Elder Gerrit W. Gong (Oct. '22): "Happy and Forever"

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 In the Church we talk a lot about the joy of family life and that families can be together forever.  That is good and true.  Nevertheless, there are many people-- in and out of the Church-- for whom eternity with some or any family members may feel less like heaven and more like some place a lot warmer.  Even in my own life, I have a sister that I am not close to because of some hard feelings that have come up through the years.  It feels like Elder Gong was speaking to me as I re-read this talk.  Ultimately, Elder Gong's talk is for me-- and for all of us-- to bring us hope and encouragement.  While we on our own can never heal all of our relationships, with Christ's help and power we "can do all things" (Phil. 4:13)-- even forgive and love.

The Activity:

  1. (Optional):  Read par. 1-3 ("Friends, dear brothers . . . happy and forever.")
  2. (Optional):  Point out that this talk is about difficult situations that we may all find ourselves in but as this passage underscores a talk that is brimming with hope.
  3. Divide the class into five groups.
  4. Assign each group one of the five principles that Elder Gong shares with us:
    1. Par. 17 "First:  Central in . . . fulness of joy."
    2. Par. 18-19 "Second:  Atonement-- at-one-ment . . . life's injustices just."
    3. Par. 20-23 "Third:  God knows . . . begin to repent."
    4. Par. 24 "Fourth:  The Lord . . . Isaac, and Jacob."
    5. Par. 25-26 "Finally, fifth:  The  . . . let it go."
  5. Ask each group to talk about how their assigned principle can bring healing and peace to troubled relationships and/or to an individual in such a relationship.
  6. Point out the need for sensitivity.  Remember Pres. Eyring's counsel that if you treat everyone you meet as if they are going through something hard, you will be right more often than not.  Even people we know may have things in their lives we do not know about and speaking harshly about things may make others feel ostracized.
  7. Allow a few moments for discussion.
  8. Come back together as a class and discuss what was talked about in the groups. 

Using the Activity:

Logistically, it might be useful to give some instructions for groups that feel like they exhaust their own principle before the time is done (a couple of those strike me as more straight-forward and less discussion dependent than others).  This could be as simple as moving on to talk about the next principle.  Perhaps I am just not seeing enough there, though.

I hope that this activity idea is useful to you in your efforts to teach with power and authority.  Thank you for visiting my blog.  

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