This week I had the terrifying task of teaching my class how the Holy Ghost helps us teach. Now, the reason I say it was terrifying was because it could be a hypocritical lesson if I myself didn't invite the Spirit into that lesson.
Plus, due to Ward Conference we had some visitors to my class - it's a good job I made extra handouts!
Opener
I asked the class the question: Have you ever been in a position where you have taught someone the gospel?
Immediately there wasn't a lot of response, but as we broke it down into smaller questions (e.g. Have you ever taught in Family Home Evening?) they started to think of moments where they had had conversations - with friends, younger siblings etc - on a gospel theme and had been teaching.
Then, I asked them about times that they've felt the spirit in classes and I asked them what happened for that to come about. What did the teacher do?
Scriptures
We broke into three groups of 2-3 people and I asked them to look at the following scriptures for the answers to questions I gave them; and then we discussed the things they found.
How does the Holy Ghost help us to teach the gospel?
He is the Spirit of truth and testifies of the Father.
What does this scripture teach us about how we should teach?
We should teach with the spirit (it was sent to testify of truth).
The Spirit helps us to understand things.
We have to teach with the Spirit and learn by it.
What should we teach?
The Word of God and the words of living Prophets.
Modern Prophets and Apostles
There was so much good stuff from the talks and Preach My Gospel etc this week that instead of breaking it up, I selected my favourite learning points from each one and made a handout that we used to talk through for the rest of the class.
This was my handout (the colours reflect that there are boys and girls in my class! I'm trying really hard after 4 years in Young Women's to make things unisex!):
We talked through the points on here. By this time the class was in full swing and the young people had a lot of really wonderful points to offer. Here's a link to the file!
Challenge
Having personally learned something from preparing the lesson, I knew I needed to invite them to act. So, I asked them to find some time this week to share their favourite scripture with someone. A family member, a church friend or even a non-member friend and teach them what that scripture means. I felt inspired by this challenge because in bearing our testimonies we teach each other the things we have personally felt our convictions strengthened by.
Reflections:
One of my absolute favourite things which came out of my personal study for the lesson was the counsel from the living Prophets and Apostles on "winging it" and claiming to be being led by the Spirit.
Mostly, I love that we have counsel on things like that. Doctrinal issues in this church are not left to chance - cultural nuances that creep in are often challenged and corrected by men inspired of God to steer the church. It kind of reminds me of bowling with the bumpers up. The likelihood that you might actually hit one of the pins is greatly improved by having the guardrails to ensure that the ball doesn't go completely in the gutter. We all perform individually and live commandments individually but having the Prophets and Apostles there to guide us gives us a better chance of success.
Here was my favourite part of Elder Oaks talk which covered this subject:
"The next principle after preparation is the requirement that we desire to be led by the Spirit and so are willing to put aside all our preparation and follow the Spirit’s direction. That is a difficult principle to understand and an even more difficult one to apply.
When I have tried to teach that principle in the past, I have observed that some people use it as an excuse for not preparing. Some will say, “Since the Spirit may prompt me to cast away my prepared talk, perhaps I don’t need to prepare at all.” That approach is not “treasur[ing] up in [our] minds continually the words of life.”
We should be in constant general preparation by treasuring up in our minds the teachings of the gospel, and when invited to give a talk or to present a lesson, we should make specific preparations. Most of the time we will carry through with our preparations. But sometimes there will be an authentic impression to leave something out or to add something. We should make careful preparation, but we should not be exclusively bound to that preparation."
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