Sunday, June 28, 2015

Youth Lesson - How can using scripture study skills help me learn more about the priesthood? 28 June 2015

Have you learned anything this week in your personal studies?

Have you had any gospel conversations with friends or families that were interesting that you would like to share?

How can using scripture study skills help me learn more about the priesthood?

We have spent the last month studying about priesthood. Why have we spent so much time talking about something that only boys hold to a class that also had girls in it?  Why is this relevant to you young women..

You will be choosing a man whose name you will take. When you take his name, that signifies that you trust him to behave in way that keeps that name honorable.

The priesthood is to help him to keep that name honorable.  Learning about and using the priesthood teach men in ways very specific to them and uses their attributes of being a man.

You need to know how to help them to be their best in the priesthood and you need them to understand their duties in the priesthood to know how to help you be your best in motherhood, which is all women.

As we think about this let’s consider Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother’s roles in the universe.

Why is the universe governed by our Heavenly Father? Why do the scriptures not say more about Heavenly Mother who is the Queen of the universe?

Let's read the part of the family proclamation to learn the role of a fathers and husbands.

“By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.”

How does the world speak of women? Have you girls noticed how the world often treats women? How do you feel about that?

How does the world speak about God?

How would the world speak of a woman God if they knew about her?

Based on what we learned about the role of a father or husband why would Heavenly Father keep Mother hidden from being written much about our taught much about?  A father is to preside, provide, and protect.

He keeps Her hidden because She is critically important and sacred.  Her job is to nurture and His job is to provide for her and to protect her so she can do her job.

I program computers we write what is called computer code or instructions to the computer to tell it how to do stuff.  We protect that code because we do not want it altered or stolen and we do not want bad things done with our code. We protect that code through a big word called obfuscation. Which means to hide it or make it unrecognizable to others. If they do not know it is there or how to read it then they can't mess with it.

Is that code working and doing powerful stuff? Yes. Is it vital for the computer to work properly? Yes. But it is hidden.

I think Father has obfuscated mother from our view because she is that important.

Is she working and doing powerful things? Absolutely. Is She vitally important for things to work properly. Knowing the importance of earthly mothers I would say with certainty that Her role in our salvation is huge.

When I was a kid and onto when I was a teen I could sass my dad and I would likely get some level of trouble from my dad, but sometimes he would let it slide, but any trouble I got was nothing like he would give me if I sassed my mom.  And if I called my mom a disrespectful name, then I could be sure that my life was about to change in drastic ways.  This was because he would protect her from anything.

Let's read from the beginning of the lesson:
"One of the best ways to learn about the priesthood is to study the scriptures. Studying the scriptures involves more than just reading. In order to understand scriptures that teach about the priesthood, we can learn and apply scripture study skills such as defining difficult words and using footnotes and other study aids."

We learn about the priesthood through what is in the scriptures, but also by what is not in the scriptures. We do not hear about heavenly Mother in the scriptures. Why is that? I believe that is because women are sacred and they have a great work on earth and in the eternities that gets minimized and ridiculed by the world, so I think Father guards Mother against that.

I also believe the priesthood is primarily here to clear the way for mothers or the relief society to do their work.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:8
8 Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.

Part of keeping order is that we have priesthood and motherhood.

The Lord gives us the scriptures to show us how things should be in order so that we can refer back to them as we fulfill our roles with the priesthood. That we might understand those roles . The Lord wants us to know how things work, so we can do things the way they work so we can be happy.

Bible Dictionary Melchizedek Priesthood

Let's read the entry in the Bible Dictionary and all the scriptures listed so we can see what the scriptures say about the priesthood.

D&C 42:11
“Again I say unto you, that it shall not be given to any one to go forth to preach my gospel, or to build up my church, except he be ordained by someone who has authority, and it is known to the church that he has authority and has been regularly ordained by the heads of the church”

Priesthood holders are to take the lead in their home. They are reasonable to call people together for prayer and Family home evening. Why not mom? Because she had her own responsibilities. She had been monitoring the welfare of the children all day and learning about their needs to council with the father in what the family needs.

Because of the way men were created for their responsibilities in life the Lord knew they would need the additional responsibility of leading their home to remind them the importance of home and family.

It is important that young women learn about the priesthood, because they have the responsibility of choosing who the man to lead her family in righteousness. When you take a man's lady name you are saying that you trust that his name is a name of honor and righteousness. That having his name as your name will never bring you shame.

Let's read some from Larry M Gibson, Fatherhood—Our Eternal Destiny during last general conference where he breaks down Doctrine and Covenants 20 and he talks about how Aaronic Priesthood holders can apply it to their lives.
“Invite all [of your family] to come unto Christ” (verse 59).
“Watch over [them] always, and be with and strengthen them” (verse 53).
“Preach, teach, expound, exhort, and baptize” members of your family (verse 46).
“Exhort them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties” (verse 47).
“See that there is no iniquity in [your family], neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking” (verse 54).
“See that [your family meets] together often” (verse 55).
Assist your father in his duties as patriarch. Support your mother with priesthood strength when a father is not present (see verses 52, 56).
When asked, “ordain other priests, teachers, and deacons” in your family (verse 48).

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Youth Lesson - How can I participate effectively in councils in the Church?

What did we talk about last week?

Have you learned anything in your personal gospel study that you would like to share?

Have you have any gospel conversations with friends or family that you found interesting?

Today we are going to talk about:
How can I participate effectively in councils in the Church?

The Lord’s Church is governed through councils. Under the direction of priesthood leadership, leaders counsel together for the benefit of individuals, families, and the Church. Effective councils invite full expression from all council members, who seek to be united and guided by the Holy Ghost to build the kingdom of God. Learning how revelation is received in councils can help us participate effectively in council meetings, including presidency meetings, bishopric youth committee meetings, and family councils.

What councils have the youth participated in (for example, class and quorum presidencies or the bishopric youth committee)? How well do the youth understand the purposes of councils?

Ask the youth how those worked.

In my old ward I was on the ward council for a while.

We would talk about how to help those in our ward. Our ward, not as a group of church members, but as everyone in our ward boundaries.

Without giving confidential information about things that were discussed in your counsels, are there things you would like to share about the benefits you saw when working on a counsel?

Often things we talk about in counsels are sacred, so just like other sacred things we are careful what we share. How are things in counsels sacred?

Matthew 18:20
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Have you ever heard this scripture before? What are they usually talking about when they give this scripture?

Often I have heard people talk about why we go to church, but does this apply to counsels and how?

Here's another scripture that is usually use when talking about the importance of going to church.

Moroni 6:5
5 And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

Think about this in the context of meeting together in counsels.

Why would it be less effective if one person made all of the decisions without counseling with others?

Even though we may be doing good things and avoiding bad things, do we still get caught up in our own way of thinking or how we think something should be done?

Have you ever had your mind on something and someone says something that really makes you think about something different?  Have you had an experience like that which you would like to share?

Counsels are like that. We bring together people that have different life experiences, which cause them to see things from a different perspective. Taking together helps us perhaps to see more.

Have your ever seen one of those pictures that are zoomed way in and it is hard to determine what the picture is? Then you zoom out a bit and the picture make more sense. When we meet in counsels it helps us is to see what we think we see another way and often it makes more sense.

In many ways the way we do teaching youth classes in the Church is a lot like a counsel. We all reason things out together through the input of all of us.

Jesus often taught by asking questions and having his students participate in thinking about issues and taking the issue or question out.

Luke 10:25-28
25 ¶And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Is there anything you have thought about as we have talked that you would like to use when you participate in a counsel next?