Monday, January 10, 2011

Success

I'll take my successes where I can get them.

I am in the Young Women's Presidency, which means that I work with the 12-18 year girls at church. Yesterday it was my turn to teach. I love these girls, they have some wonderful qualities, but it is like pulling teeth to get the girls to respond. We've got shy, we've got knows-all-the-answers-but-wants-to-give-someone-else-a-chance, we've got pretending-to-be-shy. I have no doubt that girls have a desire to learn, and I have seen great strides in their spiritual development.

I was teaching the lesson on Getting to Know Jesus Christ (if any of you are in Young Women you probably had the same lesson). I remember this lesson from when I was a young women, because the lesson in the manual offended me (see my taking offense sin started young). The whole first part is about belittling someone who had studied the scriptures and got to know Jesus that way. the message of the story being that you need to recognize Jesus, not just know his life. Which, to the stories defense is a just message, but really do we need to mock studying the scriptures? Since it wasn't a true story, I decided that I could count it as not appropriate to teach my girls. So, when I first read the lesson I immediately decided I would not be using a majority of what was in the manual. Luckily, in Young Women you can do that, they have a supplementary booklet with references to current talks, articles, and personal progress. I had something prepared, but still wasn't feeling completely confident.

Sunday Morning it came to me. We should read "The Living Christ," Silently with two different colors, underlining the things we already believe to be true in one color, and the things we aren't so sure about in the other. And, while we were reading two separate girls asked for definitions. And that was my success. I know it seems so ridiculous, but I'm sure that the girls that were going to get something out of the lesson did, and that now there is a little more understanding floating around.

Also, I beat the computer on Scrabble. 

2 comments:

Kay Jones said...

Sounds to me like you did a good thing with the lesson. At one point, years and years ago, I was asked to be the mother education leader in Relief Society. The lessons were in the manual, and I told the sisters that the lessons were fairy tales. They said that if you did 'a, b, and c', that your children would all follow. Not necessarily so. But we can always love and pray for our children, and that's no fairy tale. It would be nice if things always followed the pattern left for us, but they just don't always. I raised 9 of my 10 children, (one daughter died at 9 months in an auto accident). one son and one daughter served missions. Three of my adult daughters are very active in the church, and one son. The other 3 sons and 2 daughters are not active, but they are all good people. Life is hard to figure some days. I served in 5 different Young Women's presidencies, and each had their own specific problems, but many good women came out of those groups. Sometimes we just need to count on inspiration, which it sounds like you did.

Mindy said...

Great idea Brecken. (I know it wasn't yours completely, but it takes faith to follow that whispering sometimes).