Lesson for Septemer 25, 2016

Lesson for September 25, 2016 Today our lesson was given by Kristine Hansen about three conference talks: “Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins” by Elder Bednar; “The Healing Ointment of Forgiveness” by Elder Duncan; and “He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home” by President Uchtdorf. President Uchtdorf told of visiting Dresden and the church that was nearly destroyed. After the reunification of Germany, the city decided to rebuild the church, using the blackened stone among new white stones. The scars are a reminder of what happened, but of hope and man’s ability of creating new hope from rubble. How much more capable is our Heavenly Father of making something beautiful out of our hopelessness or despair. No life is so shattered that it cannot be restored. He told of the parable of the lost sheep. All of us are at some point in our lives, the lost sheep. Over the centuries this parable has been seen as a call to bring back the lost sheep. But could it be possible that the parable is about the Savior’s mission to reach out to those who are lost. What do the sheep need to know to be reached out to? Does it need specialized technology or sponsorship? No, the Good Shepherd knows and loves us and he will reach out to us. Perhaps He will reach out to us more than once. There is a catch. We have to want to be rescued. We have to have hope to be able to feel the love that is reaching out to us. Obedience is the life blood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light to our souls. Sometimes we feel like a piece of iron being hammered into shape, but that iron is our support. Kristine had us look at D&C 93 where it says that intelligence is light and truth and God’s glory is also light and truth and Satan doesn’t have it. If we want to have light and truth, we need to keep the commandments. If we keep them long enough, we will gather enough light and truth to be filled. D&C 130 tells us that whatever light and truth we gather in this life will rise with us in the resurrection. If we gain more of that light and truth in this life, we will have more light and truth in heaven. We could read the scriptures, but if we didn’t keep the commandments we wouldn’t get what we should out of them. Through obedience and diligence through living the gospel. If we know what we should do, but don’t actually do it, we won’t gain what we should. Being a member of the Church is not checking off a check list, but doing what we should by light and truth and becoming the type of person who does those things out of light and truth and love. No matter how dark our world seems, the Lord will seek us out, especially if we signal that we are ready to be healed. Chelsea Jolley said her daughter deals with severe depression and sometimes feels that she is too far down for Heavenly Father to reach. Chelsea said she has to remind her daughter that there have been times when her Heavenly Father has stepped in to help her. A lot of her help has to be when she is ready. If we seek him the Lord will find us. Elder Bednar talked about the process of spiritual rebirth. It takes a lifetime to be spiritually reborn. The ordinances of exaltation and redemption some through channels. If we recognize this, we have the power to be lifted up through the power of the gospel. The baptismal covenant contains having His spirit to be with us, and the initial cleansing, remember Christ, and remembering Him. This ordinance is not enough. We need the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Ghost for the ongoing cleansing of our souls. Members of the Lord’s restored Church can have the companionship of the Holy Ghost that gives us an ongoing cleansing. We will be warned and prompted to repent. But even that is not enough, so we need the sacrament to help us be cleansed every week. If you take it 48 times a year from 8-78 you will take it over 3,000 times. It gives us access to the Lord’s power of Atonement and to be made pure and holy so we can stand spotless before Him in the final day. The act of partaking of the sacrament does not remit sins, but preparing to take it worthily does help us retain a remission of our sins by leading us to repent weekly and have the Spirit of God with us. That is the promise of the sacrament and helps us to retain a remission of our sins, by being worthy to take the sacrament every week. If you keep working at it, you can be clean and ready to enter the presence of God. We should not want to be baptized again to feel renewed, but we should feel it many times in our lives through preparing to take the sacrament. The gift of the Holy Ghost, taking the sacrament, and other ordinances are an interwoven network of events to help us retain a remission of our sins. Elder Duncan’s talk about forgiveness is lovely because we can get rid of burdens of bad feelings toward others, we can retain a remission of our sins because God will forgive us, and others will forgive us. Our families are those we should practice the forgiveness that we are required to give all men. When someone hurts us on purpose, it is so painful for so long. We don’t forgive others for them, we forgive others for ourselves. Elder Duncan said we sometimes can’t forgive because it does not feel like justice. We have to remember that God will forgive and we are required to forgive. One sister’s father said that when someone makes him angry that person is taking up rent in his brain and he says it isn’t worth it to be damaged further by that person. Have you ever see someone more like Heavenly Father sees them by forgiving them. One sister said that one sister companion on her mission needed some forgiveness because they talked and forgave each other and understood that they were not enemies and that they served each other. They are still in contact and their friendship is special. The forgiveness we give to others can redeem them and change their lives. The forgiveness the Lord gives to us can change us. If we seek Him out, the Lord will lift us up on His shoulders and make us who we can be.

