with our families.

Read a scripture and ask the children to raise their hand if they know what section the scripture belongs to. Call on someone to tell you which section in goes with. Continue with each scripture.

Ask  if any of the children or teachers would like to share their testimony about Heavenly Father's plan and how they can gain happiness by choosing to follow the plan. 

Bear your testimony on Heavenly Father's Plan for His Children.

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