- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I think my ward is still back on lesson 16 or 17. We didn’t didn’t even teach a lesson out of the manual this Sunday. Ordinarily I wouldn’t complain but we ended up reading a GC talk from beginning to end with no breaks for questions or comments, then called it a day.
[
😈 ] Uchtdorf would describe my attitude during PH as “past feeling” but I’d remind him that “bored” is most definitely a feeling. [/😈 ]We had a fun lesson on Sunday. We ended up talking about if one could be fully committed to God, but not the church. We also talked about what happens when there is a conflict between being commented to God (doing what is right in your heart) and being commented to church/leaders. I gave the example of Levi Salvage and the Martin Handcart Company. He knew it was a dumb idea to leave in August, but was castigated by his leaders for not having enough faith. This discussion lasted until after closing time, and a lot of good comments. Sounds cool, Sheldon. Do you think there were any feelings that got hurt? What were your favorite comments that you think are safe to share in other wards? I think everybody left with feelings in tack. There were some disagreements. I said that the Willy and Martin handcart trek was a fiasco and the Lord was not pleased. One guy (my very best friend in the group) said he disagreed. He pointed to all the faith promoting stories that came out of the ill fated trek, and the movie that he loved called 17 Miracles. I asked if God couldn’t have done something else to promote faith than let 250 men, women, and children freeze to death. There was a lot of blank stairs and several men just saying “hummmmmm” Why must being committed to church and a leader override common senses, which I said was a commitment to God, as God had given us our intellect to use for good.
Most of our lessons are pretty benign. But even if I’m not teaching, I’ll ask questions that get people thinking.
My ancestors were in the Martin Handcart company. After the father froze to death in Wyoming as a result of the sweetwater crossing event, the oldest son, named Heber, was 13 years old to pull the family the rest of the way, survived the starvation and cold, lived to raise a family in Utah with permanent damage to extremities. Hence my user name, Heber13. I picked that back in 2009 to remind me that as I go through my journey and faith trials…to have the courage that my Martin Handcart ancestors had, and that we all need to pass through some things to forge our faith. God, I’m glad my journey was not theirs!
Were these handcart companies mistakes by our leaders?
I haven’t read anything in the journals of my ancestors that suggested they ever thought so. They did hate Captain Martin. Said he was a mean guy and yelled and was not fun to be around. Perhaps he thought it was a mistake. But my ancestors didn’t say they thought it was.
Interesting how the same events can be looked at differently. Successfully getting to the promised land, or fiasco. God pleased, or displeased. Faith promoting or unnecessary suffering. Church leaders short-sided and lacking common sense, or inspiring and lifting to pass through hardships?
I agree with Sheldon’s thoughts…these thoughts would make more engaging class discussions and lessons. Some questions cannot be scripted into lesson manuals. We all bring our thoughts and experiences and testimonies to the lesson. The teachers should draw it out of people with good questions. It is too individual to print in manuals.
In context of this lesson…I think when your mind has a commitment to the idea of God and his goodness and glory…it impacts how you view things. The things, the events, don’t necessarily change…they are what they are. But the story and meaning we put to them depends on commitment.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.