Purpose:
To help family members better understand that when we truly repent the atonement of Jesus Christ has great power to cleanse us from sin.
Materials:
A baby picture of each family member
A baby picture of each family member
· A glass of water
· An eye dropper
· Several drops of food coloring
· Several drops of bleach
Picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
Picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
(cut out signs before lesson)
Lesson
Have each member of your family see if they can pick out their baby picture. After they have picked out their baby picture talk about how innocent each one of them looked and truly were. Each one of them was sent down to earth pure and was free from sin.
Heavenly Father knew that we would not stay free from sin. He knew that we would be tempted and that we would sin. So he had a plan for us. He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. (Show the picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane) Jesus suffered and died for our sins. Because Jesus suffered for us, we can be forgiven as we repent of our sins.
Object Lesson
Take the glass of water and get some food coloring and tell your family that as we come into the world we are like this glass of water pure, free from sin. But as we grow older we start to do things that are not following Jesus like maybe we fight with our brother. Put in a drop of food coloring- there’s a sin. Or we tell our mom we didn’t get into the cookies when we really did. Another drop of food coloring.
You can list more and put in more drops of food coloring.
Now the water is pretty dirty.
But as we repent and pray to our Father in Heaven we can be forgiven and he will remember our sins no more. Put several drops of bleach into the water and stir. The water should become clear again.
Share with the family that there are certain steps to repentance. Show them the steps of repentance. If you have older kids have them look up the scripture that goes along with each step.
· Recognize our sins
· Feel sorrow for our sins
· Forsake our sins
· Confess our sins
· Make restitution
· Forgive others
· Continue to keep the commandments
Then bear your testimony to your family about the importance of repentance to you.
Then bear your testimony to your family about the importance of repentance to you.
Repentance is such a sweet and necessary thing. I am so grateful for repentance. I am grateful for the necessary steps in repentance. I am especially grateful for my Savior in making it possible that I can repent of my sins so that I can return to live with him today. It is important to teach our children the steps of repentance and that as they are baptized they will make mistakes. But as they go through the steps, they can go through the process of repentance and become a better and stronger person as well. I had a talk with my 9-year-old daughter the other day. She was apologizing to me for saying something not so nice to me. She told me that as she was saying the mean thing to me something was telling her that she shouldn’t say it and should say something different, but she didn’t listen. We talked about it. We talked about repentance and the steps of repentance. After we were done talking she felt a lot better.
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