I told the brethren to sharpen their knives to close our elder's quorum lesson today. As I have analyzed and prayed about it since then I have realized that if I ever get the chance I will change it to "sharpen your swords of truth"! Here's D&C 27:
15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.
16 Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;
17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;
18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It doesn't quite fit does it? Oh well, maybe next time. But oh, what a promise!
A couple of hours after church, 1:40pm to be exact, I had finally dealt with my feelings enough to start enjoying and valuing having taught the lesson. I wrote in my journal, reread the lesson, added things we discovered along the way and prayed a couple of times. There are two people I may have unintentionally offended in the lesson. I have debated whether I need to apologize to them or not. Kim Garrett and Steve Muir. Sometimes I just respond like myself instead of a servant of the Lord. I got enough compliments and thank yous and even a hug from good old Pres. Black who knows to some degree the reassurance I always need, after the lesson to know that they know I did my best and that I love them/us.
There were so many highlights I wrote 12 of them in my journal and won't repeat them here. But the new thing, the thing I have never, ever done before in a lesson was > use social media right there in the EQ classroom. So awesome and so fun! So cool. I am so proud! Cutting edge, good example, advance preparation, and all that stuff. Greg Brailsford was a kick! He must have asked 5 questions as he hunted for it. Jesse Bird was proud to be the first one there and announced it. He zoomed through all his lesson material in SS today and had us reading verses of Jeremiah all over the place. I asked him, how much of his lesson material he made it through about half? And he corrected me with the whole amount he had prepared. He reads fast and not very loud. He read my letter to the quorum clearly to begin with and then faster and faster as I had him stand and face the class from his front row seat. : )
I only used about 1/4 of what I prepared and the number of minutes and hours I have analyzed and thought and considered applications I can't quite estimate. I am smiling as I write this. It was a brief immersion into my old world of professional teaching with all the motivation, interests, considerations and consumptions. Was I keyed-up? Is waking at 2:30am this morning and writing out an idea/concept/analogy in my journal for an hour enough evidence? I also did indexing and dog walk around the golf course and conference talks, highlighted recent talks, shaved my week's growth and took advantage of the extra energy. I drifted off from 8:10-:20 but then had to get to early morning choir practice for our performance today.
I am fasting today and tonight. I really ought to fast once a week. In my 2:30 am journal entry I concluded by saying I could fast and pray in celebration of the safe arrival of Kayla Brock into the world on November 14, 2014. I had/have been remiss in my prayers for the Brocks during many weeks of this pregnancy. As I prayed to express my excitement and gratitude I said something funny and something sincere. I told HF that since there is no time with God, whether I pray before an event or afterwards doesn't really matter, I hope. And That if any of my actions have supported him and the building of his kingdom here on the earth in these last months and if he would accept them as an offering of gratitude, I would be pleased.
Anticipating a fast and then enduring it is almost torture. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it today. I did not make a rock solid commitment. I just had this hope, dream, this desire. But after I had calmed down this afternoon I told myself it would be perfectly fine not to go home teaching and to just nap if I wanted. Three hours of napping I did. And then a dog walk again tonight and now writing so it looks like I might make it. f a s t i n g
But food brings me such pleasure!
I saw Eric Yunker in the chapel library today! Yes! First time in weeks.
At the end of my lesson, (afterburner) I shared my Old Testament for LDS families, my journal, Our Lord of the Gospels, my triple, and my having listened to every videoed General Conference talk from '71 'till '14.
There are ways to fill our lives with the gospel, the spirit of missionary work, and sharpen our knives of truth and swords of the spirit! Get sharpening!
I only used about 1/4 of what I prepared and the number of minutes and hours I have analyzed and thought and considered applications I can't quite estimate. I am smiling as I write this. It was a brief immersion into my old world of professional teaching with all the motivation, interests, considerations and consumptions. Was I keyed-up? Is waking at 2:30am this morning and writing out an idea/concept/analogy in my journal for an hour enough evidence? I also did indexing and dog walk around the golf course and conference talks, highlighted recent talks, shaved my week's growth and took advantage of the extra energy. I drifted off from 8:10-:20 but then had to get to early morning choir practice for our performance today.
I am fasting today and tonight. I really ought to fast once a week. In my 2:30 am journal entry I concluded by saying I could fast and pray in celebration of the safe arrival of Kayla Brock into the world on November 14, 2014. I had/have been remiss in my prayers for the Brocks during many weeks of this pregnancy. As I prayed to express my excitement and gratitude I said something funny and something sincere. I told HF that since there is no time with God, whether I pray before an event or afterwards doesn't really matter, I hope. And That if any of my actions have supported him and the building of his kingdom here on the earth in these last months and if he would accept them as an offering of gratitude, I would be pleased.
Anticipating a fast and then enduring it is almost torture. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it today. I did not make a rock solid commitment. I just had this hope, dream, this desire. But after I had calmed down this afternoon I told myself it would be perfectly fine not to go home teaching and to just nap if I wanted. Three hours of napping I did. And then a dog walk again tonight and now writing so it looks like I might make it. f a s t i n g
But food brings me such pleasure!
I saw Eric Yunker in the chapel library today! Yes! First time in weeks.
At the end of my lesson, (afterburner) I shared my Old Testament for LDS families, my journal, Our Lord of the Gospels, my triple, and my having listened to every videoed General Conference talk from '71 'till '14.
There are ways to fill our lives with the gospel, the spirit of missionary work, and sharpen our knives of truth and swords of the spirit! Get sharpening!
PS. A huge idea about Dallin Oaks talk: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, I never even touched on. But at least we read out of the manual! I got on my lds.org account this morning and changed my password to "daveblackisnothere" so we could go look up Elder DHO's talk with all my highlights and the succeeding talk(s) as well. I so knew the quorum would get a kick out of my password. I saw Taylor Black in the hall today and was able to call her by name. She sure loves her dad. Contact comfort is common for them at church. Makes me wonder how being a caboose will impact her personality and life compared to the first batch of kids they raised. : )
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