Elder James W. McConkie III (Oct. '22): "And They Sought to See Jesus Who He Was"

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 I love talks like this.  Talks that teach a point (in this case, we should spend time learning of Christ's life, example, and atonement) and then illustrate it with an example that is almost another talk in and of itself (the four people taking their friend to be healed by the Savior).  I learned a great deal from both parts of this talk that I have been working on incorporating in my life.  

The Activity:

  1. Read par. 4 ("For me, for . . . Resurrection, His gospel").
  2. Ask the class members to think about the stories of Christ from "the five gospels" and to identify what they can learn from one of their favorites.  (NOTE:  Not everyone may have one for a variety of reasons.  Explain that this is okay.
  3. Invite the class members to thumb through their scriptures as they think about this for a couple of moments.
  4. Allow the class some quiet time to think and look.
  5. Invite the class members to share in small groups (3-4 people) their story and the lesson(s) they learn from it.
  6. After a bit of sharing, call the class back together and ask a few people to share with the whole class.

Using the Activity:

I was struck by the idea of using the events of Christ's life to teach us important lessons about mundane things, e.g. dealing with strong emotions, avoiding contention in an argument, etc.  And wanted this activity to be a chance to apply that teaching from Elder McConkie.  It is important to make allowance for people who may feel like they do not know the scriptures well enough to do this.  By easing the tension right off the bat, it can help them to feel more relaxed and they may find something they want to share.  Also, by doing the bulk of the sharing in small groups, these same people are not being called out in front of the entire class.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my site.  I really enjoy doing this and I hope that you find it helpful in magnifying your calling.  

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