Show Notes for Episode 23 of the Teach Me to Walk in the Light Podcast. Learn three important aspects of service: lifting where you stand, standing together, and serving with a smile. Includes FHE suggestion, a valuable teaching tip on what to do when you’re not prepared, and 6 brand new dinner conversation starters. This episode goes along with the Come, Follow Me – for Individuals and Families for the week of September 16-22.
FHE Outlines are available by email.
Sign up to receive weekly FHE Outlines delivered right to your inbox! Making FHE preparation as simple as possible for you!
**This Episode goes along with the Come, Follow Me – For Individuals and Families for the week of September 16-22, 2019.
Don’t miss these great books available on Amazon! And for more church-related products at great prices, check out my Amazon Favorites page by clicking HERE.
PERSONAL STUDY [2:48]
1.Story by Elder Uchtdorf
Some years ago in our meetinghouse in Darmstadt, Germany, a group of brethren was asked to move a grand piano from the chapel to the adjoining cultural hall, where it was needed for a musical event. None were professional movers, and the task of getting that gravity-friendly instrument through the chapel and into the cultural hall seemed nearly impossible. Everybody knew that this task required not only physical strength but also careful coordination. There were plenty of ideas, but not one could keep the piano balanced correctly. They repositioned the brethren by strength, height, and age over and over again—nothing worked.
As they stood around the piano, uncertain of what to do next, a good friend of mine, Brother Hanno Luschin, spoke up. He said, “Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand.
It seemed too simple. Nevertheless, each lifted where he stood, and the piano rose from the ground and moved into the cultural hall as if on its own power. That was the answer to the challenge. They merely needed to stand close together and lift where they stood. (For his full talk, click HERE)
LIFTING WHERE YOU STAND
2. Linda K. Burton, Relief Society General President
At the funeral services for a remarkable daughter of God, someone shared that this sister, as stake Relief Society president, worked with others in her stake to contribute quilts to give warmth to suffering people in Kosovo during the 1990s. And like the good Samaritan, she went out of her way to do more as she and her daughter drove a truck filled with those quilts from London to Kosovo. On her journey home she received an unmistakable spiritual impression that sank deep into her heart. The impression was this: “What you have done is a very good thing. Now go home, walk across the street, and serve your neighbor!” (Funeral service for Rosemary Curtis Neider, Jan. 2015.) (For her full talk, click HERE)
3. Sister Oscarson
What good does it do to save the world if we neglect the needs of those closest to us and those whom we love the most? How much value is there in fixing the world if the people around us are falling apart and we don’t notice? Heavenly Father may have placed those who need us closest to us, knowing that we are best suited to meet their needs. (For her full talk, click HERE)
4. Sister Oscarson
Occasionally our children would ask us the question, “Why do I have to go to Mutual? I just don’t get very much out of it.”
If I was having a good parenting moment, I would reply, “What makes you think you go to Mutual because of what you get out of it?”
My young friends, I can guarantee that there will always be someone at every Church meeting you attend who is lonely, who is going through challenges and needs a friend, or who feels like he or she doesn’t belong. You have something important to contribute to every meeting or activity, and the Lord desires for you to look around at your peers and then minister as He would. (For her full talk, click HERE)
5. Ministering in Action, Click HERE
6. How do we know if we are giving enough?
2 Corinthians 8:12-13
12. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
- For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened
Basically, he’s saying that the first and most important thing that the Lord wants is a willing heart and that the actual amount you contribute must be according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have. In verse 13 when it says “I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened” means don’t give so much to others that now you don’t have enough for yourself – there is an actual point of giving too much. Paul is talking about money, but I think this can be applied both in regards to things with monetary value and with our own physical strength because we cannot run faster than we are able.
7. James E. Talmage
In the accounts kept by the recording angels, figured out according to the arithmetic of heaven, entries are made in terms of quality rather than of quantity, and values are determined on the basis of capability and intent. The rich gave much yet kept back more; the widow’s gift was her all. It was not the smallness of her offering that made it especially acceptable, but the spirit of sacrifice and devout intent with which she gave. (Jesus the Christ, 520)
STANDING TOGETHER
8. The second important part to serving, is doing it together. As in Elder Uchtdorf’s piano moving story, no one could have moved that piano all by themselves. It took everyone standing together. No one can serve every one all by themselves, not even the Relief Society President. We must all stand together. It’s like the old quote, “Many hands make for light work.” When we all stand together, no one is overburdened, and great things are accomplished.
9. Conference Parable by President Eyring, click HERE
SERVING WITH A SMILE
10. The third important part to serving is doing it with a smile. There’s a story that is told of a man who had been pressed for weeks by his wife and his bishop to pay his tithing. Finally, exasperated, the man went into the bishop’s office, slid the envelope across the desk, and said, “Here Bishop, here’s your damn tithing!” The bishop calmly slid the envelope back across the desk, replying, “well if that’s the way you feel about it, then you can keep your money. The Lord doesn’t want it.”
11. 2 Corinthians 9: 7
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
12. Brigham Young
We say to the Saints, do not pay Tithing, unless you want to; do not help to build up this Temple unless you want to; do not put forth your hands to one day’s work, unless you want to. . . . If you grudgingly put forth your means to help to gather the Saints, it will be a curse to you. (Hugh Nibley, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, p. 460)
FHE [20:00]
**Sign up for the Teach Me FHE Email Group to receive the weekly FHE Outlines that include all links and downloads. Making FHE preparation as simple as possible for you. Sign up at the top of the page under the podcast recording.**
TEACHING TIP [23:02]
What To Do When You’re Unprepared, by Hank Smith.
1.Take the scripture section that you are to cover and divide it up. Divide the classroom and give each group a part of the section of scripture. Tell them to each look it over and to find the “walk-on-water/life-changing” part that really sticks out to them. Give everyone a few minutes to do that.
2. Have them come and write it on the board and say why that stuck out to them.
3. Have the class vote on the very best one and let them know you’re going to first narrow it down to the top 3.
4. Take the top 3 and discuss why each one is so powerful and life-changing and should win.
5. Choose the winner from the top 3 and have everybody memorize that scripture and/or come up with a phrase for everyone to remember.
#taketimeforfamily [24:17]
Here are 6 fun questions to ask your kids from Nested Blissfully
1.What is something I always say to you?
2. How old am I?
3. What do I do for a job?
4. What do you enjoy doing with me?
5. If our pet could talk, what would it say?
6. How does Mom and/or Dad laugh?
Yours Truly,
Disclaimer: Melanie’s Library is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. An Affiliates Program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
