Anthony Sweat - The Big Picture: 20 Family-Friendly Lessons on Gods Plan for You

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hilton, John, III, author.

The big picture : 20 family-friendly lessons on Gods plan for you / John Hilton III and Anthony Sweat.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60907-176-9 (paperbound)

1. Plan of salvation (Mormon theology) 2. Mormon cosmology. 3. Christian lifeMormon authors. 4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsDoctrines. 5. Mormon ChurchDoctrines. I. Sweat, Anthony, author. II. Title.

BX8643.S25H55 2012

230'.9332dc232012029530

Printed in the United States of America

Malloy Lithographing Incorporated, Ann Arbor, MI

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

We dedicate this book to the Hilton and Sweat children. We try to teach you all about life, and you teach us what life is all about.

A testimony of the plan of salvation can give you hope and purpose as you wrestle with the challenges of life.

True to the Faith

Acknowledgments

Our gratitude goes to the team at Deseret Book: Heidi Taylor, for overseeing this project from start to finish and making it happen. The book wouldnt exist without you. Chris Schoebinger, for supporting us from the very beginning. This book is an extension of your genius behind Why? and How? Lisa Mangum, for your editorial acumen that smoothed out our rough spots, and for your timeline talents that kept the project on track. Shauna Gibby, for your tireless design and layout work, including the cover. Tonya Facemyer and Rachael Ward, for typesetting a book that isnt so easy to typeset. To each of you we give our sincerest thanks for contributions in bringing this work to fruition.

Preface

This book can be used in two ways.

First, this is a book written for teenagers to sit down and read. If youre a teenager reading this book, great! You are who we are writing to! We hope this book provides you with additional knowledge and insights about Gods plan so that you can go forward and use those truths to guide your everyday life. We promise you that you will be blessed as you follow the great plan of happiness (Alma 42:8).

Second, this is also a book that parents and teachers can use as a resource when teaching the gospel. Because this book is written to teenagers, perhaps the best thing you can do is to hand it to your child and ask him or her to plan the lesson! As you go through each chapter, youll periodically find three different kinds of icons.

The Teach the Plan icon that includes a number on it. We refer back to these icons at the end of each chapter where we have provided a lesson outline to help you teach the material in family settings, church, or mutual.

In every chapter, youll also see the Experiment upon the Word icon. It identifies a hands-on activity that you can do to help you experiment upon [the word] (Alma 32:27) and learn more about Gods plan for you.

Each chapter also includes a Live the Plan icon that invites you to act on the truths of the plan you are learning.

We know that true doctrine, understood, has the power to change attitudes and behavior. Our sincere desire is that this book can assist you in teaching youth to understand the vital doctrines that are a part of the plan of salvation.

Introduction

The Big Picture of the Plan of Salvation

If you were lost in a dense forest or jungle and could go a thousand feet in any direction, which direction would you go to help you find your way? North, south, east, or west?

Actually, the best direction to go would be a thousand feet straight up. Such a move would help you gain a big-picture perspective of the terrain around you and you could know which way you should go.

Similarly, some people are metaphorically lost in the jungle of lifenot knowing which way to turn to find lasting peace and happiness, not understanding the purpose of life, and sometimes not even knowing what is right or wrong. With a limited view, some things in this life can seem confusing, unfair, and uncertain. But when we look heavenward, we are able to gain better perspective and find answers. As we pull back and see the big picture, as we more fully understand Gods plan of salvation for us, we can more easily understand why things happen, how we should act, and what we should do to find our way in life.

A Three-Act Play

Have you ever sat down in the middle of a movie and been totally confused by what is going on? President Boyd K. Packer likened this feeling to our mortal life. He said:

The plan of redemption, with its three divisions, might be likened to a grand three-act play. Act I is entitled Premortal Life.... Act II, from birth to the time of resurrection, the Second Estate. And Act III, Life after Death or Immortality Eternal Life.

In mortality, we are like one who enters a theater just as the curtain goes up on the second act. We have missed Act I. The production has many plots and sub-plots that interweave, making it difficult to figure out who relates to whom and what relates to what, who are the heroes and who are the villains. It is further complicated because you are not just a spectator; you are a member of the cast, on stage, in the middle of it all!

Watch this video clip to see an example of what it might feel like to jump into the middle of a play and how it relates to the plan of salvation.

http://delivr.com/1k77m

The Big Picture

The plan of salvation is Gods plan to enable each of us to enjoy all His blessings.

While this picture does not fully capture everything about the plan of salvation, there are some good things about it. It paints in broad strokes the history and destiny of mankind: We lived with God in a premortal existence. After having passed through the veil of forgetfulness, we are now on earth, experienc-ing mortality without being able to remember our life in the premortal existence. At the end of our mortal life, we will die, and, depending on what weve done and become in our lifetime, we will go to either spirit paradise or spirit prison. Eventually, we will all be resurrected (become immortal with a body of flesh and bone), be judged, and be assigned to a kingdom where we will live forever after.