Elder Dale G. Renlund (Oct. '23): "Jesus Christ is the Treasure"

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 What a great talk reminding us of the simplicity of the gospel-- Jesus  Christ.  The treasure is always Jesus Christ.  Remembering that is not easy in our modern world, though.  To help us remember, the Lord has given us many things.  Elder Renlund in this talk reviews four of these and this is what the activity below focuses on.

The Activity:

  1. Make sure that every class member has access to a copy of the talk either digitally or physically.
  2. Explain that in this talk, Elder Renlund reviews four actions we can do to avoid looking beyond the mark.
  3. Divide the class into four groups.
  4. Assign each group one action along with the corresponding part of the talk.  These are:
    1. Repentance-- par. 10-11 "The Savior has . . . of our sins."
    2. The sacrament-- par. 12-13 "Just like the . . . prospered, and preserved."
    3. Temple Worship-- par. 14-15 "When we have . . . it is distant."
    4. Listening to the Prophet-- par. 16-17  "After Carter and . . . look no further."
  5. Have each group read the passages and discuss the following questions:
    1. How this practice can help us avoid missing Jesus?
    2. What are some practical ways to apply this counsel in our lives?
  6. Allow the groups time to talk
  7. After a few minutes, bring the class back together and ask the groups to report.
  8. Ask the class to identify some other practices that can help us to remember Jesus and discuss these ideas as a class.

Using the Activity:

This activity is designed to focus on more of the practical side of the gospel.  It is important then to make sure that it is preceded by a careful consideration of the doctrine associated with these practices.  Only when a person feels the Spirit will they want to make sincere  changes in their lives.  And when the Spirit is present, our class members will be inspired to know how these principles should look in their lives.  In terms of application, the most impactful change for one person will be fairly meaningless for another.  So, the Spirit is essential here.  Also, it may need to be reiterated that each of us may feel inspired to do something slightly different and that is okay.

The other point in this activity that is worth mentioning is the last step (#8).  This is another way to center the class members' thoughts in our classes.  There are more than four ways to help us treasure Jesus more in our daily lives, and our class members led by the Spirit will help the class discover new truths.  

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