Families Can Be Together Forever Sharing Time

Objective:

To help the children understand that their families can be together forever if they are sealed in the temple

Picture Discussion: Show the picture of the temple nearest you and other pictures of temples.

How many of you have ever seen one of Heavenly Father's temples? Let the children tell about temples they have seen.

What is a temple?

• They are sacred buildings.
• Each one is called the house of the Lord.
• They are where we learn many things about Heavenly Father's plan for us.
• They are where we make special promises to Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Father makes special promises to us.
• Many sacred, important things can be done only in the temple. When people go to the temple, they feel close to Heavenly Father. This is one reason they like to go often. People who go to the temple are blessed because they are doing those things that Heavenly Father has asked them to do.
• When the children are older they can go to the temple and do the important things that are done there. Heavenly Father wants them to live good lives so they will be worth to go to the temple. If they obey Heavenly Father's commandments and try to do what is right, they will be worth to go to the temple and receive Heavenly Father's special blessings.

Explain that one of the special things done in the temple is sealing families so they can be together forever. When a family is sealed, the parents are married for this life and for the life after this one. Their children will be a part of their family forever. This special blessing is given only to those who get married in the temple and keep the promises they make there. Remind the children of how much they love their families and how wonderful it will be to be a family forever.

Story:

Karen felt blessed to know she belonged to a family that would be together forever. Her parents had been married in the temple before she was born.

Each night after saying her prayers, Karen would look at the picture of the Mesa Temple on her bedroom wall. She thought it was the most beautiful building she had ever seen.

Karen and her family lived in Mesa, Arizona, and they visited the temple grounds often. She loved to listen to her parents tell about being married in that beautiful temple.

They told her about how they had fallen in love and had prepared themselves to go to the temple and be sealed.

Father told Karen how happy they had been on the day they were married and how beautiful Karen's mother had looked all dressed in white as they were sealed together. He told Karen how close they felt to Heavenly Father that day and how blessed they were to know they could always be together.

Mother often told Karen that after she and her father were married, they had prayed to Heavenly Father that someday they would be blessed with a family. They very much wanted a baby and were happy when Karen was born.

Karen felt loved and was happy thJat she belonged to a family that could be together forever. She loved her family and was grateful that  her parents had been sealed in the temple.

Ask:

Have any of your parents been married or sealed in the temple? Let the children share their experiences.

What temples were your parents married in?

Heavenly Father loves all people. He loves those who have not been to the temple as much as those who have. He hopes that all families will be sealed in the temple. Many families have not been sealed in the temple. However, these families can go to the temple if they prepare themselves properly.

Activity:

Cut a large picture of a temple to create a 12-15 piece puzzle. List 12-15 words pertaining to celestial families, marriages, and sealings, such as:

CE_EST_AL    E_ERN_L

Have the children fill in the blanks. As each word is completed, the child can put a piece of the puzzle together.

Story:

It was a beautiful morning. Everyone in the Crandal family was up early. They were excited, for this was the day they were going to the temple to be sealed together.

Richard had a puzzled look on his face because he did not know what the temple would be like or what would happen there. Annette knew what he was thinking, and said, "Oh, I think the temple is the most beautiful place ono earth. It is Heavenly Father's house, so it will be just like heaven."

When they arrived at the temple, they were all so excited. They stood together looking at the beautiful temple knowing that this was the house of the Lord. As the family walked inside the temple, they had a special feeling. They knew Heavenly Father was pleased that they had come to the temple to be sealed so they could be together forever. It was so beautiful and quiet inside the temple. Everyone talked in soft voices. The people who worked in the temple welcomed them. The children went with a lady who took them to get dressed in white clothes. Father and mother went with other temple workers to get dressed in their white clothes so they could be ready to be sealed.

The children waited in a special room and saw their mother and father kneeling at the altar, their faces lit up in big smiles. The children knelt by their parents and laid their hands on their parents' hands on the altar. Brother Peterson, a temple helper, talked to the family and told them how happy Heavenly Father was that they had come to the temple and were going to be sealed together as a family. When Brother Peterson finished the sealing, the whole family gathered together and hugged each other. Tears of joy fell down everyone's cheeks as they whispered that they loved each other.

That night, as the children were talking about the day's experiences, Annette said, "This has been the happiest day of my life!"

"Mine, too," said little Richard.

Ask:

Why do you think Annette and Richard were so happy?

Song:

Have the children stand and sing the first verse of "Families Can Be Together Forever."

Bear your testimony about temples. The only was families can have the blessing of being together forever is to be sealed in the temple. Bear testimony about the blessings of temple marriage and the happiness that will come to the children if they prepare to go to the temple.

A temple is more than a chapel or church, more than a synagogue or cathedral; it is a structure erected as the house of the Lord, sacred to the closest communion between the Lord himself and the holy priesthood, and devoted to the highest and most sacred ordinances characteristic of the age or dispensation to which the particular temple belongs. . . The Latin templum was the equivalent of the Hebrew Elohim and signified the abode of deity; hence, as associated with divine worship, it meant literally the House of the Lord.

(The House of the Lord, James E. Talmage)