FHE: Repentance

Family Home Evening

Objective: I want my children to learn what repentance is and how to repent.

Opening Song: I Need My Heavenly Father

Opening Prayer:

Lesson: Repentance

In the Book of Mormon, there was a man named Alma, aka, Alma the younger. He made some really big mistakes. Even though his father, whose name is also Alma, was a prophet, Alma the younger tried to get people to not believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are going to watch a video about what happened next to Alma the younger.

(video from lds.org)

As we can see, from watching this video, Alma the younger was making bad decisions. Not only did he not follow Jesus Christ, but he was trying to stop other people from following Jesus. After the angle came, Alma and the sons of Mosiah changed their behavior. They started to tell people that what they said before was not true. They were sorry for what they did and they promised not to lead people the wrong way again.

What did Alma the younger and the sons of Mosaih do? Why did they change their behavior?

Let's look in the Book of Mormon. In Mosiah chapter 27 verse 24 it says, "For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit."

Alma the younger repented of his sins. What does it mean to repent of our sins? How do we repent of our sins? Now I am going to read a story that can help us learn about what repentance is. 

This story is called "Clean Up Dirt Clods."

(pictures and story from lds.org)

Gabi and her friend Milo were playing in the dirt in her yard. "Hey, look at this," Milo said. He had what looked like a rock in his hand, but when he squished it, it turned into powdery dirt.

"Whoa!" Gabi said. "Are there more of those?"

They dug through the dirt and ground several more clods.

"Watch this," Gabi said, and she threw a dirt clod high up in the air. It sailed over the chain link dense and landed on the neighbor's driveway, breaking in a big smear of dust.

"Awesome!" Milo said, and they took turns throwing the clods and watching them explode. 

Suddenly Gabi heard a car driving up.

"Oh no," she said. "Someone's coming. Hide!"

They ducked around the edge of Gabi's house just as the car pulled over the driveway and into the garage. They giggled nervously. They heard the car door open and shut.

"Who threw dirt in my driveway?" they heard a voice say. Gabi knew that must be Mrs. Fietzer, her elderly neighbor. "How am I going to clean this up?"

Milo laughed quietly, but Gabi didn't feel like laughing.

After Milo went home, Gabi went inside and tried to play with her dolls, but she couldn't get Mrs. Fietzer's sad voice out of her head. Mrs. Fietzer lived alone, and old age made it hard for her to do many things, including cleaning up her driveway.

Gabi hadn't meant to be rude to Mrs. Fietzer, but now she realized that throwing the dirt had been mean. She felt sad and sorry for what she had done. 

The Gabi remembered a lesson she had had in Primary about repentance.

"When you do something wrong," her teacher had said, "you need to first feel sorry about it. Then you apologize and ask for forgiveness and make it better if you can. then you promise not to make the mistake again."

I can make this right! Gabi thought.

Gabi went to the garage and grabbed a big push broom. Then she got to work sweeping the dirt off the driveway. It took a long time, but finally the driveway was clean again. 

Then Gabi rang Mrs. Fietzer's doorbell. When Mrs. Fietzer opened the door, she seemed surprised to see Gabi.

"Well, hello there," she said.

"Hi, Mrs. Fietzer," Gabi said. She felt scared, but she prayed for courage. "I was the one who threw dirt onto your driveway earlier today."

"Oh, was that you?" Mrs. Fietzer asked. She looked a little sad.

"But I cleaned it up!" Gabi said, lifting the broom in her hand. "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Fietzer. I promise I won't ever do it again. Will you forgive me?"

A smile spread across Mrs. Fietzer's face. "Yes, of course I forgive you," she said. "thank you for cleaning it up."

Gabi looked at Mrs. Fietzer's big mulberry trees and had an idea.

"Can I help you rake your leaves in the fall too!" Gabi asked.

"That's very sweet of you," Mrs Fietzer said. "But you don't have to. You already made up for what you did."

"But I want to. Please?" Gabi asked.

Mrs. Fietzer agreed. Gabi said goodbye and skipped all the way back to her house. She was glad that when she did something wrong, she could make it right again.

How did Gabi repent of her wrong behavior? What steps did she take?

Gabi took four steps to repent. Lets see if we can put those steps in order.

(cut into strips and work together to try and put them in order of what Gabi did in the story)

She felt sorry for what she did.

She apologized and asked for forgiveness.

She made it better by fixing her mistake.

She made a promise to never do it again.

Sometimes we make mistakes and need to repent. Even though we can repent of our sins, it is best to try each day to do our best to not make mistakes. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can help us not make as many mistakes. I am going to play a song and let's see if we can figure out what we can do to help us make less mistakes. 

(play the second verse of "Help Me, Dear Father")

Help me, dear Father, to truly repent,

Making things right and changing my ways,

Help me each day, Father I pray,

Help me live nearer, nearer to thee.

What do you think we can to do help us not make mistakes?

(pray to Heavenly Father for help)

I know that even though we make mistakes, we can make things right. We can fix things that we have done wrong. We help those that we harm to feel better. Even though we can repent of our sins, it is best to ask Heavenly Father to help us not make mistakes in the first place. Either way, He is there to help us choose the right and repent. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Amen.

Closing Prayer

Treat: Angel Food cake