I taught in Relief Society today. All week I have been looking over the three talks that I was supposed to speak on and then mulling over how to tie them together. Last night I got an idea for an object lesson. I brought a blown-up balloon, a bottle of water, and some crackers to church with me. The comparison came when I compared prayer to air, the scriptures to water, and obeying the commandments to food. It went something like this:
How long can you go without air? A few minutes; maybe 10 if you've trained for a long time? Since we are supposed to have a prayer in our hearts all the time, it can be like air. We should always want to be communicating with our Heavenly Father. How long can you go without water? You might be able to do it for a week before you died. Usually, people don't go an entire day without something to drink. It should be the same with the scriptures. You shouldn't be able to go a day without at least reading one verse. How long can you go without food? I don't know that you can more than a month; I personally wouldn't want to go more than a day or two. That is how often you should make sure you are obeying the commandments of God.
Anyway, all week I've been praying that my lesson would help at least one person. I learned a lot but I hoped that in some small way I could benefit someone else. On Sunday morning, my ideas didn't seem to be gelling or connecting to each other. I ended the lesson a few minutes early and felt horrible. I felt like I had failed in my objective of helping another member of my Relief Society. After my lesson, a member of the Relief Society came up to me and said "that was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much." I was shocked and so glad that I had been praying all week. Knowing that I had helped her made me so grateful that the Lord listens to prayers. In the parking lot another woman said almost the same thing. I almost teared up. Anyway, I don't normally get into spiritual things but I just wanted to share that experience with everyone.
6 comments:
It sounds like a great object lesson. I could never think of those. Teaching Relief Society is very, very hard!
What a great analogy. It's a great way to show how much we really need the gospel in our lives. It sounds like all your work and prayer really paid off.
Jessica, that's so awesome! Even in my best weeks of teaching, I never really came up with anything on my own. . . I'm so proud of you! I loved that object lesson!
I have been teaching the 4th Sunday for about 6 months now (the hardest thing I have ever done) and I can't imagine having to use three talks at a time. I use one talk, sometimes I feel like I don't have quite enough material for an entire lesson, but THREE?!? Wow!
Kimberlie always tells me that if one person compliments you on your lesson you should always multiply that by 10. If one person says it a lot of others are thinking it too. :)
I like your object lesson. Good thinking!
I love that analogy. You are quite the teacher, I bet. I wish I could sit in on your lessons.
Wow! Congrats on that. I still can't believe that they ask you to use 3 talks. Our teacher used Pres. Monson's "looking back and moving forward" and still didn't make it through the whole talk. you need to whip them with a wet noodle for asking you to do that!
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