Becoming a New Creature Through Jesus Christ

I'm so grateful that the Come Follow Me method of teaching allows for the input of every member of the family...nay, it depends on it!

This morning, I was just kind of winging it. I opened the manual to our next study topic which calls us to ponder what it means to become "a new creature" through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I was getting "crickets" at first, so I asked my six-year-old daughter Honor what creature she might know that undergoes a change.

She immediately said that caterpillars change into butterflies, something I hadn't even thought of.

Inspired by her comment, we quickly printed out coloring pages of butterflies.  And while we colored, we discussed the process by which caterpillars transform into beautiful butterflies and compared it to the processes through which we become new creatures through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Some parts of that "becoming" include baptism, repentance, and so on.

We then took that idea of becoming a new creature and dovetailed into President Eyring's talk where he gives us great insight into how we can become new creatures as a family.

In the talk "A Home Where the of the Lord Spirit Dwells", President Eyring taught that the underlying cause of contention in a family is the influence of Satan who is trying to cause us to sin and lose the influence of the Holy Ghost.

Wise parents will focus not merely on the symptoms or individual undesirable bad behaviors of each child, but instead will lead each child (by personal example) to the Savior.  He said the best thing we can do to "reverse spiritual decline" in our families is to help each child grown their faith in Jesus Christ.

He listed some specific things we can do to help reverse this spiritual slide and boot out contention.  They are:

1. Lead by example

2. Grow in faith together

3. Pray in love for each member of the family

4. Apologize quickly and sincerely

5. Experience forgiveness together

6. Cultivate a spirit of sharing the gospel

7. Visit the temple together often

As a family, the things we can easily impliment immediately is prayer.  We are going to start a habit of praying over every member of our family in every prayer that we say together.

I'm excited to try this out, to try the words of President Eyring and see how it affect everyone in our home.  And I'm so happy that my little girl...who LOVES bugs...could use her knowledge of butterflies to help us all better understand how Christ can help us become "new creatures."