Lesson for September 18, 2016

Lesson for September 18, 2016 Today our lesson was given by Camille Maynard on “Preserve and Protect the Family,” chapter 17 in the Teachings of Howard W. Hunter. The Church has the responsibility and authority to preserve and protect the family. The authorities of the church can give us guidance for our goals for our family. The Proclamation on the Family is to the entire world, not just members of the Church. We should treat it as if it is for everyone in the world. The Lord was interested in the family when it instituted Family Home Evening and has been around for a long time, since the time of President Joseph F. Smith. Mondays were designated during the time of President McKay. The Proclamation says that it is the duty of a father and a mother to raise their family in the way of the Lord. For except the Lord build the house, it shall not stand. In seeking after the welfare of the members of the Church, families of all sorts are needful of having home teachers and other support from their congregations. Wherever we are in the world, we can have support from our ward congregations. Parents can be partners in the leadership of their homes to love and protect children. President Hunter talked to the men of the Church about what they should do: the family is ordained of God, the men should lead their families to church, improve the spiritual atmosphere of the home through personal scripture study, honoring their wives, accept their wives as their partners to make decisions. Most of us understand we need home evening or scripture study, but we need to be ready to teach our children to study and pray. We need to get our own spiritual state in order. We need to honor the priesthood and temple covenants, as well as honoring and reverencing motherhood. We should understand it is an honor to be a mother and an honor to be a father. We can help our men to take responsibility for family home evening or scripture study or family prayer. Sometimes our men don’t recognize that there are things they can do, we can remind them. It seems they don’t work that way. One thing we can do to be united, we can plan and talk about things before they happen, if we can. We can decide to have open communication. You can be united in how to come to a decision that works is modeling how to function as a couple for the children. Don’t talk about it in front of the kids, but do it in private. Our homes should be places of prayer, and love, and teaching the gospel. We should not just rely on schools, church, and others to give our children a foundation. President Hunter said that a home is strong and beautiful when we strive to live the gospel in our family circles. Children need to feel secure and safe in their homes, so integrity in the family is essential, as is showing love to each other. What we do in private will come out in public behavior. We can be more relaxed and comfortable if we are secure and not lash out at our family members if we respect them. We can do things together to build relationships through family home evening and build strength in the family. When we are not close to our family, we can use technology to connect, such as Skype or smart phones. Dinners with families is a way to be connected. Afterwards, then games can be played. We can change the focus of FHE from having to learn the gospel to connecting to each other with a touch of gospel lessons thrown in. We need to recognize what is needed for our family, or our spouses. Sometimes the gospel questions come up at random times, such as driving in the car, or after school. Keeping technology distractions away at a time when you can be all together is important. It shows that we place importance on our times together. Family scripture and family prayer are also important. Getting out the scripture packet of the scripture stories can help children relate to the stories and remember the points of the story. Sister Bush has each child be in charge of a day for family prayer and they each say some reason they are grateful for that person before the prayer. Prayers where we mention family members help our children and ourselves know we are prayed for. It helps if our children can hear us praying for them. President Hunter said our homes should be a holy place.

Lesson for September 11, 2016

Lesson for September 11, 2016 Today our lesson was given by Maggie Kopp on Chapter 16, “Marriage—An Eternal Partnership.” Maggie reminded us about relationships from last week’s lesson. Some of the qualities with those relationships are that they are long-term (really long term), there is respect, honesty, love, free agency, enjoy being around them, traditions together, you can depend on each other, trust, laughter, sincerity, want to be each other’s friend, generosity, and others to be talked about later. She had some quotes from President Hunter. “It is not good for man or woman to be alone.” Neither can reach eternal blessings without the other. As baptism is necessary to enter the church, so temple marriage is necessary for eternal life. We need to see it as essential because it is central to the gospel. It is a commandment. It will help us become exalted. It takes a man and a woman to be their very best. It takes us both to do it. We have to have a goal to be a celestial person and look forward to being with a person who is celestial, too, and who wouldn’t want to be married to a celestial person. Sometimes we are not the normal happy family. How do we balance out the idea that we may not be the ideal. Lisa Anderson said she has been offered other opportunities, such as serving in the temple as much as she do, so we all have our own paths. We have to find out what those paths are. So many young males have died before adulthood—many more than young females—so they are promised marriage in eternity. Marriage is a learned behavior, according to President Hunter. All the things we listed at first, those are learned behaviors as well. We learn relationship skills, such as saying the right thing to our spouse or teenager. We had to learn how to get over a rejection, or breakup, or other hardships. There is a lot of adjusting and learning to do on a daily basis. Everyone has to work. Sometimes we can make it fun and enjoyable, even with the hard work. If you are a baker, you still need to go through the process of mixing and baking and presenting the baked goods to others. Some people may be better at some things, than others, but we can all work on things. President Hunter spoke of some qualities that are essential: charity and patience, oneness of heart, fidelity, tenderness and respect, attentive listening, and selflessness. Charity and patience is especially difficult. There is a scripture that you can pray for charity and that kind of love can tide us over. Chelsea’s mother is good at this. Her father had an accident with a brain injury while they already had four children. Her mother said she had to remember that her father did not choose to have a brain injury. Her mother’s charity spills over onto her kids. Prayer and being accepting is key. We have to be reciprocal and talk together and get on the same page. It takes work to get together on a day-to-day basis. Maggie had a good friend in California that she could go for months without talking, but it eventually got so where they were not on the same page. Maggie realized she had to keep up the communication to maintain their relationship. One of the great stories is Adam and Eve and how the temptations came when they were not together, but when they were together they could not be tempted. We need to share goals, too, so you can work on them together. Being articulate can help, so being up front in the way couples interact—maybe even more obvious than we think we need to be. Being humble and being OK with your partner doing as well as you can. Being considerate and positive toward each other. Ask each other how each feels loved so we know how to show love to the other one. Wherever we are in our relationships, we need to remember that these relationships make us more celestial. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s easy. It’s still work.