Gospel Learning in the Home
Good morning brothers and sisters! I’m super excited… well, not super excited to speak this morning, but I am super excited to be a missionary and the two seem to come as a package deal; so we’ll just say that by extension, I am excited to speak to you all this morning.
Today I get to speak about gospel learning in the home, and I’m really excited about this topic because in my life, the number one place where I have learned to love the Lord and learned how to try to be like him is in my own home.
Elder Devin G. Durrant, in the April 2018 conference, said, “As parents, we introduce our children to Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We help our children say their first prayer. We offer guidance and support as they enter the covenant path through baptism. We teach them to obey God’s commandments. We educate them about His plan for His children, and we help them recognize the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. We tell them stories of ancient prophets and encourage them to follow living ones. We pray for their triumphs and ache with them during their trials. We testify to our children of temple blessings, and we strive to prepare them well to serve full-time missions. We offer loving counsel as our children become parents themselves. But -- even then -- we never stop being their parents. We never stop being their teachers. We are never released from these eternal callings.”
As we can tell from these words from Elder Durrant, the role of a parent is crucial in the eternal scheme of things because the family is central to the plan of happiness and it takes a faithful disciple to raise a righteous family. A lot of parents try their best to raise their kids righteously but we can’t always control the decisions of others. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, “You cannot force spiritual things… You can no more force the Spirit to respond than you can force a bean to sprout, or an egg to hatch before its time. You can create a climate to foster growth, nourish, and protect; but you cannot force or compel: you must await the growth.” He’s telling us that what we can do is do our best to fill our homes with gospel learning.
I looked up “gospel teaching” on lds.org, and in the seminary handbook, which seems like a pretty good place to learn about gospel learning, it gave me a list of the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning.
The first one is cultivating a learning environment of love, respect, and purpose. When I read this, I thought of the hymn, ‘Home can be a Heaven on earth,’ which says:
Home can be a heaven on earth
When we are filled with love,
Bringing happiness and joy,
Rich blessings from above-
Warmth and kindness, charity,
Safety and security-
Making home a part of heaven,
Where we want to be.
The part of that verse that I like the most is the last two lines that say, “Making home a part of heaven, where we want to be.” I think something I’ve appreciated a lot more since I moved out is the warmth and love I feel everytime I go home and everytime I’m with my family. That feeling just creates an environment of wanting to learn. And if we compare it to the ultimate learning environment-- School-- those classes in which I felt comfortable and supported were the ones in which I excelled the most and learned the most. But I also think those classes are the ones I remember the most from now. So if we can create an environment in our homes of safety and love, it makes it so much easier to learn and grow in the ways that we want to.
I found a poem that I think describes the safety of a home very accurately.
Family is a funny thing
People living in harmony
We will experience some pain
But in the end, we will always gain
People change and people grow
Yet every seed is always sown
We take from each other what we will use
In our lives that we eventually choose
Yet we never forget about who we are
No matter if we are close or far
Together we’ll always be in our heart
No matter if we ever part
So when we feel afraid and alone
Always remember that there is no place like home
An important part of creating that environment and another one of the fundamentals is studying the scriptures daily. It invites the spirit into the home and the lives of those participating. When a family studies the doctrines of the scriptures together, it creates a foundation of gospel learning as well as creating time for our families to spend together. Although it can sometimes be hard to have a consistent scripture study time together, especially with little kids, or especially not with little kids.
The savior liked to teach using parables, creating stories that his audience could relate to so that they would better understand the principle he was teaching. So that is what I am going to try to do. Obviously this is a purely hypothetical parable.
On a beautiful weekday morning, a father of six wakes up at the early hour of 6:15 and heads downstairs to wake each of his children up for family scripture time. He pays a visit to each kids room, waking them up and telling them it’s time for scriptures. He generally has to make a second visit to a certain daughter’s room because she only pretended to be awake the first time. He then repeatedly calls each child’s name until finally they drag themselves out of bed and assemble on the couches with a Book of Mormon in hand; the earlier arrivers only feeling slightly bitter that they missed out on those two more minutes of sleep they could have had while waiting for their siblings. The family then proceeds to go around the room taking turns reading, verse by verse, with an occasional name called out when the reader up next seems to have dozed off since their last turn 7 verses ago.
Although the kids sometimes didn’t seem to get all that much out of the half-asleep words that were mumbled out of their mouths, they were taught the valuable lesson that a day begun with family prayer and scripture study is much better than a day without.
The savior also taught by example, and the father in this story was a great example of perseverance and faith as he endured the groanings and mumblings of his kids as they learned the importance of the scriptures and putting the Lord first in their lives.
