personal progress - faith #6 (come follow me lesson: what is the plan of salvation?)

as a young woman leader, i do not have to complete the "additional value experiences" to get my young womanhood recognition award, but when the requirements are something that i can work on with my girls, i'll do it.

that was the case with faith value experience #6, which says,

Increase your understanding of the plan of salvation. Resources for study include 1 Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 12:7–9; 2 Nephi 9:1–28; 11:4–7; Doctrine and Covenants 76:50–113; 93:33–34; Moses 4:1–4; and Abraham 3:24–27. Draw or obtain a picture that depicts the plan of salvation, including the premortal existence, birth, mortal life, death, judgment, and life after judgment. Using this picture, explain the plan of salvation to your class, your family, or a friend. Discuss how knowledge of the plan affects your actions, helps you understand your identity, and has strengthened your faith.

during the whole month of february, our sunday lessons focused on the plan of salvation. i was able to give our combined lesson focusing mainly on, "what is the plan of salvation?"

i wanted to provide a visual for the girls of what the basic rundown of the plan looked like so, i looked around and found this great pdf that can be adapted for different age levels. i blew up the pictures to make a posterboard sized plan, but i also printed them some regular-sized ones so that they could put them in their scripture journals if they wanted to, kind of like this:

of course, what i wrote is what i felt was important to me and what i learned and wanted to remember from what i read in the scriptures listed.  i also studied the material from the lesson plan and added some of that information as well.

i started out by telling the girls that Alma 42 was written by Alma to his son Corianton who had committed sexual sins.  i asked them why they thought Alma would teach about the plan of salvation to his son because of his sins.  would we make different choices if we didn't understand the plan of salvation?  how does an understanding of this plan affect the decisions you make?

then i had the girls read different verses in Alma 42 to find the different titles given to this plan and why the names applied.  those we discussed were:

• plan of salvation
• plan of happiness
• plan of redemption
• plan of mercy

i noticed that many of the depictions of the plan of salvation exclude anything to do with the creation, the fall and the atonement.  this may be for simplicity or for ease of use for young children, but i found this a little concerning.  those 3 events are what make the whole plan of salvation possible!  i made sure to focus heavily on the creation, the fall and the atonement in my lesson and hopefully the girls realized how important they are.

as i spoke about the creation, i put out some play dough and then talked about how in order for the plan of salvation to begin, we needed a place to come to, gain bodies, and be tested and tried.

when i spoke about the fall, i set out an apple.  the fall brought about spiritual death (being cut off from God) and physical death (our body and spirit being separated).

then i set out a sacrament cup.  i spoke about the atonement.  the atonement helps us to overcome spiritual and physical death.  we discussed grace and mercy and the steps we must take to apply the atonement:

1. have faith in Jesus Christ
2. repent
3. be baptized
4. receive the Holy Ghost
5. endure to the end

i also made sure to point out that the atonement began in Gethsemane, included His suffering and death and the cross and ended with His resurrection.  Jesus Christ overcame spiritual death for us in His suffering and physical death by His resurrection.

i wanted to give them something smaller that depicted the plan of salvation with those 3 key elements, so again i searched online.  i really like this printable and gave the girls each a copy at the end of the lesson to use as a bookmark.  i also really like this graphic as well that could be printed as a bookmark, but unfortunately, it didn't get published until after i had given my lesson and completed this personal progress goal.

since i taught the girls a sunday lesson on the plan of salvation, i completed the portion of this value experience which is to explain it to a class, family or friend.  during the lesson we also discussed how a knowledge of the plan affects our actions, how it strengthens our faith and how it helps us understand our identity.