It was my turn to teach the lesson in Relief Society (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints women's organization) today so that has been consuming all my time and thoughts the last couple of weeks. Here's the lesson if your interested. I'm hoping to get around to posting my last lesson as well. I owe a special thanks to William for planting the seed and to Rodney for the inspiration and direction. Thanks guys. :-)
Relief Society Lesson Aug
5, 2012
"Kicking Butt" or "Peace Be Still" or "Air"
Songs:
intro
I
was at a loss for ideas for a lesson and asked my family what they thought
would be a good topic. My 8 year old boy
suggested “kicking butt”. The more I
thought about it; well, why not? We all
have hard things to deal with, right?
Anyone
who wants to demo a good roundhouse or chop this board in half? Now is the chance to show it off. :-)
[if
someone actually can chop the board maybe ask them to do it at the end or again
at the end?]
I
don’t actually know anything about kicking or chopping boards with my bare
hands, but I have a brother who does Kung Fu and can chop bricks with his hands
so I asked him how he goes about doing it.
He said:
You have to allow your energy to
flow fluidly and naturally; not forcefully.
You must direct the natural flow of energy where you want it to go. Even more importantly you must control how
the energy is delivered. You can’t
simply hit a stack of bricks as hard as you can. The correct amount of force must be delivered
in the correct direction, and at the correct time. In all of your tasks control your body and
your energy so that it applies only just the amount of force necessary to
accomplish a task. (opening doors, pulling weeds,
cutting carrots, everything.) Always be
aware of how your forces and efforts
affect the environment and those around you.
(How many ways can you cut a carrot?
How many ways are there to use the knife? Which direction will give you the results you
want?) Timing is crucial. You must release the force only when the flow
of energy and the medium through which you are guiding it are
synchronized. When the timing, the
force, and the direction are right then you will flow gently and smoothly
throughout your life.
The
first thing I though of is Mosiah 4:27
“…all these things shall be done in wisdom and in order… for it is not
requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.”
To
illustrate the energy my brother is talking about he referred me to a cartoon
[Avatar the Last Airbender, season 2, episode 17, “The Guru”]and I’m going to
use a similar analogy. (draw the pools of water) These pools of water are like our energy or
our spirit and our faith.
I
have a crabapple tree in my yard and every spring it’s covered in beautiful
pink blossoms. (Draw the tree)
Every
spring a big wind comes and then a downpour of rain. (Draw the storm
clouds). The storm is the bad things
that happen to us.
When
the storm is over all of the petals have fallen. They are stuck to the ground, they fill up
our bird bath, and they are wet from the rain so they are sticky and a mess. (Draw the petals on the ground and in the
pools).
With
all these petals and debris in the pools they become clogged- they can’t flow
smoothly. These petals are like our
worries during and after our trials or storms.
(We all know what a clogged drain is like- it can become a big problem.)
Turn
to Mark 4:37-40 (New Testament KJV)
37 And
there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it
was now full.
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a
pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we
perish?
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the
sea, aPeace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great bcalm.
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so afearful? how
is it that ye have no bfaith?
Let’s
also read Matthew 14:24-31 (New Testament KJV)
24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed
with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25 And ain the
fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea,
they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of
good acheer; it is
I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou,
bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of
the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was aafraid; and
beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of
little afaith,
wherefore didst thou bdoubt?
I
have to admit that I have often sympathized with Peter thinking we shouldn’t
pick on him- we know he loves Jesus and really did have faith in Him,
right? His fear was fear in himself
rather than a lack of trust in the Savior.
Then suddenly one day I realized, oh; same thing.
What
are some things in our lives that are messy petals clogging and blocking our
faith?
(write on the board whatever people suggest, but here’s some ideas:)
-Fears. Both times the Savior mentions fear and doubt
getting in the way.
-shame
-grief
-disappointments
- confusion or illusion
-earthly attachments
-pride
-dishonesty
-anger
These
are perfectly understandable and acceptable reactions to the storms in our
lives. We often can’t help feel this
way. Just like the petals fall from the
tree into the water- it happens. Now we
have to clean out the pools. We need our
energy and our faith to flow freely. So, how do we do it? We take time to
listen to our Father in Heaven say, “Peace be still.” When
does He [God] speak to you through the Holy Ghost, teach you, and inspire you?
(write on the board whatever people suggest, but here’s some ideas:)
-Prayer
-scripture study
-in the temple
-exercise
-gardening
-painting/drawing
-music
-play
-dance
-other hobbies
-cleaning?
(there’s
a reason some of these listed are professional therapies)
Also
key is having a positive attitude or hope
Turn
to Ether 2:24 (Book of Mormon)
24 For
behold, ye shall be as a awhale in the
midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I
will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the bwinds have
gone forth cout of my
mouth, and also the drains and the
floods have I sent forth.
And
Ether 6:5-12 (Book of Mormon)
5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that
there should be a afurious
wind blow upon the face of the waters, btowards the
promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the
wind.
6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried
in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them,
and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of
the wind.
7 And it came to pass that when they were buried in the
deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being atight like
unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the bark of Noah;
therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the
Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.
8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to
blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they
were adriven
forth before the wind.
9 And they did asing
praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the
Lord, and he did bthank and
praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease
to praise the Lord.
10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the
sea could break them, neither awhale that
could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the
water or under the water.
11 And thus they were driven forth, athree
hundred and forty and four days upon the water.
12 And they did aland upon
the shore of the bpromised
land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land
they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves
before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the
multitude of his ctender
mercies over them.
I
love in verse 8 when it says “the wind never did cease to blow towards the
promised land” and love that they were continually praising and grateful for
the “multitude of tender mercies”
(Draw
the petals being blown out of the water and across the board…)
While
it is our responsibility to clean the muck out of the pools, the Savior is
there to help us, and sometimes he might use “the wind”to help us.
