Lesson for January 24, 2016

Lesson for January 24, 2016 Today our lesson was given by Kristine Hansen on a talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf “It Works Wonderfully,” and a talk by Elder Maynes “The Joy of Living a Christ-Centered Life,” and a talk by Sister Marriott “Yielding Our Hearts to God.” The challenge from last week was to center your life in Christ. Three questions we should ask ourselves: Is my experience in the Church working for me, bringing peace and ?? We all through periods of spiritual drought that can last for weeks or months. We see others who are happy and ask ourselves what is the difference. President Uchtdorf said to simplify your approach to your discipleship and to start where you are. He told of a sister who had to teach a relief Society lesson and wanted to make a quilt a visual aid and had to stay up all night the night before and in the middle of the quilt it said “Simplify.” If we hear the word of God, we then believe more, and we feel His love, and then we want to follow the word of God and then we want to serve God and others and then we are more likely to hear the word of God. We should not over-program others and our stewardships or we complicate our lives. We don’t need to do everything at once. Kristine said she is happiest when she is doing the basics. You don’t have to be more of anything for God to make us who we should be. God will take you as you are and all you need is a willing heart and a desire to trust in the Lord. It’s like being on a diet when you indulge in food and gain back weight. You can still diet again. If you slide back you can start over. We should feel the same way about our children and husbands and love them as they are. They can start at whatever point they are at the moment. Elder Maynes suggested to center your life on Christ. He had a story about pottery making and some Japenese students who went to learn pottery making. They had to learn to center the lump of clay on the wheel and then they could do the task. The world in which we live is like a potter’s wheel and is getting faster. If we center our lives on Christ, we will stay centered and He can successfully mold us into who we should be in relation to how well we are centered. We can all be centered as the clay, not the potter. God is the potter. We have to be willing to be shaped. Also when clay doesn’t turn out right, you don’t get rid of it, you get it back into a lump by slapping it and thumping it and reshaping it. We learn from our failures. We can start again. Where do we start? We can start with prayer if we aren’t sure of the shape we should be in, we can pray to know. If we are unsure and don’t know what to do, we know we can pray. Prayer is a beginning. In the sacrament we are urged to always remember Christ. We can make choices we know He would approve of. Remember how much you value the gospel? Lehi’s family, when they were centered in Christ, lived after the manner of happiness. Even when we can’t attend church as often, even when our loved ones do things that are not good, we can do things to center our lives in Christ and we can be comforted. We are supposed to record our testimonies and if we share those feelings, we will be strengthened. Sister Marriott and her family had a motto that “Everything will work out.” Her daughter died from a bicycle accident while Sister Marriott and her husband were on a mission. So how does this motto work in such a situation? It speaks of an eternal outcome and a long view. It doesn’t say everything will work out now, but in the eternities. The end could be at the end of this week, the end of this year, or the end of this life, or beyond. Heavenly Father might look at us like we view our children, when some things that seem so overwhelming to us now are not that huge in an eternal perspective. It’s never done. Not for us and it is not done for our loved ones. Elder Packer said our lives are a three-act play when act one is about getting to know things, act two is when all the trouble happens, and act three is happily ever after—and this life is act two. Adele Hickman’s brother died five years ago and it was devastating. Then they remembered where he is now and were comforted. Even death is not the end, even if the all right is not what we want it to be. Sister Marriott urged us to yield our hearts to God. She takes sacrament time to try to recognize what we need to do, especially if we have the Spirit with us and have a broken heart and are willing for god to heal us. The gospel will work for us.

