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).