Several months ago we made a few new rules about what we read and watch on Sundays. I could take a while explaining all the different aspects of our rules, but it breaks down to one question, does what you're/we're doing bring us closer to Heavenly Father?
It works pretty well, although my kids can get pretty creative when coming up with their answers. I think I actually struggle more with it than they do. In an attempt to do better, I've been trying to use my Sunday time to study and plan for primary.
Yesterday, I read through next weeks lesson, the helps on Sugardoodle and then ended up thinking about family home evening (another good Sunday activity, YAY!). One of my goals for the year is to have a family home evening plan, which I haven't done yet. There are so many different things I want to accomplish through family home evening and flying by the seat of my pants hasn't been quite as effective as you might think. So while I was sitting there, I decided to search for family home evening's on both repentance and the atonement and I SCORED!
I found an awesome website with really fun family home evening ideas (I'm going to post about my March family home evening plan later) and I found several ideas that would work really well in next weeks Sharing Time.
Repentance
The first idea that I really liked I found on the Family Home Evening Planner blog. You'll need to get someone to help you (I might even get an adult, although some older kids would have a lot of fun with the acting) cut out something for the lesson (just for pretend, unless you actually have something). You start the lesson, perhaps even do a whole introductory segment (like one of the two I'm going to talk about next) and then when you get to a predetermined point, the volunteer will clutch their hand and cry out as if they've cut their finger.
You'll stop and run over, exclaiming about their finger and asking if you can help. Then you'll start pulling out all sorts of crazy stuff. Try to wrap it in some rope/yarn/string (wait for a response from the primary), some tape, Elmer's glue or anything else you can think of. At some point, stop and ask for help, what does your volunteer need to help their finger? A band-aid, of course.
We know what we need to do when we feel physical pain, imagine what would happen to us if we didn't. We'd hurt ourselves a lot pretty often. Compare this to spiritual pain, it's purposes and why we need to feel it just as much as physical pain. From here you can teach them the steps of repentance (there's a cute song on her blog).
Intro #1
The next idea I liked would be a great introduction and could be done while you're "helper" is busy cutting out things for you. I found it on lds (dot) org and it does take a little planning...you need some baby pictures (I would say 4-6 baby pictures from each primary). Have the kids come up to the front and let the rest of the primary try and guess which picture goes with which each child.
If you have access to a baby, you could bring one in and show him/her to the primary and talk about what babies are like, how they are perfect and don't sin. Unfortunately we're all tempted and we all sin or make mistakes. This would be a great time for your helper to yell or cry out.
Intro #2
This is part of the Visual of the Pits found in the Atonement FHE on Parenting in the Latter days. For this one, you have two plates up at the front of the room. Each plate is covered with a towel so no one can see what's underneath. Get two adult helpers to stand next to the plates and try to convince everyone to come and stand by their plate. Both adults should talk about how wonderful their plate is and how what's on their plate will bring joy and happiness. After everyone has chosen a side, remove the towels to show a plate of cookies on one side and a plate of rocks on the other.
Satan tries to make his way sound just as wonderful as Heavenly Fathers, he makes it sound wonderful enough that we will all make mistakes. We all choose the rocks sometimes, but thankfully, we can do what? Repent. This would be your helpers cue to "cut" his/her finger.
Atonement - Sharing Time Outline
I really like how the sharing time outline talks about Gethsemane and the Crucifixion so I would definitely do that as a transition to talking about how and why we can repent. I also love Jill's puzzle over at Hatch Patch which makes making it all cute that much easier.
Wrap Up
Go back to the Visual of the Pits (although I should say Pit, because I'd only talk about the spiritual side) and talk about how without the Atonement, we'd all be stuck over on the rock side, where no one wants to be. Thankfully, through Christ (get the helmet off your armor of god guy if you have one) we can all reach salvation. His Atonement fulfills our debt, as long as we repent, it acts as a bridge, giving us access to our Father in Heaven (and the yummy cookies!).
Testimony Challenge
I like to leave them with a challenge to work on their testimonies throughout the week and for this week it would be to remember to repent everyday during their personal prayers.
Good luck with your week!!
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