The Pedigree of Your Spirit

Lesson 4: We Knew and Worshipped God: Our One-Line Pedigree

During this lesson, we talked about origins.  "Where did we come from," is a question in our family that is often answered with the place of each person's birth.  The children often want us to remind them where they were each born and to retell their birth stories.

Guy folded his hands as if praying right after he was born.  Scarlett practically walked out.  Autumn needed to snuggle.  Honor was purple for the first day or so but came out all right!

Telling these stories is fun, but we try to remind our kids that "where" we landed isn't as important as where we all came from in the first place.  

We literally left God's presence in order to enter mortality.  And that is where we are hoping to return.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World teaches that:

"In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father, and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life."

What proof do we have that God knew us and that we existed with Him before we were born? 

The Scriptures for one:  (Jeremiah 1:4-5) "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.
(D&C 93:29) "Man was also in the beginning with God." (For other scripture references look here.)

The children and I talked about what a "pedigree" is.  It is a chart (usually) with many lines on it that indicates how people are related to one another, who your parents are, and who their parents are, etc.  

Those things can get pretty complicated and difficult to follow, but Elder Packer put it simply when he said, "The pedigree of your Spirit can be written on a single line: You are a child of God."

And that is the take-a-way that I wanted my children to remember.   And hopefully other children will enjoy hearing this too...regardless of what your family tree does or does not resemble...Your one-line pedigree cannot be denied.  You are a child of God.  First and always.

To go along with our little discussion, we made these "maps" of our family.  Using maps of the birthplaces of each member of our family, we cut out little man/woman and boy/girl cutouts of ourselves and mounted them together on a piece of paper.

Be sure to check out other lessons in this series:

Five-minute Lessons on The Family Proclamation

Agency & The Family Proclamation
In the Image of God
The Pedigree of Your Spirit
Gender Matters
Temples: The Forever Family Place
Multiply & Replenish the Earth
Family Love
The Responsibility of Parents

{I am also participating in an Easter/Family History Challenge.

Check out the #MyForeverFamily page for ways you too can participate!}