Lesson for January 10, 2016

January 10, 2016 Today our lesson was given by Sydney Kelsey on chapter 1: “Jesus Christ—Our Only Way to Hope and Joy.” We are using the Howard W. Hunter manual. We must know Christ better than we know Him. We went to Jeremiah 18:2. Sydney also showed us a video about her mother throwing a pot on a potter’s wheel. First she showed what happens when the clay is uncentered and develops thin and thick spots. The clay actually popped off the wheel. Then she showed how the clay works when it is centered. The clay did not jump around as much and her hands were able to smooth the shape evenly. The resulting bowl was strong and nicely shaped. When Sydney heard the title of the lesson, she thought of centering a pottery piece and how it relates to our lives and centering our lives on Christ. If we are centered, we do not flail around. It means to put Him first and then add the rest of our life afterward. Sydney said her husband had to work on Sunday and they looked for a different job. They prayed about it and he got another job with something he loves to do that would pay enough and they could go to school and go to church. They feel so blessed. We have similar opportunities every time we pay tithing. Things often just work out. Our core, the center of our lives, must be Christ. President Hunter had questions to ask ourselves. How central to your life do you know Him to be? How gratefully do you remember His atoning sacrifice? How adoringly do you reflect on His life? How often to you think of the Savior? We must reflect on Him more often and we must serve Him more often. The Savior loves us whether we are easy to center or not. As we exercise faith in the Savior, He smooths the turmoil in our lives. We have sudden squalls arise that make us wonder if the Savior remembers us, but He does. The Father of us all would say, “Why are you so fearful? Why do you even question my love for you? I have overcome the world for you.” If we center our lives on the Savior our fear turns to joy. We often feel ugly and inferior, but God thinks we’re beautiful and we matter and have value in the Master’s hand. If we center our lives in Christ we can feel joy and know we are valued.

Lesson for January 3, 2016

Lesson for January 3, 2016 Today our lesson was given by our Relief Society president, Suzy Sullivan, about thoughts she has had. We are preparing to become what we want to be. What you will be you are now becoming. She wants to share some thoughts and discuss each other’s thoughts. Scriptures about thoughts. For as he thinketh in his heart so is he. Whatsoever things are anything good, think on these things. Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly. Our words and our thoughts will condemn us. God says for my thoughts not your thoughts, but are higher. God knows how people learn because He made us that way. He knows that thinking of good things will affect us neurologically into physically becoming better people. Suzy was reading a talk by Brother Larson from the 1970s when he said that what we let into our minds can uplift us or poison us. What we put into our minds has a great deal to do with what comes out and what we persist in thinking has a great deal to do with what we become. Emily Campbell is going to her daughter’s grief therapy and they say that we are not victims of our thoughts, so we must practice having good thought. If you have obsessive thought patterns, you have to replace bad things with good things and put out the effort to keep on saying good things until they become real. Even thoughts you are given, that come from outside, can be controlled. Katie Lamb said she visualizes a stop sign and then moves forward. Christelle Boyadjian said you have to retrain yourself to have the outcome that you want. You have to give yourself a pep talk. We can help each other. Adele Hickman says she whispers to her grandchildren, “I love you and you make me happy.” Even the one-year-old knows she makes her grandmother happy. We can choose to develop bonds that make us free by not blaming people and giving people the benefit of the doubt. We must understand that we can retrain ourselves to become our potential positive person who can deal with any problem. It is more important to gain positive thoughts. Suzy worked with a young man who was always so positive. He was not that way initially, but he said he trained himself to be positive. We can choose a theme for the coming year that we can live by. The Relief Society motto is a good theme, as well as a scripture so we can have a guide. Even if other people are mean, we can say that Heavenly Father is the one to judge all of us so we can leave others alone and concentrate on what we should become. We are children of God and meant to shine and make manifest the glory of God that is within us. That knowledge liberates us. It is our responsibility to make that light shine. By practicing sustained constructive thinking we can fill our thoughts in an offensive rather than a defensive way. Shannacy Critchfield found that when she studied her scriptures, rather than just reading them, it affects her whole day positively. Katie Lamb said that if you can get the Spirit with you, then you can have more positive thoughts. Vira Bahr said that if our bodies need exercise, so to do our mind and spirit need exercise. If you want to change and the Spirit is involved then your heart can change, then even our basic needs can change as well. We need to let the Spirit in so we can be changed. We have to submit to our Heavenly Father and let Him heal us. Brother Young in Sacrament Meeting compared our lives to learning to play the piano. One mistake is not going to keep you from being a good piano player, but practicing the good will eventually help us develop. The Atonement can help us become better. Suzy read from The Secret Garden, so long as Collin shut himself up in his room and concentrated on his illness, he could not walk. However, when he thought agreeable thoughts, he saw the color and growth and became well. The challenge is to change our thoughts and have happy lives.