April 2020 Come Follow Me Ministering – The Atonement of Jesus Christ
This month, the April 2020 Come Follow Me Ministering Printable ties together Brother Brian K. Ashton’s 2019 October General Conference talk, “The Doctrine of Christ” with this April’s Come, Follow Me lesson “The Atonement of Jesus Christ cleanses me and helps perfect me.” With us celebrating Easter this month, I decided to focus the message on the Atonement.
While church gatherings are temporarily on hold due to the recent pandemic, I hope that this month’s printable will be a simple way to reach out to those we minister to. We can’t visit each other, but we can drop off something as a little pick-me-up!
These ministering printables are a great way to help families incorporate the “Come, Follow Me” lessons into their own study. They are also perfect for Young Women’s, Relief Society or Sunday School.
Download April 2020 Come Follow Me Ministering Printable (Blue) (Peach)
I am so excited about the printable this month! My amazing niece Allie drew the cute little bunny illustration for me. She is so talented and such a wonderful example to my kids. I love her!
The bunny was perfect with these cute little wood rabbits I found at the dollar store. So that they would hold the printable up, I hot glued a small clothes pin on the back. If you can’t find the wood rabbits, these rabbits I found on Amazon are also super cute!
April 2020 Come Follow Me Ministering Printable
The Atonement of Jesus Christ cleanses me and helps perfect me
Since it is Easter, let’s talk rabbits! Did you know that rabbits have to eat hay every day – and a lot of it? It isn’t enough to keep rabbits stocked in pellets and vegetables. Hay does more than feed a rabbit. It also prevents painful and potentially deadly medical conditions. The fiber in the hay keeps the gut moving, preventing fatal blockages in the intestines. It also grinds down their ever-growing teeth, preventing painful abscesses. Rabbits who are fed too many pellets, vegetables, or treats might not leave enough room in their diet for essential hay.
Hay and the Atonement?
So what do rabbits and hay have to do with the gospel? Like hay, the Savior’s Atonement is essential to our spiritual health. It nourishes us and protects us in many, many ways. Through the Atonement, Christ suffered for our sins and conquered death by His resurrection. But that is not all. Elder Holland shares, “God provides for the salvation of little children, the mentally impaired, those who lived without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so forth: these are redeemed by the universal power of the Atonement of Christ and will have the opportunity to receive the fulness of the gospel after death.”
The Atonement also has the power to change us. King Benjamin says, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.” (Mosiah 3:19).
King Benjamin mentions two ways that the Atonement saves us. It helps us 1) put off the natural man and 2) become a saint.
Elder David A. Bednar explained: “It is the Atonement of Jesus Christ that provides both a cleansing and redeeming power that helps us to overcome sin and a sanctifying and strengthening power that helps us to become better than we ever could by relying only upon our own strength. The infinite Atonement is for both the sinner and for the saint in each of us.”
Sanctifying and Strengthening Power of the Atonement
This sanctifying and strengthening power is essential to our spiritual health. How many times have we repented and promised not to do it again, but known deep in our hearts that we were going to fall short? Even if I turn to wonderful resources like self-help books or motivational speakers. And that is where the Atonement comes in. It helps us become saints by changing who we are. It puts off the natural man and helps us become more like our Father in Heaven.
Ammon says, “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things.” (Alma 26:12)
Filling our Lives with the Atonement
If we believe that the Lord can only forgive us, we won’t rely on Him to change us. Like the hay, a limited understanding and application of the Atonement can prevent us from filling our lives with its many blessings. The Atonement should be our main course, not a side dish. When we limit the impact of the Atonement in our lives, the painful consequences of sin are the result.
Brother Brian K. Ashton, Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, shared in the October 2019 General Conference, “The Atonement of Christ creates the conditions upon which we may rely upon the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, be perfected in Christ, obtain every good thing, and gain eternal life.”
This Easter, as I reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, I am grateful to know that while I am not good enough by myself, it is not in my strength I have put my trust. It is not about whether I am good enough to do it, it is about whether or not I allow room in my life for the power of Christ to change me.
