“Please, No Empty Chairs”

Benjamin’s Birthday FHE Lesson

I. Remembering him
Look at Benjamin’s scrapbook together. (or watch the video?)

II. The gifts Benjamin has given us

Talk about what we have learned from him.
He has helped me feel that the Plan of Salvation is real. He has helped me want to do my
very best so that I can be with him again.

III. The joy we look forward to

After we die, if we have been righteous, our spirits will go to paradise to wait for our
resurrection. We will see our family there, and work hard to help prepare for the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ.

Say the 10th Article of Faith together.

After Jesus Christ comes again to the earth, the Millennium will begin and we will be
resurrected. What will the Millennium be like? Read 1 Nephi 22:26, and D&C 63:51 (just the
first part). It will be a time of complete peace on the earth, when Satan cannot tempt anyone.
Benjamin will be a baby at first, and we will be able to hold him and watch him grow up. He
will not ever get sick or die again.

Have each person say something that they look forward to doing with Benjamin during the
Millennium.

IV. Make sure we’re there! Our gift to Benjamin

If we have all kept the commandments here on earth, and been baptized and sealed in the
temple to our families, we will get to be together forever! But it is up to us to choose to do
the right things.

Quote from Pres. Eyring (nov 09)

“There is a gravestone near my home of a mother and grandmother. She and her husband were
sealed in the temple of God to each other and to their posterity for time and all eternity. The
inscription on the gravestone reads, “Please, no empty chairs.” She asked for that inscription because
she knew that whether the family will be together depends on the choices each family member
makes. The word “please” is there because neither God nor she can compel another to choose
happiness. And there is Satan, who wants misery, not happiness, in families in this life and in the
next.
“My hope today is to suggest some choices which may seem difficult but that would assure you that
you have qualified for there to be no empty chairs in your family in the world to come.”

Right now there is only one chair in our heavenly home that is filled. Benjamin was so
valiant that he didn’t need to be tested here on earth, and is already with Heavenly Father
again. I’m sure he is watching over us and hoping we will make good choices so that we can
be all together as a family again, with no empty chairs.

Each person chooses something to work on during the coming year that will help them
return to Heavenly Father. Write it on a slip of paper, and put it in the No Empty Chairs
box.
Bear testimony, sharing desire for there to be no empty chairs in our heavenly home, for
each person (by name) to be there, and bear witness of Jesus’ Atonement that makes it
possible.