2016 LDS Sharing Time Ideas for April Week 3: Through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved.

2016 Sharing Time Outline Theme: "I Know the Scriptures Are True"

April 2016 Sharing Time Topic: Jesus Christ Is My Savior and Redeemer

April 2016 Scripture: “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3).

April 2016 Song: “I Know the Scriptures Are True", (2015), 8–9

April Week 3 Topic: Through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved.

Preparation:

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

Sharing Time Instruction:

Begin sharing time by placing the pieces of the 3rd article of faith randomly on the board. Invite a couple primary children to come up and to try to put the words into order. When they are put in order invite the whole primary to repeat, "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." (Third Article of Faith)

Ask the children if they know what the atonement is? Show the primary children the picture of Christ in Gethsemane and the picture of Christ on the Cross. Invite the primary children to help tell the story, with the following activity:

There are two options:

Either Play the following video: "He is Risen"

or

Do this activity:

Have 12 paper lunch bags in the front of the room, labeled 1-12. Inside of the bag have the coordinating card and item. For example in bag one you would place card #1 and a cup.  Invite a primary child to come up and pick bag number one, invite them to open the bag and pull out the item and the card. If they can read invite them to read the card, if not you could read it for them. Invite the primary to discuss the importance of the item. Items (#1 Cup, #2 (3) dimes, #3 Rope, #4 Soap, #5 Red Cloth, #6 Nail, #7 Dice, #8 Dirt, sand or small rocks, #9 White linen Cloth, #10 Rock, #11 Spice, #12 Empty)

Continue with each bag, card and item in order.

If you do not think that time would allow for this activity or the video and would like to focus more on the atonement in their lives now. You could still have these items on a table and quickly discuss them and what the atonement is. Emphasizing that Jesus has paid the price for all of our sins and inadequacies. That he did this out of love for us and that he knows exactly what we experience in this life, because he has felt it all. He is always their to comfort, support and enable us. But we need to do our part too.

Show the primary children to week's theme poster and invite them to repeat, "Through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved."

Explain that part of our part, is to partake of the atonement through repentance. Explain that the atonement was an essential part of Heavenly Father's plan, without it there was no way we could return to our Heavenly Father. Christ's atonement built a bridge over that gap, allowing us to have the possibility of returning to God's presence. But we need to walk that bridge, by repentance.

Show the primary children either a white board or you could use the clean chalk board. Explain that the clean board is an example of someone without sin. Because we are in a mortal world, a fallen world, Heavenly Father knew that we would make mistakes. He did not want these mistakes to prevent us from returning to him. So He sent his son, Jesus Christ to atone for those sins. Invite the primary children to share some sins that might happen from day to do, such as saying a mean word to their sister, or not obeying their mom, etc. Write these sins on the board. Explain that each time we sin we make a mark on the beautiful clean slate. We want that clean slate to be able to return to Heavenly Father. Show the primary children the first step of repentance. Explain to the primary children that we first need to "Feel Bad About What We Have Done Wrong". Then show the second step, "Confess to Heavenly Father and Promise you Will Never do it Again". Discuss that we do this as we pray to our Heavenly Father. Then show the third step, "Right the Wrong". This means we need to make things right again. For example if you had said a mean word to someone, how would you right the wrong?? You would say you were sorry to that person. Show the fourth step, "Don't Repeat the Wrong".   If we truly repent then we will not repeat that sin again. Explain that after we do these steps and have repented then through Christ's atonement our wrongs can be erased. Erase the sins off the board until it is all clean again.

Explain that the Savior's atonement is continuous. Meaning that whenever we sin we can repent.

Invite the primary children to remember to use this precious gift the Savior has given us. As we repent we come closer to the Savior, we become a little better, a little closer to reaching our potential.

What else have the primary children learned this month? Here are links to this month's past sharing times:

1. 2016 LDS Sharing Time Ideas for April Week 1: Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior.
2. 2016 LDS Sharing Time Ideas for April Week 2: Jesus Christ is the perfect example for me.

Want more ideas:

• ULTIMATE SHARING TIME LIST FOR APRIL
• Sharing Time March 2014 Week 2: Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can repent and be forgiven of my sins
• LDS Sharing Time Outline Ideas for February 2015 Week 2: Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind may be saved.
• Sharing Time 2014 January Week 2- Heavenly Father provided a Savior and makes it possible for me to return to His presence.
• LDS Sharing Time Outline Ideas for February 2015 Week 3:Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind may be saved.
• LDS Sharing Time Ideas for October 2015 Week 3: We come unto Christ by repenting when we make a mistake.
• LDS Sharing Time Ideas for May 2015 Week 2: I can repent.

Click this link for past Sharing Time post: LDS Primary Sharing Time Ideas

***Basic ideas for this sharing time came from the 2016 Outline for Sharing Time, you can find a link here: 2016 Outline for Sharing Time