June 10-16

Not as I will, but as Thou Wilt

Here is a list of all the questions & invitation in the come follow me material this week.

-What do you do to remember people who have been important in your life?
-How do the bread, water, and other elements of this ordinance help you remember Him and His suffering?
-What can you do to make [the sacrament] more meaningful?
-How will you always remember him?
-Consider what you will do to accept President Nelson’s invitation to invest time in learning about the Saviour & His atonement.
-What did the Savior experience as He suffered?
-How does Christ’s suffering affect my life?
-Why then would the Savior say to Peter, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren”?
-What did Elder David A. Bednar teach is the difference between having a testimony and being truly converted?
-What lessons can you learn from Peter?
-As you continue reading the New Testament, what evidence do you find of Peter’s conversion and of his efforts to strengthen others?
-What effect did receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost have on his conversion?

-What is your family’s experience like during the sacrament each week?
-What can you do before, during, and after the sacrament to make your worship more meaningful?
-What do we learn about Jesus from this experience? (Luke 22:50-51)
-What do we learn from the Savior’s words in these verses? (Matthew 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:40–46)

Having reviewed all the questions in the manual this week, I will likely ponder them and then pick a few to focus on.

I will focus on some for me, but also on some for the class.


Lesson Agenda

I feel somewhat unworthy to teach this week, on such a sacred subject. Especially when I compare anything I might say to Elder Holland’s eloquent words.

I'm prepared, not as prepared as I'd like to be. As you will be aware, we now have a very little baby in addition to two more aged 4 or younger. While we had success in getting two down to bed early on Friday evening, our littlest decided to play up for 4 hours, frustrating my plan to put the finishing touches to my preparations. I will always choose to attend to their needs, before attending to lesson preparation. As I have previously pointed out, I'm confident as adults hopefully even spending the minimum amount of time reviewing this weeks lesson material, we can have a good discussion.

1. What were the events that took place in these 4 chapters?

-House of Simon the Leper, woman ointment.
-Judas asking the chiefs priests how much Christ is worth.
-Jesus (destined to the the saviour, but not yet) tells his disciples/Peter & John to find a man with a pitcher who will have a room for the passover.
-Passover meal.
-"One of you shall betray me". "Lord, is it I?"
-Institution of the Sacrament.
-Hymn.
-Mount of Olives.
-Jesus claims his disciples will be offended because of him, Peter and the others swear they will not be or deny him.
-Gethsemane. Watch with me.
-"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
-Arrival of Judas with a great multitude.
-Cutting off of the ear & subsequent healing.
-Jesus lead away for questioning, trial, and accused of blasphemy.
-Peter challenged regarding his association with Christ and denial.
-Peter wept bitterly.

Of all the questions I posted on the ward what’s app group, of which there were 16. There is one I didn’t ask, which I am most excited to ask. And I will probably open every Sunday school lesson with this question, every time I teach.

2. I’ve not had a chance to teach since general conference so I’ve not been able to ask this question but...in the words of Elder Bednar...instead of returning to our homes after Church meetings on Sunday and asking, “What did you learn about the Savior and His gospel today at church?” we should ask in our Church meetings, “What did you learn about the Savior and His gospel this week in your home?”

So, what did you learn this week??? Large or small.

I have loads of little things. Not one particular big thing I could share. But I'm, and hopefully the rest of us are, interested to see what you learned.

Or maybe you have a question that we might be able to answer for you.

Here are some of my musings.

-How many times did the cock crow. 1, 2 or 3 depending on which gospel you read.
-Thought about Adam & Eve in the garden of eaden. Even with the slimies of chances of them eating the fruit of the the tree of knowledge of good and evil, multiplied over eternity, it was inevitable they would eventually enact the plan for all of us.
-There are speculations about how long they were in the garden for. Given that they were like little children lacking knowledge, having been told not to do something, I suspect they weren’t actually in there for very long. Maybe 5 minutes!
-I wondered why one of the disciples was carrying a sword? Was it normal for civilians to carry swords back then.
-I wondered who prepared the Passover meal.
-Why were the brethren not with their wives and children.
-How did this woman enter the upper room to anoint the saviour? And how did Peter gain access to the court room. It seems people came and went from building to building freely.
-After Peter denied the saviour I asked myself how often I deny him? Possibly more than I care to admit. How about each time we do something non-Christian?
-One question I thought about for a while was what can I do to always remember him?
-What’s it like to always have his spirit to be with us? Ask any serving missionary or returned missionary.
-Not many times do we hear Christ say "good were it for that man if he had never been born".
-Luke 22:33 Simon Peter claims he is ready to go with him to prison or to death. Yet we learn later, that he does as prophesied and denies knowing Jesus.

Before I'd even read the material, my 1st question to myself is, what does this even mean? Where is this lesson likely to take me?

This is the sort of thing a selfless individual will say. Someone giving up their will, their desires, and trusting in another.

As a parent, who has just had a struggle to put little ones to bed, in particular a 4 year old, I have to admit that I will often bend to their will, rather than mine. But for very different reasons to how I might bend my will to wards my Heavenly Fathers.

When I bend my will to that of my children, it is usually out of exasperation, I don't expect too much good to come from it. Though the type of stuff here is quite trivial, eating greens, brushing teeth, being reverent during prayers etc. When I'm bending my will towards Heavenly Father's its usually a choice between right or wrong, or between good, better and best, in some instances my eternal destiny is a stake.

Video - How will you 'always remember' Him? "The most sacred, the most holy, off all the meetings of the church". Principle word, Remember'.

Definitely worth showing the video and asking not only the question in the title, but also point out the invitation to give the sacrament ordinance and meeting the reverence it deserves.

May 13 - June 9

I've not been keeping up to date over the last few weeks.

The main reason is because my wife has been at the late stages of pregnancy. Baby was due mid may. So I got cover for the month of may as baby births are quite unpredictable. I asked a member of the ward to teach. They didn't let me down.

Incidentally, baby was born on 20th May and though he has been quite healthy, he has still kept the family busy. With two children under 4 in the family already, finding time to study has been a real challenge. I've managed to just about keep up with the reading assignment and ponder a few question from the manual, or my own questions. But that about it.

Even now as I start to prepare for this week. I'm feeling more run down than usual and am sat in front of a ticking time bomb.

The two older ones are in bed and our newborn is sleeping in has seat but I know that within the hour he's going to be crying asking for some milk. I can then say good by to the rest of tonights preparations for the lesson ahead.

These last two weeks I have been holding Teaching in the Saviours Way teacher council meetings. This has also taken me out of teaching the main Sunday school class. so again, I have allowed myself to fall victim to the mentality that as I'm not teaching, and as we have a newborn I will allow myself the grace of studying less.

A couple of the thoughts that have rested quite well with me over the last few weeks came from the image from the manual. Mark 12:38-44, Luke 21:1-4.

1. I always imagined the window in this story to be old. The possibility that the widow was a young mother completely opened my eyes to how much more she was giving. Not just all that she had, but all that may have been destined for her family.

2. The manual asks the following question, Are there offerings your family is making that can’t be recorded on a tithing slip? Immediately I thought about time. I have next to no time right now. and recently our routines have lot longer involving extra bath time, cleaning of extra bottles, extra nappies that need changing. I now get to settle down to do what I need to do for myself or my calling at around 10:30pm, if I'm lucky.

Some people do not work, and they do not have a family, no doubt they do have responsibilities but so do I above those I just mentioned. They have easily 60+ hours a week more than me. For me to give even just 1 hour a week, does feel like all [my] living.

I very much hope a lot of people in my ward understand this.