RS/MP Lesson 2: “Our Heavenly Family” (Part 1)

Preliminaries. I am a young father—not that I am particularly young (got married relatively late), but my oldest child is only 4 years old. The newness of the tremendous responsibility of being a father has not warn off. I am intimidated by the responsibility, and pray that my efforts and desires will not be in vain. More than anything else right now, this desire to be a good father motivates everything I do, from my efforts at work to provide for my family, to my dedication to Church activity, to my efforts at this blog and elsewhere to understand this world that I have brought my kids (3 now!) into.

For these reasons, the metaphor of a family is particularly powerful to me at this stage of my life. Thinking about God as my Heavenly Father, having the same kinds of concerns, desires, worries, hopes, pleadings, etc. that I have with my kids, is poignant.

Now, on to the lesson material itself. I follow several scripturally-based tangents below, but I really only focus on reading three key scriptural passages, one for each section of the lesson. I choose the scriptures and tangents in order to lead up to a culminating point at the end of the lesson in Part 3.

Also, I recommend using these notes only as background study to help teachers come up with their own lesson plan, hopefully to help facilitate the free flow and promptings of the Spirit for each particular class. (Besides, I probably have enough material here for 90+ minutes of lesson….)