Since next Sunday is Easter, I thought that I would talk about some ideas that you could incorporate into your Family Home Evening, to talk about the importance of Easter. Remember to match your lesson to the needs of your family. If you have younger children, you will want to prepare a shorter and simpler lesson. If you have older children, you’ll want to prepare one that leads to a deeper more meaningful discussion.
For your opening and closing songs, there are several hymns and Primary songs that are appropriate. The Sacrament hymns are appropriate. One of my favorite Primary songs is “He Sent His Son,” which is on page 34 of the Children’s songbook.
It is nice to review the events leading up to Christ’s atonement, and crucifixion. You can give an account of the Last Supper, and talk about how Christ taught about the Sacrament, which would take the place of the law of sacrifice.
The next topic I would cover is the atonement. Make sure that your children understand that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that we each would have a chance to repent and be able to live with Him again. Talk briefly about the repentance process and what it means to each individual. You can read about this in Matthew 26:36-45, and John chapter 17.
After that talk briefly about the crucifixion and the events surrounding it. If your children are old enough, I would read as a family from John chapters 18 and 19. If your children are not old enough you can read from The New Testament reader. You can talk about how Jesus showed forgiveness to the soldiers that crucified him and how we need to forgive others.
And of course you need to talk about the resurrection. You can read about the events surrounding the resurrection in John chapter 20. As you talk about the resurrection, make sure that your children realize that they too can be resurrected and conquer death because Christ was resurrected. Once we are resurrected, we can live with Heavenly Father again, as long as we have lived righteously.
If you are using The New Testament reader, then you can show your children the pictures as you read. Otherwise you can use pictures from the Gospel Art Kit. If you don’t have that available, you can click here or here to choose pictures to print out to show your children.
If you don’t have any children at home right now, or have mostly teenagers you might want to consider reading and discussing the article “This Glorious Easter Morn” by President Hinckley. Do you have any Family Home Evening traditions that coincide with Easter?