Family Home Evening Lesson #2: I CAME TO EARTH AS PART OF A FAMILY

1. Opening Prayer

2. Sing "Families Can Be Together Forever" Children's Songbook pg. 188

3. Read the following from "The Family Proclamation" paragraph 7: The family is ordained of God.

4. Read and discuss the following from "My Eternal Family" in the Feb. 2004 Friend

Adam and Eve established the first family on this earth. Heavenly Father commanded them to have children and to worship Him. As children were born to Adam and Eve, they taught them the gospel. This is Heavenly Father’s plan for families—He has sent us to earth so that we can learn from our parents and, someday, teach our own children.

Elder Richard G. Scott said, “Through the restored gospel we learn there is an ideal family. It is a family composed of a righteous Melchizedek Priesthood bearer with a righteous wife sealed to him and children born in the covenant or sealed to them."

When families are sealed in the temple and live worthily, they can be eternal families in the celestial kingdom. Not all of us have been sealed to our families yet, but we can work toward having an eternal family by doing our best. Elder Scott said, “Do the best you can. We cannot say whether that blessing [temple sealing] will be obtained on this side of the veil [in this life] or beyond it, but the Lord will keep His promises. In His infinite wisdom, He will make possible all you qualify in worthiness to receive." We can do our best to have an eternal family by living worthy of temple blessings and loving, serving, and praying for our families.

Then read and discuss the following quote from Henry B. Eyring:

It is the sealing power and our knowledge of it which changes and transforms our family life here and our expectations for the joy of family life in the world to come. The thought and the hope that I can have eternal relationships carries me through the trials of separation and the loneliness which are part of mortal existence. The promise to the faithful in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we may have associations and an expansion of families in the eternities. That assurance changes forever and for the better all of our associations in families.

5. Closing Prayer

Additional Resources: I Will Be a Strong Link (Friend, Feb. 2009)
Gospel Art Picture Kit: Family Togetherness
The Family Can Be Eternal (Gospel Principles, Chapter 36)