Lesson Proposal

I have decided to teach a lesson on prayer. As of late, this has not been my strong suit and it is making me uneasy. Prayer is our direct line to Heaven Father and if you neglect it, you will eventually lose contact. In the lesson I hope to teach people how important prayer is not just every once in awhile, but always, continually with a prayer in your heart. The student will come away from this lesson with a new understanding of prayer i.e. the language of prayer, sincerity of prayer, and how to recieve answers to prayers. They will be able to pray with confidence, sincerity and gratefulness. There are many resources to use to accomplish this criteria, but my favorite would have to be the scriptures. Scripture upon scripture tells of the importance of prayer in the Gospel. It is our way of communication. We give thanks with prayer, we ask questions with prayer, we repent through prayer. It is an extremely important gospel principle I think a lot of us take for granted, me included. Other resources I will use are talks from church magazines. My mother not to long ago referenced a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks entitled "Language of Prayer." It was a great reference on appropriately talking to Heavenly Father. There are other talks given that would great resources for a lesson on prayer. Hopefully by the end of the lesson people will understand how important prayer is in their lives and the gospel. I would hope they would start applying what they learned in the lesson to their lives and see how much they improve. I will know they have learned when I can look at them and see their countenences glowing with the power prayer gives them. I plan to find at least 5 scriptures to share and expand on dealing with prayer by the end of the week. Then I will move onto talks. I will find at least 3 talks and pick out the best quotes and teachings from each of the talks and integrate them with the scriptures I found. Then I will ponder on my life and see how prayer has blessed and influenced my life throughout the years and write down a couple experiences to share. Then I will come up with a challenge to present to the students and hope they will accomplish it and develop a testimony of prayer, just as I have.

Goals

My first goal is dealing with prayer. Usually I am really good about praying, but lately I have been neglecting it, and I can tell that my life isn't as full as it once was. I don't know if it is the start of school or what, but praying, sincerely to my Father in Heaven has been harder to do. I am making excuses, too tired, too much homework, I forgot, etc. This has got to stop. It is bad enough that I am not praying often enough, but it is worse that I can tell I am not praying enough. That being said, my first goal is to pray, morning and night, sincerely, for the next six weeks, or until I fell my life is back in order. I will know I have accomplished this goal when I am back on the same level with Heavenly Father that I was before. I will feel it. To help me accomplish this goal I am going to schedule my life more. Get a routine going so I am not rushing to get everything done all the time. I am also going to make reminders for myself and hang them in my room. My favorite quotes about prayer, a rock, whatever it takes. I know overcoming the exhaustion of student life is going to fight against me constantly, but with determination and faith I know I can accomplish this goal.

My second goal is dealing with the gift of Knowledge. I know I have been blessed with this, but lately I feel as if I have lost it. Reading in th student manual it says, "the gift...comes by study and obedience." Two things I am also trying to work on. My goal is to get no grade lower than a B. I will now I have accomplished this goal when grades are posted. This is probably going to be my hardest goal because it requires a lot of things. Obedience, knowledge, good study habits, faith and prayer, just to name a few. There is also going to be a lot of things going against me. Time, tests, classes, work, callings, etc. However, I know if I am doing everything I can to follow the teachings of the Gospel as well as prioritize my life, I can accomplish this goal.

My third goal is obedience. I am going to have to work on this one if I want to fulfill my other to goals. My goal for obedience is going to deal with church. I am going to attend all of my meetings, on Sunday and otherwise for the rest of the semester. This sounds simple enough, but it is hard for me. Not so much for my Sunday meetings, but all the other ones. I am extremely disobedient when it comes to attending meetings other than on Sundays, but I know if I start attending my life will be richer. Not only will I meet people in my ward, I will be enriched with lessons and experiences beyond measure. The main problems of this goal are homework, being tired and friends. To overcome these obstacles I plan to schedule my time so my homework is done before 8, go to bed early so I get enough sleep, and invite my friends to attend with me.

Sections 1-6

Some say the most read scripture in the Church is 1st Nephi. Why you ask? Because as members we start to read the Book of Mormon and then we might slack a little so we start over and the cycle continues until we make reading a strong habit. Everytime we start over however, we once again read 1st Nephi. I feel this way about the Doctrine and Covenants also. I have started reading the Doctrine and Covenants many times, each time getting further and further until I start reading somewhere else in the standard works and decide to start over. Because of this, the first few sections are some of my favorite sections. In fact one of my favorite scriptures of all time is Doctrine and Covenants 3:2. It reads,"For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, niether doth he vary form that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round." I have loved this scripture from the first time I read it because it is so simple. I could actually understand what it was saying as a six year old girl. For me some scriptures are hard to understand. I have to ponder and pray about them a lot before I fully understand what they mean, but this scripture is black and white. The Lord has a path for me, and He won't stray from it. If anyone blows it, it will be me. However if I just follow what the Lord says I will return to Him because His course is eternal. It is extremely comforting to know this. If I think I am on following the wrong path I just have to evaluate how obedient I am being to God's plan and I will get my answer. Simple truths are simply amazing!

Readings...the 1st one.

Usually when I have read the Doctrine and Covenants I skip right to Section 1 overlooking the Introduction. What a lazy thing to do. Not to mention it doesn't benefit me in the slightest. The times I actually have read the Introduction I have learned new things. One of the things I enjoy about the Doctrine and Covenants is how close it is to my lifetime, if that makes sense. The Bible and Book of Mormon times were FOREVER ago whereas the Doctrine and Covenants were written in this dispensation. It is amazing for me to think that additions were being added to the Doctrine and Covenants just some 91 years ago. My grandpa is 91. Wow.
Along with the timing, the sacrifices that went into getting this book are astonishing. In the manual it mentioned how "we must remember that they were living in pioneer times...." It wasn't like the leaders of the church could just walk over to Kinko's and get 1000 copies of the revelations they had just received. It was a great, great sacrifice the Church went through to get the Doctrine and Covenants out into the world. And how blessed we are for it!