A little slogan that I’ve heard from my parents over and over again is, “Be Brilliant in the Basics.” The basics being scripture study, prayer, and temple attendance. And not only do they teach by word, but they teach by action. In Doctrine and Covenants 93, the Lord commands us to bring up our children in light and truth; and how can we do that without first having that light and truth in our own lives. My parents have shown me how to bring light and truth into a home and I hope I’m able to do just as good a job when I have my own family.
Another one of the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning is testifying. The times that I have felt the spirit strongest in my home is when one or both of my parents are bearing their testimony and making sure that us kids know how important the gospel is to them and that we have a savior who loves us.
Family home evenings and one-on-ones with my dad is where I learned how to bear my own testimony. Every week for FHE, it would be a different person’s turn to bear testimony at the end of the lesson. I remember sometimes feeling embarrassed because it would take me a while to think of what to say or I thought that it wasn’t elaborate enough, but looking back, I never failed to feel the spirit as I bore those simple testimonies and my parents would always have a smile on their face and tell me “good job” when I was done. And as time went on I got more confident in sharing my testimony.
Another important aspect of gospel learning in the home is goal-setting. I remember sitting down with my mom every few weeks and going over goals that I wanted to accomplish in the near future; whether the were helping me with personal progress, school projects, budgeting, developing new skills, or maybe being nicer to my siblings; my mom always made sure we had goals we were working towards so that we were always growing. Every new year, we modeled our goal-setting after Luke 2:52 which reads: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” We would set goals in those four areas: wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with man; and even if we didn’t always accomplish them, it taught me to try to be like Jesus and live like him in every way that I can.
The most important fundamental is teaching and learning by the spirit. The spirit is what gives us confirmation on our testimonies and brings us personal revelation that we can’t get from any other source. When I was younger, I would get concerned because I wasn’t sure if I was feeling the spirit in my life. I read my scriptures and said my prayers every day and I went to church and tried to do what was right, but as far as I could tell, I had never had a significant spiritual experience. Looking back, I know I felt the spirit. It was said very well by President Snow at youth conference last year that the reason it is sometimes so hard for us to tell the difference between the promptings of the Spirit and our own thoughts, is because they are one and the same. When we are living righteously, the spirit is with us and he won’t let us go astray. But as a child, I didn’t realize this. And then one day I starting noticing that my dad would point out when the spirit was in the room. Whether he was teaching a sunday school lesson or we were simply having a family discussion. He always made sure that we knew it was there. During those times I paid attention to what I was feeling, and it helped me figure out how the spirit best communicates with me and what that feels like and what environment I’m in when the spirit is with me. And even though it had gone many times unnamed, I finally recognized that feeling as the spirit. I started doing the same thing in my own life and now when the spirit speaks to me, I am better at recognizing those experiences.
One of my more recent experiences that the spirit gave me that I didn’t really recognize until after, was right before my temple recommend interview. I was sitting in a chair outside the bishop’s office and as I was thinking about the upcoming opportunity of going through the temple and being endowed and I said a little prayer and I asked God to please help me be excited and not feel nervous or confused. And as I went into that interview and then straight into the stake president interview right after that and then the rest of the evening, I could not keep a smile off of my face. As I talked to everyone that night, I just felt giddy inside and I was just so happy and I didn’t really know why. But later that night as I sat reading about the temple, I realized that that was God helping me feel that excitement that I had asked for and he was answering that prayer.
I’m so grateful for my parents and the gospel learning that they provide in our home. And I know that they’re not perfect but I do know that they try their best and I have learned so much from them. And I know because of everything they have taught me and everything I’ve learned from church and seminary and my own experiences-- all of that is what makes it possible for me to serve a mission and provide that learning for other people.
As a missionary, they encourage you to focus on families instead of individuals. This is because a family united together is so much stronger against temptation than just one person. When a family is learning and growing together, they can support and help each other and their testimonies can be strengthened by watching their family members go through the same process as them.
We’ve all the heard the saying that a missionary is someone who leaves their family for two years or a year and a half so that others can be with their families for eternity. And I’m so excited to be able to bring that blessing to the people of Spain.
Elder Eyring testified recently that the Lord places us in the way of other children of God to serve them for Him. And I know that’s what missionary work is all about. And I’ve been studying a talk recently that says that “Pure love is the true sign of every true disciple of Jesus Christ.” And I’m so excited to learn more about Christ and strengthen my testimony of him and to feel that pure love for the people I will meet. And I love all of you and I want you to know that I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and he is our brother, and he is our best friend. He died for us and he loves us so much. And I know that the book of mormon is the word of God and that President Nelson is a true prophet and that if we follow his words, we are doing what the Lord wants us to be doing.
