We gathered with Elder Bednar and Elder Gonzales (of the presidency of the 70) and their wives as well as the Caribbean Area Presidency from Sunday evening through Wednesday lunch. It was a wonderful and needful experience for our missions as well as our families. There are some things we need to be doing to stay safe - I mean spiritually safe during the times ahead.
Here is the question I tried to find answers to during our training:
How can we stay steadfast, firm, and immovable during challenging times?
By challenging, I don't just mean difficult, I mean times when our beliefs will be challenged.
This, of course, relates to our children as well as ourselves - how do we help them become firm?
We spent most of our time learning how to learn by the spirit. Elder Bednar said that members of the church are pretty good at understanding what it means to teach by the spirit, but we rarely think about learning by the spirit. We actually did it rather than talk about it. He firmly believes that the best way to learn by the spirit is to act. That means when we are teaching classes or our children we need to invite them to do things rather than just sit and listen. Elder Bednar got us to act by having us share questions we had, answering questions he posed, reading scriptures, and sharing our ideas based on those scriptures. He didn't at all mind standing quietly waiting for us to contribute. He didn't jump into uncomfortable silences - he just waited. He also gave us homework (application) assignments to do during each break and at the end of each session - mostly to work on answering questions or figure out how to take what we learned back to our missions. We can do these same things in our families.
Why did we spend so much time learning to learn by the spirit? Because that is what will protect us. That is the way we receive our own testimonies and understanding of gospel truth.
We need that.
The children need that.
So - in keeping with that method of teaching, here is a way each of you can 'act' in order to learn by the spirit what we need to do to stay firm:
Read 1 Nephi 8 as couples or families. Go through it carefully verse by verse and figure out what the difference is between people who stayed firm and those who didn't. Share what you learned in comments. You may be lead to do answer new questions or find more scriptures - go for it!
I think it would be fun to work as families and draw a picture or make a list about what each group did as they approached the tree. Acting out each groups actions might help find differences.
Here is something to give you a jump start - Elder Bednar said the tree is Christ and the fruit is the Atonement. If you read on into 1 Ne 11 and 12, you will get more definitions of the symbols.
I think it is a perfect story for the kids to enjoy and analyze. You could ask them things like:
- Why do you think those people ate the fruit and then fell away?
- What is the large and spacious building?
- What would you do if someone made fun of you for being a Mormon?
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