Lately my lessons have been really intense subjects or at least serious and I was having a hard time enjoying teaching but yesterday my lesson was on Spiritual Gifts and it was such a fun lesson to teach. I think I was so excited to teach it that I may have been a little over the top optimistic and ecstatic during my lesson. (Hopefully I didn't scare away any cute boys)
Anyways, I just wanted to share why I was so excited about this lesson...
I think spiritual gifts are so cool! We each have spiritual gifts and they are there to bless us but even more importantly to bless those around us. D&C Section 46 talks about some specific spiritual gifts but then Elder Marvin J. Ashton said, "some “less-conspicuous gifts” include “the gift of asking; the gift of listening; the gift of hearing and using a still, small voice; … the gift of avoiding contention; the gift of being agreeable; … the gift of seeking that which is righteous; the gift of not passing judgment; the gift of looking to God for guidance; the gift of being a disciple; the gift of caring for others; the gift of being able to ponder; the gift of offering prayer; the gift of bearing a mighty testimony; and the gift of receiving the Holy Ghost”
After reading this quote I had the class tell me all the spiritual gifts and talents they could think of... we FILLED the chalk board before I stopped them and I'm sure they could have kept going. These were some of the chunk... The gift of: Kindness, Happiness, The Ability to Recognize Other's Needs, Including Others, Laughter, Smiling, Service, Organization, Hard work, Ponder, Obedience, The Use of Time Wisely, Showing and Expressing Gratitude, Forgiveness, Repentance, Humility, Listening, Teaching, Recognizing Other's Talents, Generosity, Acting on Promptings, etc.
It was so nice to see this huge list on the board to recognize how many spiritual gifts there are. I had one girl even say that there were things on there that she always knew she had the habit of doing but she never realized it would be considered a spiritual gift and she said it was nice to be able to recognize that it was of s. gift of hers.
So think about the people in your life that you love and admire, and think about their spiritual gifts and how they use them.
I have one friend that has the gift of laughter. She has the ability to laugh things off, laugh at the perfect time when a story is being told to her, etc. and her laugh is extremely uplifting and contacious. All she needs to do when I'm around her is laugh and my mood brightens... even if I was already in a good mood, it just somehow makes you feel warmer inside.
I have another friend who has the gift of avoiding contention. It's amazing, she is not a passive person by any means but she has this incredible ability to take away contention in a room. Her feathers are never ruffled, she constantly finds joy in any circumstance and she's able to radiate this to those around her.
These are such simple gifts but at the same time they are incredibly important. By using these gifts these people are uplifting those around them. And what is so cool is that we can seek out and develop additional talents and gifts and Heavenly Father will help us obtain them if we use them to lift and strengthen others.
What is sad is Satan is going to try to deceive us and discourage us to think we don’t have gifts or that our gifts aren’t of value when compared to those of others. But we can't let him do that. My big push in this lesson was continually saying that all of these gifts are important and we should be excited that we have these gifts because their importance makes each of us important. (Did I say important too many times?) I mean, it's just awesome!
Again, think about those people in your life and their spiritual gifts... tell them that you admire their spiritual gift and how they use it! Help them recognize their gifts/talents and their value.
Another quote I really liked in the lesson was by President George Q. Cannon and he taught: “If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the Gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, ‘Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.’ He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them” (Millennial Star, 23 Apr. 1894, 260).
I liked that he said that, if we are "angry" we need to pray for "charity." I liked this because he's not instructing us to pray to be "less angry" but to pray for a solution that will help cancel out "anger."
In my class we also talked about how we can seek and develop spiritual gifts. First of all, put the gifts you do have to use. Others will come through life experiences. We can pray to develop some. We can study our patriarchal blessings. One guy even brought up the point that we sometimes have to take ourselves out of our comfort zones to develop gifts... it may be hard but we have to at times.
Anyways! Sorry this was such a preaching post; it was just such a fun lesson and I wanted to share it with you!
“Neglect not
the gift that is in thee” 1 Timothy 4:14
1 comment:
Umm I LOVED this post! Thanks for sharing! Can I come to one of your lessons? because I know you are an awesome teacher and would make gospel doctrine not boring!
Post a Comment