Elder Takashi Wada (Apr. 19): "Feasting upon the Words of Christ"

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Elder Wada does a great job of delineating a difference between reading the scriptures and "feasting upon the words of Christ."  There are many great parts of this talk.  I hope that the activity that follows will work for you:

The Activity:

  1. Review the four promises we receive as we feast on the words of Christ that Elder Wada covers in his talk:
    1. Par. 8  "First, the words . . . through out life."
    2. Par. 9  "Second, when we . . . beyond our own."
    3. Par. 11  "Third, we can . . .  words of Christ."
    4. Par. 13  "The words of . . . yet see Him."
  2. Ask the class members to silently ponder those promises for a moment.  Note:  the silent time will probably seem longer than it actually is.  So, you may want to use a timer of some sort to make sure that you give enough time.
  3. Have the class members identify silently the promise that they feel is particularly relevant to them and then to form groups according to the promises (four groups-- one for each promise).
  4. In these groups, ask the class members to do the following things:
    1. Read aloud the entirety of the corresponding passage about the blessings.  The quotes above only consist of the blessings as they are specifically stated.  There are longer sections that go with each blessing.
    2. Discuss what the section says and how it might be fulfilled.
    3. Share experiences demonstrating the blessings as outlined.  These experiences could be their own, from church history, or from the scriptures.
  5. After a few minutes, come back together as a class and ask someone from each group to report to the whole class what they talked about.
Using the Activity:

I have often wanted to simply go through the conference talks and list all of the promises made to us in a conference (apparently, though I have not wanted to do this bad enough to actually do it 😃).  But I do look out for them as I study the conference talks.  I was impressed with the magnitude of the blessings mentioned by Elder Wada.  And I was impressed to focus on those promises in this activity.  

A couple of valuable things about this activity:  First, the activity allows for choice on the part of the class members.  Even for adults, having choice increases buy-in and participation.  By allowing the class members to choose where to focuse their thoughts and comments for a few minutes, we are making room not only for greater motivation but also for greater import in each class member's life.  Also, by taking time to silently ponder these promises for a minute or so, we are helping class members practice an essential skill of feasting on the word of Christ and of receiving revelation-- pondering.  Finally, by asking class members to share some experiences we are providing them with an opportunity to share and hear testimonies from others.  This act is vital to our own spiritual well-being.  

As always, I hope that this activity is useful for you.  Please let me know how things go.  God bless.

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