And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Good morning brothers and sisters! I’m super excited… well, not super excited to speak this morning, but I am super excited to be a missionary and the two seem to come as a package deal; so we’ll just say that by extension, I am excited to speak to you all this morning.
Today I get to speak about gospel learning in the home, and I’m really excited about this topic because in my life, the number one place where I have learned to love the Lord and learned how to try to be like him is in my own home.
Elder Devin G. Durrant, in the April 2018 conference, said, “As parents, we introduce our children to Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We help our children say their first prayer. We offer guidance and support as they enter the covenant path through baptism. We teach them to obey God’s commandments. We educate them about His plan for His children, and we help them recognize the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. We tell them stories of ancient prophets and encourage them to follow living ones. We pray for their triumphs and ache with them during their trials. We testify to our children of temple blessings, and we strive to prepare them well to serve full-time missions. We offer loving counsel as our children become parents themselves. But -- even then -- we never stop being their parents. We never stop being their teachers. We are never released from these eternal callings.”
As we can tell from these words from Elder Durrant, the role of a parent is crucial in the eternal scheme of things because the family is central to the plan of happiness and it takes a faithful disciple to raise a righteous family. A lot of parents try their best to raise their kids righteously but we can’t always control the decisions of others. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, “You cannot force spiritual things… You can no more force the Spirit to respond than you can force a bean to sprout, or an egg to hatch before its time. You can create a climate to foster growth, nourish, and protect; but you cannot force or compel: you must await the growth.” He’s telling us that what we can do is do our best to fill our homes with gospel learning.
I looked up “gospel teaching” on lds.org, and in the seminary handbook, which seems like a pretty good place to learn about gospel learning, it gave me a list of the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning.
The first one is cultivating a learning environment of love, respect, and purpose. When I read this, I thought of the hymn, ‘Home can be a Heaven on earth,’ which says:
Home can be a heaven on earth
When we are filled with love,
Bringing happiness and joy,
Rich blessings from above-
Warmth and kindness, charity,
Safety and security-
Making home a part of heaven,
Where we want to be.
The part of that verse that I like the most is the last two lines that say, “Making home a part of heaven, where we want to be.” I think something I’ve appreciated a lot more since I moved out is the warmth and love I feel everytime I go home and everytime I’m with my family. That feeling just creates an environment of wanting to learn. And if we compare it to the ultimate learning environment-- School-- those classes in which I felt comfortable and supported were the ones in which I excelled the most and learned the most. But I also think those classes are the ones I remember the most from now. So if we can create an environment in our homes of safety and love, it makes it so much easier to learn and grow in the ways that we want to.
I found a poem that I think describes the safety of a home very accurately.
Family is a funny thing
People living in harmony
We will experience some pain
But in the end, we will always gain
People change and people grow
Yet every seed is always sown
We take from each other what we will use
In our lives that we eventually choose
Yet we never forget about who we are
No matter if we are close or far
Together we’ll always be in our heart
No matter if we ever part
So when we feel afraid and alone
Always remember that there is no place like home
An important part of creating that environment and another one of the fundamentals is studying the scriptures daily. It invites the spirit into the home and the lives of those participating. When a family studies the doctrines of the scriptures together, it creates a foundation of gospel learning as well as creating time for our families to spend together. Although it can sometimes be hard to have a consistent scripture study time together, especially with little kids, or especially not with little kids.
The savior liked to teach using parables, creating stories that his audience could relate to so that they would better understand the principle he was teaching. So that is what I am going to try to do. Obviously this is a purely hypothetical parable.
On a beautiful weekday morning, a father of six wakes up at the early hour of 6:15 and heads downstairs to wake each of his children up for family scripture time. He pays a visit to each kids room, waking them up and telling them it’s time for scriptures. He generally has to make a second visit to a certain daughter’s room because she only pretended to be awake the first time. He then repeatedly calls each child’s name until finally they drag themselves out of bed and assemble on the couches with a Book of Mormon in hand; the earlier arrivers only feeling slightly bitter that they missed out on those two more minutes of sleep they could have had while waiting for their siblings. The family then proceeds to go around the room taking turns reading, verse by verse, with an occasional name called out when the reader up next seems to have dozed off since their last turn 7 verses ago.
Although the kids sometimes didn’t seem to get all that much out of the half-asleep words that were mumbled out of their mouths, they were taught the valuable lesson that a day begun with family prayer and scripture study is much better than a day without.
The savior also taught by example, and the father in this story was a great example of perseverance and faith as he endured the groanings and mumblings of his kids as they learned the importance of the scriptures and putting the Lord first in their lives.
