The Whole Plan Spells Love: A Fresh Look at the Plan of Salvation With Paige Aardema

Paige Aardema was asked to teach a lesson to our 16 to 18 year old girls a few Sundays ago and I did not even know what the topic was until I walked back in at the end and saw the plan of salvation spelled out on the board as a single word.

Love.

I had never seen it framed that way before. The plan of salvation is LDS theology's answer to the three biggest questions humans ask. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? Paige served her mission in Houston during COVID and taught this plan to strangers at Walmart, to people who had never heard of Adam and Eve, and to a girl named Ayana who struggled with depression and had no religious background whatsoever.

She watched color come into that girl when she learned she had a purpose.

That is what this plan does when it is taught the way it was meant to be taught. Not as a checklist of requirements. As a love letter from God to his children.

✨Listen to the full episode or read for the breakdown.

Before This Life and the Choice We Already Made

Before this life, we existed as spirit children of God, created in his image, and according to LDS belief we chose to come here.

We chose a plan that preserved agency over one that would have removed it entirely.

Paige pointed out how grounding that is. Even in the middle of a faith crisis, even feeling completely cut off from anything divine, at some point you chose God. We also hit a ceiling on what we could learn in that pre-mortal existence and coming to earth was the only way to keep growing. The Fall of Adam and Eve was not a tragedy.

It was the whole point.

Without it none of us would be here. We had to experience opposition to understand joy. Eve, Paige said with a smile, probably knew exactly what she was doing.

The Atonement Is the Center of Everything

No part of the plan works without Jesus Christ. Paige described the Atonement simply. Every hard day, every depression, every moment of physical or emotional suffering, he took it all on individually.

Not in generalities. Your hardest moment specifically. He knows it perfectly.

Nowhere in the description of what the Atonement covers does it name a specific church, a specific lifestyle, or a specific checklist. It is for every single person. Even if someone lived every single day like Mother Teresa they still could not make it back to God without Christ.

The plan was never about earning it.

It was always about accepting the gift.

And that gift, she was clear, belongs to everyone.

"Even in the middle of a faith crisis, even if you feel completely cut off from anything divine, at some point you chose God. That connection started somewhere."

The Spirit World and the Three Kingdoms

"The Atonement is infinite. There is no deadline on when someone can choose Christ. God is not working on our timeline."

After death, LDS belief holds that spirits continue in a temporary state of learning and preparation before resurrection. Paige shared that the language has shifted away from paradise and prison toward spiritual enlightenment and spiritual darkness, and she thinks that is a meaningful change. It is not about reward and punishment.

It is about understanding where you are and being helped toward the light.

The three kingdoms of glory, celestial, terrestrial, and telestial, are three degrees of heaven, not heaven and hell. Paige compared them to the sun, the moon, and the stars, each giving off light in different amounts. And she was clear about what she believes.

Everyone will be comfortable where they are. Nobody ends up somewhere awful.

God does not work that way.

If This Is a Plan of Happiness, Why Are So Many Families Heartbroken?

This was the question I brought to this conversation and the one I needed answered most. So many Latter-day Saint families are in genuine distress about the plan because of the choices of people they love. Children who have left the church. Siblings who are gay. Parents who have stepped away. The fear of not being together forever is real and it is heavy. Paige's answer was to lean into one word.

Infinite.

The Atonement does not have an expiration date. There is no deadline on when someone can choose Christ. God is not working on our timeline. I shared something too. When the Think Celestial talk came out it was genuinely hard for me. I have a brother who is gay and a brother who has stepped away from the church. What I felt in that moment was not fear.

It was love and an overwhelming sense that it was all going to work out.

I cannot control the choices of the people I love. I can only control what I do here and now. And I choose to believe in a God who loves families and would not create a plan that tears them apart.

"There will be no accidents in the afterlife. There will be no mistakes. There will be love first."

Find Your Why

Paige closed with an invitation that applies to everyone, believer or not.

Find your why.

Why do you wake up hoping for something good? Why do you try to be the person you are? Answering that question leads you somewhere. And wherever it leads, a God and a savior who know you perfectly are waiting. The whole plan, from beginning to end, spells love. There will be no accidents in the afterlife. There will be no mistakes.

There will be love first.

Make it a great day 💗

Brynne

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Hi, I’m Brynne. I share my journey of becoming through stories and reflection - guided by a higher power as I explore identity, faith, and everyday life, inviting you to grow alongside me.

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