March 2013 Week 4 Sharing Time: Jesus Christ is our Savior

I've had a hard time thinking of what to do this week for Sharing Time. The topic of Christ being our savior is so important and well discussed, there is so much you can do with it. I finally decided to focus on why he was chosen to be the savior and what that means for us. The following isn't really applicable to the lesson, but I found it while looking for inspiration and I really felt the spirit while reading it, and thought it was worth sharing. If nothing else, it'll help to set the spirit while you prepare and ponder your lesson. 

'A man died and was resurrected and waiting in a room to be interviewed. Another man was ahead of him. The door opened, the man entered, and the door closed. The man on the outside could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. The interviewer began: “I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem; he lived thirty-three years, spending the last three organizing his church, choosing his Apostles, and giving the gospel to direct our lives.”
The interviewer stopped him and said: “Yes, yes, that’s all true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, he suffered and died so that we could have eternal life. Three days later he was resurrected so that we might return to Heavenly Father.”
“Yes, yes, that is true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.” The man, a little perplexed, again began: “Well, he restored the gospel in its fulness to the earth through Joseph Smith, reorganized his church, gave us temples so we could do work to save our dead. He gave us personal ordinances for our salvation and exaltation.”
The interviewer again stopped him and said, “All of what you have said to me is true.” The man was then invited to leave the room. After he left the door opened and the second man entered. As he approached the interviewer he fell upon his knees and cried, “My Lord, my God.”'

 I am going to begin by reading a story to them from this months Friend magazine. 

Once when Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. of the Seventy was a child, he and his sister were playing in a small boat on a river. At first their adventure was fun, but as the boat drifted farther from the shore, they realized they were floating toward dangerous waters downstream.
The children began calling for help. Their father heard them and raced to the boat to rescue them. He saved them, which was something they could not do for themselves. He did this because he loved them.

Next I want to ask how Christ saved us? I don't want to spend a lot of time on this area, maybe 3 minutes tops. I want them to know that he suffered and died for us.

I then want to ask if anyone knows why Christ was one who did this for us? The answer is because he was the only one who would be able to come down to Earth and live a perfect life. I also want to emphasize that he was willing to do this because he loves us very much. That we are his brothers and sisters.

What does this mean for us? What does it mean that he atoned for our sins? Or that he died for us? Or that he saved us? Why does that matter? This gets to be a bit more discussion. This is why we are able to repent. This is how we are able to live with our Heavenly Father again. We don't believe that everyone will return back to Heavenly Father just because of this, we believe we have to choose to use it. We have to choose to repent when we have done something wrong. We have to try our best to choose the right, but we're not always going to make the right choices. That's why we have the atonement. That's why Christ suffered and died for our sins, it's so that we can repent and live with our Heavenly Father again. 

Now for the activity or more fun part. I have a couple different ideas. A few weeks back someone commented saying that the teachers in her area don't like to break into groups, so she doesn't like to do that. It's unfortunate that sometimes you have to feel that way, but I do understand. You don't want the children to pick up on any resentment any of the teachers may have, so I can totally understand not wanting to break into groups. So I'm going to try from now on to come up with an activity that doesn't involve groups every week, so some weeks may have two ideas. 

1. Bring candy (or stickers, rings, prizes etc), and lots of it! 

a. Pass out candy as they help with the lesson. The outline lists five scripture stories as reference for the activity part of this Sharing Time. One by one, ask if anyone knows who this or the story about him. For example, "Can anyone tell me who Alma the Younger is and what he did?" If someone does (which I'm hoping they know who at least one or two of them are), ask them to briefly tell us about that person. If they don't, you can tell them the story of that person. If they're short, you could even just read the story to them. You just may not want to be up there reading 20+ versus ;). Although, each story has a few versus that I think would be good to read to really help the children understand what the person was feeling, and what they were going through. I've listed those below.  

b. Give one child a piece of candy, as they listen to each story and hear a word that describes how someone felt (i.e., sad, joy, cheerful, awful etc.), pass the candy to the person to the right (or behind or in front if they're at the end). When the story is done (and you've added whatever you need to to it), whoever has the candy gets to keep it. Do this for all of them. Make sure you give candy to everyone else before they leave. You don't want any sad kids. :)

2. Break the children into five groups and have each group read a story. Have them prepare a short version of the story to read in front of everyone else. While it's being read everyone else in the group acts out the story silently. Be careful with time, every time I get them to break into groups I do something like this I end up being a little short on time. I would say have them start presenting with about 10 minutes left so that they all get a turn and you have time to close up. 

Scriptures in Each Story Worth Emphasizing
Alma the Younger - Alma 6:10; 12-13; 20; 24 Compare the words he uses in the first few to the last couple. He used such strong and descriptive words for both his anguish in the beginning and his joy after repenting. 
Enos - Enos 1:4; 8 He prayed to Heavenly Father to repent and was made hole by his faith.
Zeezrom - Alma 15:5; 11 This man was healed physically because of his faith. We can draw a comparison there and also in his feelings and temperament. 
Lamoni's Father - Alma 22:14; 23-24 This is a great story of how one man was able to convert so many. That he believed in Heavenly Father and was able to have a huge impact on others.
The Man Brought to Jesus - Luke 5: 20; 24-25 This is a great one because it's a story involving Christ. I think it's important to emphasize that faith is important to have. Without it, this man would not have been able to be healed or his sins forgiven.

Close with your testimony of the Savior. I added some links below to some coloring activities if you want to send them home with anything to do that night or if you have time at the end. 

Mary by Christ's Tomb Dot-to-Dot

Christ with a Child Coloring Page