The Plan of Salvation Equals LOVE – Family Home Evening Lesson

Teaching the Plan of Salvation is always fun for me! I love seeing children, youth, or adults make the connections about life, where we came from, and where we are going. Here is my favorite way to teach the Plan of Salvation. I have taught it in seminary, to other youth, and to my family. It is a wonderful way for them to remember what Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught:

“Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of salvation; it is the source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing, the precious fountain of hope.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Are My Hands, April 2010 General Conference)

You’ll find a download with everything you need in the lesson at the bottom of this post.

First, you will give each person a paper and pencil and ask them to follow your instructions. Use the instructions to have the youth try and draw the following diagram. Don’t tell them before hand what they are doing or what it is supposed to look like.

Draw a small circle
Label it “Pre-mortal life”
Draw a line down from that circle
Label it “Creation and the Fall”
Draw a short line to the right from that line
Label it “Birth”
Draw a large circle and make it the earth
Label it “Mortal Life”
To the right of the large circle make a small circle
Label this circle “Spirit World”
From the spirit world circle, draw two angled lines.
Label the first line “Death” and the second line “Resurrection”
Draw a line down from the top of the Resurrection line.
Label this line “Judgment”
Draw three lines coming off the tall line
Label them “Celestial,” “Terrestrial,” and “Telestial”

Show your family the official illustration and ask if theirs looks like that.

I usually have it drawn out on a butcher paper and rolled across the floor so we can get interactive with the next part of the lesson. You could also hang it on the wall if you have a place for it. Here are a few pictures of what some of the drawings looked like from following the instructions above.

This can lead the discussion into if they had known ahead of time what it was supposed to look like or at least spell it would have helped them. That’s why learning about the Plan of Salvation is so important! It gives us an overview of what God’s plan is for His children and helps them.

Read John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Point to the Plan of Salvation again. Have someone read Elder Uchtdorf’s quote, “Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of salvation; it is the source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing, the precious fountain of hope.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Are My Hands, April 2010 General Conference)

At this point in the lesson I divide everyone up into smaller groups and give each group envelopes that contain scriptures and quotes from The Living Christ. The group reads what is in their envelopes and decides what role Jesus Christ played and where in the Plan of Salvation He performed that role. As the groups are doing this I place pictures of Jesus Christ in the various roles around the  giant LOVE Plan of Salvation on the floor in no particular order. You just want to spread the artwork out so everyone can see it.

The groups then find the picture or pictures that go with their scriptures and quotes. We start at the beginning with Pre-mortal Life and work our way through the Plan of Salvation with each group coming to the front to teach their portion of Christ’s role in that part of the Plan of Salvation. They place their pictures on the plan.

This is a great visual to see how the Savior plays a major role in every single part of the Plan of Salvation, the plan of happiness. It really drives home the doctrine that we are saved only through the merits, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ.

I’ve included all quotes, drawing directions, and pictures in the download.

Enjoy! I’d love to hear how it went teaching your family.