I hope today’s object lesson can be of use to youth ministries, family counselors, and be of use to family home evenings. Today’s topic is how building spiritual and moral character of youth can be like preparing a nice dinner.
A lot of times when we arrived to enjoy a nice dinner. We think of all the variety of items that we can enjoy. But like the building of character for each of us a meal needs be prepared for. 1st is the purchasing of items for the meal and then the preparation of those items for the meal. Each require separate tasks and ingredients. So it is in preparing. I used to grow spiritually. Characters for youth and adults is built to time, and a variety of sources. Home life, who you associate with, things we learned church, and other points of contact in our daily lives. There is also the use of the Scriptures and personal and family prayer.
Below is a list of some of the items that could be discussed on how they can prepare us as members of the family and improving our character.
Church attendance: this is as an opportunity to associate with people that have a similar goal as we do to improve ourselves as Christians and to more devoutly following Christ.
Scripture study: if you want to know somebody read their life history. If you want to know Christ, we read the Scriptures and establish a personal conversation with God the father and his son Jesus Christ through prayer.
Prayer: if we want to get to know someone, one good way is through a personal conversation. So we can establish a relationship with God the Father through prayer.
Group discussion: Either in church or in some family devotional or Family Home Evening, we can discuss important issues with our fellow family members or class members. This gives us a chance to share our personal perspectives. Many times I have gained an improved insight on a subject because of a comment of some other student in class.
Don’t spoon – feed the answers: for very young children we as parents and teachers can teach children by repetition of principles and by example. As children begin to mature, it is important for us to give those children a chance to reason, and reduce answers for themselves. But that would mean giving them the tools such as faith in Christ, Scripture study, prayer, and obedience to commandments. Another important tool is example. We as parents and teachers can testify the successes we’ve experienced when we have seen the success of Scripture study or living the commandments. Eventually children will grow to be adults and will need to have the power to the defined righteousness for themselves. That means having their own testimonies of God.
Founding principles of the gospel: as we as teachers and parents teach youth, we begin with the basic principles of the gospel, such as prayer, faith and obedience. We include Scripture study and encourage reasoning and how to identify promptings of the spirit when seeking an answer to prayer. We repeat the basic principles of the gospel, frequently. It’s from that foundation that the more complex principles of the gospel can sprout and be better understood.
And just like this principles of prayer, scripture study, testimonies are given to daily instruction. The preparation of the meal needs time to be prepared. Ingredient of contribute to the meal at different points of preparation. So the instruction to our use is given throughout the years and different points of their lives. All of the actions lead to the eventual goal of partaking in the meal of Christ and his gospel.
If you have some ideas would like to share on this concept, please feel free to share them in the comment section of this blog. Thanks
