Teaching of the Presidents of the Church. Revelation and The Living Prophet

Revelation and The Living Prophet

I have decided to add the Priesthood and Relief Society lessons to my blog. Here is the first one for chapter 16. As always, if you like it--leave feedback; if you don't like it--leave feedback so I can make it better. And if you haven't read the first two posts yet please do because they give some important information about my lesson plans.

Teachings of the President’s of the Church
Joseph Smith Chapter 16

Attention Activity:
Lead the students quickly (This activity can be dangerous if you let it take too long. Before you start tell the class that they only have 2 minutes to complete the activity or you will spend too much time on this and not enough actually teaching.) through the activity found at http://scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/SubPages/SurvivalGame.htm If you don’t feel comfortable with #10 just take it out and go with 11 items. Although no one will probably pick it and it makes for a good discussion on the evils of alcohol!
“Now imagine if we tried to rank the parts of the gospel in the same way. What are some of the things that you think would rank really high on the list?” Write them on the board. “Joseph Smith taught us that there is part of the gospel that would rank extremely high.” You can take two directions here. You can then say, “Turn to page 195 and read the 4th paragraph starting with ‘Salvation cannot come…’ and determine with the aspect is that ranks so high.” Or you can use picture #409 in the Gospel Art Kit (found online at www.lds.org/hf/art/display/1,16842,4218-1-4-121,00.html. or at the church library). It is the story of Caroline and Mary Elizabeth Rollins that ties in with the “From the Life of Joseph Smith” section. You can show this picture and briefly tell the story and then ask, “What aspect of the gospel did these girls understand to be very important?” and then go to page 195 4th paragraph and continue from there. Sometimes it is very useful to use the great stories of pioneer time to help teach, but it is a real time tradeoff. Now have students look through the whole section “God has always guided His people and His Church through revelation” and find passages that describe how important revelation is in the Church. Give time for them to share what they have found.

It is clear that revelation is important, but for us personally there is something that is equally important. Have someone read the last paragraph of the chapter on page 203 to find out what is so important. (That we follow the revelations.) Have someone or multiple people read the 2nd-4th paragraphs on page 202. Make note of all the ways that revelation is regarded in these paragraphs. “Why is there often such a negative view of revelation?” “What is the easiest way to show that we don’t believe what is being revealed through the prophets?” (to not live what they say.)

Application
“What are some of the modern revelations that we have?” “Would our response to these revelations put us in the same category as the people in paragraph 1 on page 201?” “Think of one thing that the prophets are asking us to do, believing that what the prophets ask us to do is revelation from God, that you have to do better at.” (If I were teaching this lesson I would probably focus on the vast amount of revelation that has come in recent years regarding our responsibilities to our families and ask how the class is doing compared to what is being asked. Elder M Russell Ballard’s talk from April 2008 conference would be ideal as he gives a few things for men and women to work on in order to strengthen our families. The link to his talk is http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html. The Proclamation is another good one to show what is expected so we know what we need to be doing.)