I’ve been asked to speak, looking for ideas

[Anonymous]

At first I was surprised. I thought if I threatened preaching false doctrine enough they wouldn’t want me to talk in church – but obviously I didn’t threaten convincingly enough, or they don’t believe I’m a real threat. 😮

The topic is “recognizing the hand of the Lord in our lives.” At first I was worried, the counselor who called me was talking about being blessed for living righteously and seeing specific answers to prayer. Sides of the topic that I don’t think I could express honestly and effectively, I don’t see a 1 to 1 type correlation from prayer, etc. But then I started thinking about speaking on how we often don’t see an immediate or 1 to 1 correlation. We have several families out of work, I would hate to give the impression that they must be doing something wrong because they’re not being blessed with employment. I would love to address the topic in a way to lift these people that are in the middle of trials.

I also enjoy the benefits of “counting your blessings” there is much practical advice there – toward being optimistic, etc.

So I would love to hear any ideas/sources/angles that any of you have regarding this topic.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Wow, that would probably be a tough one for me too. Here are a few thoughts that immediately came to mind:

You could talk about how the hand of the Lord manifests itself in our lives when we remember His teachings and implement them in our lives. This would probably be my approach. As my new nifty username suggests, I see lots of natural processes in our lives which some then assign to be supernatural. Rather than identifying specific instances where something happened, you can’t explain it, and hence it must be the Lord’s hand, I would probably talk about an overarching manifestation of the Lord’s hand through living by the precepts He taught. Many of our “blessings” come as we obey sound principles and good advice.

Whenever I speak (even when I was TBM) I try to bring the topic home to direct application to people’s lives. After all, to me, that’s the point of religion. To the people in your ward who have lost their jobs, this type of approach will give them hope, but help them realize that there is likely no silver bullet, or magic incantation they can say that will make everything better. That way they won’t feel like they’re doing something wrong. It would drive home that point that we can see the Lord’s hand when we follow His example, because we become like Him.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Eu, I have always been the same way – very pragmatic. I always approached subjects in terms of practical application.

Thanks for your thoughts, they will flow nicely along the lines that I was thinking.

Some specific content would be nice – quotes, scriptures, examples, resources? If anything comes to mind (anyone).

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Eu, that is so funny – I could have written your response! It was exactly what I was thinking. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

Just a suggestion, a direction I would personally enjoy, maybe talk about the process of choosing to see the “hand of the Lord” blessing our lives. Instead of the 1:1, stage 2-ish reciprocity type of view where we get a cookie for doing a good work, talk about the transformative inner journey of seeing blessings in our lives. Also, the the process of learning humility by attributing these to God (the Divine, the Source, etc.), instead of the feeling of deserving them.

Just some thoughts.

[Anonymous]

My immediate thought is to draw a distinction between viewing the hand of the Lord as stretched out to give us something and seeing the hand of the Lord stretched out to embrace us – or guide us to become better – or any other imagery that conveys intangible blessings. Then talk about the times you’ve felt embraced or guided or helped in some other way.

I also think you might be able to incorporate something my wife has done for a while now. She writes a “blessings post” each Saturday, where she lists the blessings she has experienced that week. Check it out (http://www.mamadehotel.blogspot.com/) and read the Saturday posts. It has helped her recognize the hand of the Lord in her life in a very practical way, and I think there are MANY women in the Church who, like her, can lose sight of those blessings if they don’t stop to articulate them regularly.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, good comments!

I’ll check that out Ray. Val, I like that idea as well. If any additional specifics come to mind please expound.

Thanks again!

[Author]

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