Through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be Saved: Sharing Time Idea for 3rd week of April

Ideas from the 2011 Sharing Time Outline

IDENTIFY THE DOCTRINE (memorizing an Article of Faith): Divide the children into groups and give each group a phrase from the third Article of Faith. Have each group stand, in the correct order, and repeat their phrase. Then have the entire Primary stand and repeat the whole Article of Faith.

ENCOURAGE UNDERSTANDING (seeing an object lesson): Testify that one way the Atonement of Jesus Christ saves us is that it saves us from sin. Show the children a clear glass of water and explain that it represents a person who is free from sin. Drop a small amount of food coloring in the water. Point out how the food coloring spreads throughout the water and makes it no longer clean. Explain that when we sin, we become unclean, like this water. Then add a few drops of liquid bleach to make the water clean again. Explain that when we repent, the Atonement cleanses us from sin and we are forgiven. Show a picture of Christ in Gethsemane. Let the children share what they know about the picture. Testify of Jesus Christ's love for us and of His willingness to pay the price for our sins.

ENCOURAGE APPLICATION (discussing repentance): Using some of the teaching methods modeled here, teach the children about repentance, which includes feeling sorry, asking for forgiveness, righting the wrong, and not repeating the wrong (Primary 3, 46-49).

Ideas from Little LDS Ideas

This month we will only be attending our Ward 2 out of the 4 Sundays (General Conference & Stake Conference). So we decided to focus on the Atonement and the Resurrection. This last Sunday I did Sharing Time and focused on The Atonement. Here is what I did:

I began my lesson with the idea that was shared in the outline, it was on the side of the page. 

I had someone come to the front to help me out (Jr. Primary I used a teacher & Sr. Primary I used a child).

I had my helper show all the children their clean hands. Then I showed the children some chocolate syrup, I told them that this represented sin. I had my helper hold out their hands and I squirted a little syrup onto their hands and told the children that the other day (child's name) lied to their parent's. Then a few days after that (child's name) cheated at school & I added another glob of syrup. 

Then I asked the children if my helper's hands were clean anymore. They all said, NO.

Then I read 1 Nephi 10:21 (no unclean thing can dwell with God). I said, 'Since (child's name) chose to do bad and is no longer clean does that mean he/she won't be able to live with Heavenly Father again? But none of us are perfect we all sin, so how can we be saved when we sin?'

Then I showed them the 3rd Article of Faith and had them say it aloud. Then I asked what the 3rd Article of Faith says...how can we be saved? (Through the Atonement of Christ).

I had the child wash his/her hands and then explained to the children that because of the Atonement we can repent of our sins and be made clean. I had the child show the others that his/her hands were now clean.

We talked a little bit about repentance and then I showed them GAK picture 230: Christ in the Gaden of Gethsemane: And said "He suffered for our sins so we can Repent and be forgiven. After Jesus Christ prayed and suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was arrested. They tied Him up, laughed at Him, spit on Him, and then nailed Him to the cross. Jesus Christ suffered so much pain. Jesus is Heavenly Father’s Son, He is a God and had power over death. He did not have to die, he could have decided that he didn’t want to do that. But He chose to do this, to die, for us!

I then showed the children a clip from 'The Lamb Of God' (I started where the people chose to free Barabbas instead of Jesus and went until Jesus was crucified on the cross; probably around 7-8 mins.).

After the movie I bore testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for us, that he suffered/did all of this for us.

I ended with saying this: While on this earth we are given choices. We can choose to do good things and we can choose to do bad. We won’t always choose the right, so we must remember to always repent when we sin. Because if we don’t repent then we are not clean! We also must remember to obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel, and have faith in Jesus Christ.

I did something similar to this last year and it went so well that I decided to do it again. The Spirit was so strong. I felt that the children would understand better by showing the children our Savior's sacrifice rather than telling them.

I also shared some ideas last year that had this same topic.

Click Here to view them

And another idea on Repentance:

Click Here to view 'I can Repent'

Alright, have a great week and a great Sharing Time!