How many of us have heard that church is for the sinner. How many of us have found that we are not perfect and that is one of the reasons we join in communities of Christ to study his gospel and work together to improve ourselves.
Often people set high standards for themselves and may get depressed when they are not reaching their goals of self-improvement quickly. Here are some ideas on how we may stay encouraged in our goals. I hope this lesson can be of use for family counselors, family devotionals, youth ministries and family home evenings
Object for this lesson. Find a marble egg. Through a series of days, the rock in mud and let it dry. Maybe put paint on marble egg or find other ways to mess it up. Now for the object lesson. At different points of our lives, we may feel as messed up as this rock. Our sins and our bad habits may cover our inner potential just like the mud covers the rock. Through repentance and acts of self-improvement, we can begin to chip away the mud or bad things in our lives see the beautiful rock beneath.
Maybe as a family or class, began to chip or break away different parts of the dirt, grime and discuss different techniques and ways of how we can depart from sin or bad habits. Mention habits specifically as we knock off individual parts of grime. Eventually you may have all the mud knocked, but the paint stains may remain. Go ahead and use a sander or a buffeting cloth to take off the paint. Eventually all the grime is removed, leaving only the rock. Go ahead and shining up to its original, beauty. If you have access to a rock collector, that person may have a machine that can shine the rock. The beauty of the rock is revealed through buffeting and cleaning just as we abandon our habits and acts of sin.
Talk about how each individual section of grime is worked on independently. As one section, habit or sin is cleaned, se, can move on to another. Discuss how repentance, recompense, and salvation of Christ and his act of mercy in the garden of Gethsemane have contributed to our removal of sin. As we stop one bad habit, we can move on to another. Sometimes if we have a strong commitment, we may make an abrupt change in our lives, and abandon multiple sands and habits simultaneously. Our actions in partnership to Christ’s actions can leave behind a beautiful rock.
This can be compared to how we can work on individual challenges. We can change our habits and increase our self-improvement gradually. Benjamin Franklin had a checklist of things that he wanted to improve on. He would devote each day to a specific habit. George Washington also had goals of self-improvement, as inspired by a book he read as a youth. Think of how great these men became as they made a constant effort of self-improvement.
We can also become better people, by removing the grime of our rocks. It may be a gradual process, or an abrupt one. The goal is to continually clean our rocks and Christ through his atonement will help us in our goals.
If you have something to contribute to this topic, please do so in the comment section this blog.
