The Atonement

I am so blessed to be in Primary with such a wonderful teacher/1st councillor/bestest friend/my nightshift entertainer Ange. I am what you would call a little slow when it comes to understanding the gospel. I try really hard to work it out for myself but alas I always seem to fail. On Sunday Ange was teaching the children all about the atonement and it was like the penny dropped for me. Oh my gosh I was always thinking well yep there's that word atonement and that it was a special gift given to us from Jesus Christ and generally I would be happy with that explanation, but like other things in the gospel I really wanted to know so what does that really mean? Why is that word so important? How does it link to repentance? How did it come about etc? Feeling stupid does prevent me from asking the questions because I think other would think well she is stupid. Fortunately for me Ange's interpretation was brilliant. She started with two pictures one of the Saviour praying in Gesemane and the other of a little girl they were side by side (close together). Then Ange chose children to dig deep into her bag to pull out a sin and with each sin we were ask how big we thought the sin was how far would the gap be between the little girl and the Saviour. With each sin the gap was wider and even deeper like a pit. It was amazing to see the children interprete how big the gap was for each sin. David ( a valiant boy), had his arms wide apart (i.e real bad sin) for not wanting/whinging about FHE. Nicholas thought the gap was very wide for every sin, from lying to poking your brother/sister. Once the gap was made Ange asked the children how could we get back to being close to our Saviour and our Heavenly Father. To be honest I just thought you repent and Bob's your uncle. Oh how wrong was I and then that word Atonement came into the light Ange had made these awesome pavement blocks out of paper with a letter on each block that spelt the word ATONEMENT and it was put on the board between the little girl and the Saviour it was a bridge that allowed us to get close to our Saviour again. Moreso Ange took it a step further by asking the children how can we cross over that bridge to feel close to our Saviour and we went through each sin and made suggestion how we could right that wrong. We had such a joyful time playing hot n cold game to find the pavers (I think I was doing most of the yelling). I liked Ange's lesson so much that I gave it for FHE mostly to help reinforce what I had learn't and to see how much Nicholas remembered. Well because Ange is a brilliant teacher Nicholas remember most of it as he reminded me at the end.... "that's the lesson Sister Cook did on Sunday in Primary". So thank you Ange I look forward to many more lesson's from you!!!! (Actually you should teach all the time) I know I'm greedy. How big is that gap in the sin rating??? Love ya