The first lesson every year. . .

The first lesson of every seminary year is a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. The reason that this lesson is first is that it gives the students an over-all perspective on what they will be learning that year. When I taught this lesson last year, I was pleasantly surprised last year how much the students already knew. So, this year I drew the diagram on a poster board but I left off all of the labels. I handed the students markers and asked them to come up and fill into the diagram. It was shocking that the class completed the entire diagram with little help and in under five minutes. I then had a student read a story from Bishop H. Burke Peterson. The story can be found as part of lesson one in the Family Home Evening Manual.

"My parents and grandparents were born and raised in Utah. However, my mother and father began their married life in Phoenix, Arizona. That is where my three brothers and I were raised. Almost every summer my father and mother would take all of us to Utah ... to enjoy the association with our cousins and other relatives. "... One spring before school was out I asked my father if I could go to Salt Lake City to work and then return to Phoenix at the end of the summer to be with my family and begin school again. After thinking it over, my parents decided it would be fine. When school was out in May, Dad took me with him to the [bus station] and, since I had no money of my own as yet, bought me a ticket to Salt Lake City. I was somewhat taken back when I found out that he had purchased for me a one-way ticket instead of a round trip. He said he would take the responsibility to see that I arrived in Salt Lake City but it would be up to me to do what was necessary while I was there to purchase the ticket for a return home to Phoenix at the end of the summer. As you can imagine, I was most anxious to come back home after my work experience as I had burning in my memory the happy experiences we had always enjoyed in our home. I enjoyed the association with and loved my three brothers and was most happy and comfortable being with my parents. "When I arrived in Salt Lake City I immediately set about to find work. This I was able to accomplish, and as soon as my first paycheck was given to me, guess what I did. First I paid my tithing, and then I took the rest of the money to the bus depot downtown in Salt Lake City and purchased a return trip ticket to Phoenix. I wanted to be sure that when summer was over there would be nothing to stand in the way of my returning home. I loved my home very much. For the rest of the summer I was particularly mindful of taking good care of myself and doing everything necessary to insure my return home to Phoenix. More than anything else I wanted to enjoy again the experience of being with my family. We all had an experience similar to this long ago before we came to this earth. We were in a gathering where we were being instructed by our Father in heaven concerning the earth he had prepared for us. ... He let us know that the decision to come here would be ours, and if this was our wish, he would see to it that we arrived into this mortal experience safely. Like the experience I had in Phoenix as a boy, our Father in heaven would provide a one-way ticket for us. Whether or not we returned again to him at the end of our mortal experience on earth would depend upon the things we did while we were here" ("Return Trip Ticket Home," New Era, Apr. 1974, 5)

We talked about leaving home and about the desire to go back. I love the idea of a one-way ticket so I made tickets up on the computer with a quote from H. Burke Peterson’s story.

It was a great object lesson and at the end of the lesson, I gave the students a ticket and a milky way bar to remember that they need a purchase their one-“way” ticket home. By the way, I don’t have kids but I think this would make a great family home evening lesson.