A little slogan that I’ve heard from my parents over and over again is, “Be Brilliant in the Basics.” The basics being scripture study, prayer, and temple attendance. And not only do they teach by word, but they teach by action. In Doctrine and Covenants 93, the Lord commands us to bring up our children in light and truth; and how can we do that without first having that light and truth in our own lives. My parents have shown me how to bring light and truth into a home and I hope I’m able to do just as good a job when I have my own family.
Another one of the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning is testifying. The times that I have felt the spirit strongest in my home is when one or both of my parents are bearing their testimony and making sure that us kids know how important the gospel is to them and that we have a savior who loves us.
Family home evenings and one-on-ones with my dad is where I learned how to bear my own testimony. Every week for FHE, it would be a different person’s turn to bear testimony at the end of the lesson. I remember sometimes feeling embarrassed because it would take me a while to think of what to say or I thought that it wasn’t elaborate enough, but looking back, I never failed to feel the spirit as I bore those simple testimonies and my parents would always have a smile on their face and tell me “good job” when I was done. And as time went on I got more confident in sharing my testimony.
Another important aspect of gospel learning in the home is goal-setting. I remember sitting down with my mom every few weeks and going over goals that I wanted to accomplish in the near future; whether the were helping me with personal progress, school projects, budgeting, developing new skills, or maybe being nicer to my siblings; my mom always made sure we had goals we were working towards so that we were always growing. Every new year, we modeled our goal-setting after Luke 2:52 which reads: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” We would set goals in those four areas: wisdom, stature, favor with God, and favor with man; and even if we didn’t always accomplish them, it taught me to try to be like Jesus and live like him in every way that I can.
The most important fundamental is teaching and learning by the spirit. The spirit is what gives us confirmation on our testimonies and brings us personal revelation that we can’t get from any other source. When I was younger, I would get concerned because I wasn’t sure if I was feeling the spirit in my life. I read my scriptures and said my prayers every day and I went to church and tried to do what was right, but as far as I could tell, I had never had a significant spiritual experience. Looking back, I know I felt the spirit. It was said very well by President Snow at youth conference last year that the reason it is sometimes so hard for us to tell the difference between the promptings of the Spirit and our own thoughts, is because they are one and the same. When we are living righteously, the spirit is with us and he won’t let us go astray. But as a child, I didn’t realize this. And then one day I starting noticing that my dad would point out when the spirit was in the room. Whether he was teaching a sunday school lesson or we were simply having a family discussion. He always made sure that we knew it was there. During those times I paid attention to what I was feeling, and it helped me figure out how the spirit best communicates with me and what that feels like and what environment I’m in when the spirit is with me. And even though it had gone many times unnamed, I finally recognized that feeling as the spirit. I started doing the same thing in my own life and now when the spirit speaks to me, I am better at recognizing those experiences.
One of my more recent experiences that the spirit gave me that I didn’t really recognize until after, was right before my temple recommend interview. I was sitting in a chair outside the bishop’s office and as I was thinking about the upcoming opportunity of going through the temple and being endowed and I said a little prayer and I asked God to please help me be excited and not feel nervous or confused. And as I went into that interview and then straight into the stake president interview right after that and then the rest of the evening, I could not keep a smile off of my face. As I talked to everyone that night, I just felt giddy inside and I was just so happy and I didn’t really know why. But later that night as I sat reading about the temple, I realized that that was God helping me feel that excitement that I had asked for and he was answering that prayer.
I’m so grateful for my parents and the gospel learning that they provide in our home. And I know that they’re not perfect but I do know that they try their best and I have learned so much from them. And I know because of everything they have taught me and everything I’ve learned from church and seminary and my own experiences-- all of that is what makes it possible for me to serve a mission and provide that learning for other people.
As a missionary, they encourage you to focus on families instead of individuals. This is because a family united together is so much stronger against temptation than just one person. When a family is learning and growing together, they can support and help each other and their testimonies can be strengthened by watching their family members go through the same process as them.
We’ve all the heard the saying that a missionary is someone who leaves their family for two years or a year and a half so that others can be with their families for eternity. And I’m so excited to be able to bring that blessing to the people of Spain.
Elder Eyring testified recently that the Lord places us in the way of other children of God to serve them for Him. And I know that’s what missionary work is all about. And I’ve been studying a talk recently that says that “Pure love is the true sign of every true disciple of Jesus Christ.” And I’m so excited to learn more about Christ and strengthen my testimony of him and to feel that pure love for the people I will meet. And I love all of you and I want you to know that I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and he is our brother, and he is our best friend. He died for us and he loves us so much. And I know that the book of mormon is the word of God and that President Nelson is a true prophet and that if we follow his words, we are doing what the Lord wants us to be doing.
And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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