I haven't announced it on my blog yet, but I am now an instructor with the Young Women at church! Woo hoo! I am in charge of weekly lessons for the 12-13 year old girls. What a great calling this has been! The girls in my group are so respectful, mature, and wise! I teach every now and then, but most of the time, one or two girls are in charge of a lesson every week & I help guide them through their lesson plans. It has been a wonderful experience.
I finally started writing lesson plans on the computer instead of using pen and paper. This makes it easy for me to share them through the blog. The document is written with bullet points to serve as an outline for the lesson. I will mainly be asking the girls questions and having us read scriptures, but I will also share my experiences and testimony, which can be found written in the bullet points. So, this isn't EXACTLY how my lesson will go, but here it is :)
I finally started writing lesson plans on the computer instead of using pen and paper. This makes it easy for me to share them through the blog. The document is written with bullet points to serve as an outline for the lesson. I will mainly be asking the girls questions and having us read scriptures, but I will also share my experiences and testimony, which can be found written in the bullet points. So, this isn't EXACTLY how my lesson will go, but here it is :)
The Outline
· An opening activity
o Tell the young women that I was teaching my son about Heavenly Father last week. Ask them to pretend that they have a three-year-old. How would they teach a toddler about God? (Let them share answers in groups if there are enough people that day)
o What I told my son: I pointed at my son’s Father and emphasized that Daniel is Ethan’s earthly father. I then asked, “Did you know that you also have a Heavenly Father? Even though it isn’t likely or guaranteed that we’ll see God while we’re in mortality, the scriptures teach us that we can know Him by keeping His commandments (John 2: 3-5), loving one another (John 4:7-8), praying to Him (Enos 1:1-7), repenting (Mosiah 4:9-12), serving Him (Mosiah 5:13), seeking Him (D&C 88: 63-65), and through obedience to God (D&C 93:1)
· Keep His Commandments (John 2: 3 – 5)
o “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Let’s look at what the commandments entail (Exodus 20:1-17) #1 & 2 teach us how to follow God by avoiding idolatry. This commandment is good for us because we aren’t spiritually fed by idolatry (Isaiah 44:20 “He feedeth on ashes” which means that idolatry doesn’t lead to spiritual nourishment. Example: Letting movies take up so much of our time that we don’t read our scriptures. In a sense, it’s worshipping idols instead of God. We aren’t nutritionally fed. We can either continue to seek for that nutrition by watching more and more movies, and never finding it, or we can study the word of God and be spiritually nourished.). #3 shows us how to be respectful to the Lord (Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain). The 4th, keeping the Sabbath, shows that our loving Heavenly Father wants us to get the rest we need, but also the spiritual strength that we need. #5 - Honour thy Father and thy Mother – His reasoning is for our good, “that thy days may be long upon the land.” 6-10 show that Heavenly Father wants us to treat everyone well and love one other. 5 of those commandments are specifically to show us how to love one another. This reveals a lot about Heavenly Father’s character and what He cares about.
· Love one another (John 4: 7-8)
o Anytime I feel love for someone, I feel closer to God. When there are disagreements, I know in my heart that Heavenly Father wants us to love anyways. If we can’t feel that on our own, He can help us through prayer. “For love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God… God is love.” As a parent, I know that I would want my children to choose love, even if they didn’t agree about things. I know Heavenly Father wants that for all of His children. I think He just wants us all to get along J
· Prayer (Enos 1:1-7)
o How can a relationship be made without communication? Do we really know someone if we mindlessly talk to them? (Yes, that happens during prayer sometimes, unfortunately) Do we really know someone if we don’t listen? We don’t need to hear audible words from Heavenly Father to understand His response. He has sent the Holy Ghost to communicate with us. He will know how to reach us because He knows all of us on an individual level. Communication is a key way to develop relationships. Isn’t it wonderful that God wants to hear from us and will always listen? That fact alone shows us the character of God and how much He cares about his children.
· Repentance (Mosiah 4: 9 – 12)
o God is perfect and we are spiritually related to Him. I believe that we seek perfection because of that relationship. It can really bother us when things don’t go correctly. We are also mortal, and can’t be perfect in this life. However, we can seek after the perfect One, Jesus Christ, and become perfected in Him. When we repent, we become clean and become more like God. Experiencing cleanliness through the atonement of Jesus Christ (which is so important that we partake of the sacrament every week) helps us to be closer to Heavenly Father spiritually. We can get to know Him by being more like Him. He wants us to be spiritually clean, like Him.
· Service (Mosiah 5: 13)
o “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” I believe service is one of the easiest ways to feel love for someone. Parents can have unbelievable bonds of love for their babies. I think one of the reasons is because so much of that relationship is spent in service. Infants are completely dependent for survival, which means service has to be involved. I have felt love grow through service in many different ways during my life. Service leads to love, and God is love. It is no wonder to me, then, that we need to serve God to know Him.
· Seek Him (D&C 88: 63 – 65)
o Besides prayer, I think one of the best ways to seek Heavenly Father is to study His words (the scriptures). He gave us the scriptures to help guide us back to Him. What a great way to get to know someone – to read the words they’ve given us, specifically written to benefit our lives. We will find what is important to Heavenly Father, what He cares about, what He wants for us, etc. by reading His words.
