I've just been called as a Youth Sunday School teacher for the 12-15 year old class in my ward.
This week's lesson has given me so much to think about and reflect on.
Opener
We started the class with the following activity. I asked the class to write on a piece of paper all the examples they could imagine of things that don't work without each other. They came up with great examples such as:
Pool - Water
Ball - Air
Hospital - Doctors & Nurses
Books - Words
We discussed how these things can't fulfill their potential and find their purpose without something else. So it is with us - we can be much more and we can achieve more of what we were intended to do if we have Heavenly Father in our lives.
Scriptures
We read this scripture as a class and discussed what it meant. The girls I was teaching weren't sure what tender mercies meant so we discussed this idea. We also discussed what Heavenly Father can do to change us and how in this scripture Nephi said He could make us MIGHTY.
Reading this scripture, we thought about how this scripture applies to us - which things that are mentioned that are ways we can see Heavenly Father's hand? We identified that we have prophets, we have the earth, and all things that denote that there is a God.
I asked the girls if they have ever thanked Heavenly Father for anything. They told me the kind of things they have thanked him for. One of them mentioned her school grades - she clearly already recognised Heavenly Father's hand in her life in things even involving the secular. It was a wonderful thing to here this budding testimony of the lesson subject.
Modern Prophets and Apostles
We read the following part of the talk by President Eyring:
"When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.
He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”
I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.
I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."
Conclusion
I encouraged them to look for the good things God does for them in their daily lives. Then I asked them the question, "Is it easier to see God's hand in our lives when things are going brilliantly?" They answered in the affirmative, so I told them that though that may be the case we often go through trials and God is just as close to us and we can even see His hand in those moments.
Then I played this video:
Reflections:
All week I've been thinking about this lesson and as I have, I have really seen what President Eyring said in his message - when we spend time in gratitude reflecting on our day we can see so many examples of Heavenly Father's hand. Thus, our eyes are open to the miraculous. We are more for that recognition. We become more grateful, more in tune with our Heavenly Father and better people for those moments in which we feel loved by our Father.
Miracles in my week:
- Snow that did not impede my journey into work.
- A random stranger giving me a lift in his van which stopped me from falling over in the ice when I was worried and slipping.
- A greater realisation that Heavenly Father is looking after me and is aware of my needs.
- A gift of a piano from my sister and her husband as we helped them move into a new house. I've wanted a piano for ages.
Nothing is huge and sparkly, but I know that Heavenly Father's hand has been in my life this week and I'm determined to recognise Him in my life more this year and write things down in my diary.
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