At 4:00 am I was awoke and had a distinct prompting to have a Family Home Evening with my family. The though of what to teach came quickly and effortlessly. I knew that I had to teach on the atonement and how it can help each of us in our lives. I knew that I had to share with my family how the atonement had helped me make it through my pain and suffering theses past few months. I knew I had to share that the atonement is not just to help us repent from our sins but also to help us make it through any trials we will face in this life.
I went back to sleep shortly and hoped I would be able to remember what I was supposed to teach to my family when I woke up the next morning. When I woke up the first thing I did was started typing up all of the thoughts and ideas I had just a few hours previously. I was amazed how much detail I remembered. I even went to a conference talk by Elder Bednar, entitled Bear up Their Burdens. I added a couple quotes from this talk to my lesson.
I wanted to invite all my kids, even my older children and their families not living with us to come to our FHE. My oldest son who is in Kentucky also joined us by way of Face time. Although he could not stay the entire time with us we all enjoyed whatever time we had with him!
I started using an object lesson by getting a back pack and different size cans of food. I then placed labels the following labels on the cans of food:
- Mistakes
- Sins
- Physical Pain
- Weakness and Shortcomings
- Sadness or regrets
- Grief and despair
- Emotional Distress
- Injustices Fears and Frustration
- Disappointments and Discouragements
I had two of my kids come up and help me with this object lesson. I had my strong 18 year old son place the back pack on his back. I then started to talk about each labeled can. With each can I explained what they meant and how we could go through them sometime in our life. By the time I was through the back pack was extremely heavy (I did use very large tomato juice cans). I asked my son how long he could carry around this HEAVY LOAD ALONE! He told us not too long. My family was laughing and joking the entire time and had a hard time taking me too seriously. But that is the reality of our family nights. Just a whole lot of laughing and joking!
After the laughter calmed down I asked my oldest daughter to represent the atonement and how the Savior can help if only we ask our Heavenly Father for help. I asked her to lift not take off the back pack from my son. I told them that this is how the atonement works in our life. I explained that the Savior will not take away are trials or hardships, but he will strengthen us and lighten our load if we but only ask him to.
I then shared my testimony with them and with tears streaming down my face told them the many times I prayed for help to my Father in Heaven and how my Savior lifted and strengthened me from my pain and suffering. Everyone was very quiet and calm and you could feel the spirit in the room so strong. I was so thankful to have had the strength to share my testimony of the Savior and his atonement to my family! I expressed to them that they never have to do it alone. I told them to never try to carry all of their burdens by themselves and if they did then what the Savior did for us would have been in vain. I told them in order to take advantage of this gift the Savior has given to us all that we would have to do would be to ask. I know the Savior is waiting to help us. He is The only one who knows what we are going through and how to help us perfectly!
Quotes that I used from Elder Bednar's talk
“Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us
“Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us
There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of
soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality
that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry
out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God
perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual
burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He
has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out,
touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and
help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power.
Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.”
How grateful I was today for the Gift of the Holy Ghost that prompted and helped me know exactly what I could do to help my children make it through their own trials and tribulations.
Stacie, got a little teary eyed myself reading this! I can feel the spirit through your blog! Thanks for sharing, might have to use this for FHE sometime as well.
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