· Obedience (D&C 93:1)
o Once we know Heavenly Father and that He wants the best for us, we are able to trust Him and follow Him. He has given us the tools to gain this trust and knowledge. It is up to us to get to know Him or not. The wisdom to know His character will give us the confidence that it would be best to obey an all loving, charitable, just God. Through obedience, we will be blessed and will know God even better.
John 17: 3 - “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom though hast sent.”
I challenge us to find at least one way that we can improve our relationship with Heavenly Father and get to know him better.
o Tell the young women that I was teaching my son about Heavenly Father last week. Ask them to pretend that they have a three-year-old. How would they teach a toddler about God? (Let them share answers in groups if there are enough people that day)
o What I told my son: I pointed at my son’s Father and emphasized that Daniel is Ethan’s earthly father. I then asked, “Did you know that you also have a Heavenly Father? Even though it isn’t likely or guaranteed that we’ll see God while we’re in mortality, the scriptures teach us that we can know Him by keeping His commandments (John 2: 3-5), loving one another (John 4:7-8), praying to Him (Enos 1:1-7), repenting (Mosiah 4:9-12), serving Him (Mosiah 5:13), seeking Him (D&C 88: 63-65), and through obedience to God (D&C 93:1)
· Keep His Commandments (John 2: 3 – 5)
o “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Let’s look at what the commandments entail (Exodus 20:1-17) #1 & 2 teach us how to follow God by avoiding idolatry. This commandment is good for us because we aren’t spiritually fed by idolatry (Isaiah 44:20 “He feedeth on ashes” which means that idolatry doesn’t lead to spiritual nourishment. Example: Letting movies take up so much of our time that we don’t read our scriptures. In a sense, it’s worshipping idols instead of God. We aren’t nutritionally fed. We can either continue to seek for that nutrition by watching more and more movies, and never finding it, or we can study the word of God and be spiritually nourished.). #3 shows us how to be respectful to the Lord (Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain). The 4th, keeping the Sabbath, shows that our loving Heavenly Father wants us to get the rest we need, but also the spiritual strength that we need. #5 - Honour thy Father and thy Mother – His reasoning is for our good, “that thy days may be long upon the land.” 6-10 show that Heavenly Father wants us to treat everyone well and love one other. 5 of those commandments are specifically to show us how to love one another. This reveals a lot about Heavenly Father’s character and what He cares about.
· Love one another (John 4: 7-8)
o Anytime I feel love for someone, I feel closer to God. When there are disagreements, I know in my heart that Heavenly Father wants us to love anyways. If we can’t feel that on our own, He can help us through prayer. “For love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God… God is love.” As a parent, I know that I would want my children to choose love, even if they didn’t agree about things. I know Heavenly Father wants that for all of His children. I think He just wants us all to get along J
· Prayer (Enos 1:1-7)
o How can a relationship be made without communication? Do we really know someone if we mindlessly talk to them? (Yes, that happens during prayer sometimes, unfortunately) Do we really know someone if we don’t listen? We don’t need to hear audible words from Heavenly Father to understand His response. He has sent the Holy Ghost to communicate with us. He will know how to reach us because He knows all of us on an individual level. Communication is a key way to develop relationships. Isn’t it wonderful that God wants to hear from us and will always listen? That fact alone shows us the character of God and how much He cares about his children.
· Repentance (Mosiah 4: 9 – 12)
o God is perfect and we are spiritually related to Him. I believe that we seek perfection because of that relationship. It can really bother us when things don’t go correctly. We are also mortal, and can’t be perfect in this life. However, we can seek after the perfect One, Jesus Christ, and become perfected in Him. When we repent, we become clean and become more like God. Experiencing cleanliness through the atonement of Jesus Christ (which is so important that we partake of the sacrament every week) helps us to be closer to Heavenly Father spiritually. We can get to know Him by being more like Him. He wants us to be spiritually clean, like Him.
· Service (Mosiah 5: 13)
o “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” I believe service is one of the easiest ways to feel love for someone. Parents can have unbelievable bonds of love for their babies. I think one of the reasons is because so much of that relationship is spent in service. Infants are completely dependent for survival, which means service has to be involved. I have felt love grow through service in many different ways during my life. Service leads to love, and God is love. It is no wonder to me, then, that we need to serve God to know Him.
· Seek Him (D&C 88: 63 – 65)
o Besides prayer, I think one of the best ways to seek Heavenly Father is to study His words (the scriptures). He gave us the scriptures to help guide us back to Him. What a great way to get to know someone – to read the words they’ve given us, specifically written to benefit our lives. We will find what is important to Heavenly Father, what He cares about, what He wants for us, etc. by reading His words.
· Obedience (D&C 93:1)
o Once we know Heavenly Father and that He wants the best for us, we are able to trust Him and follow Him. He has given us the tools to gain this trust and knowledge. It is up to us to get to know Him or not. The wisdom to know His character will give us the confidence that it would be best to obey an all loving, charitable, just God. Through obedience, we will be blessed and will know God even better.
John 17: 3 - “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom though hast sent.”
I challenge us to find at least one way that we can improve our relationship with Heavenly Father and get to know him better.