High Priest

[daddio0545]

I have been asked to share President Gordon B Hinkley"s  lesson #11 Home -  the Basis of a Righteous Life. Now remember this is High Priest and I just can't get a grip on how best to present this lesson. Any ideas or suggestions

[zil]

Focus on the last two sections (which don't seem impacted by age) and on how to uphold all the ideals of the lesson with extended families (e.g. helping those in your family who do have young children to make good parenting choices) and fellow ward members (e.g. through callings, HTing, etc.)?

I thought 90% of priesthood lessons were about the latest sporting event, political fiasco, or the location of Kolob anyway...

(Just teasing.  Welcome to the groups, @daddio0545!)

[Guest]

Here is my secret to good lessons.  I think, as Mormons, we could learn a thing or two from fundamentalist Protestant preachers.  We need some ENERGY in our teaching!

I like to keep reading from the manual to an absolute minimum.  To me, it is just a guideline.  I have sat through one too many lessons where someone just passes around the manual and everyone takes turns reading paragraph after paragraph.  Those lessons, to me, are horrible.

Instead, I like to get everyone in a circle.  Then I pace around, telling wild vivid stories about the subject matter.  I like to raise my voice (even almost yelling), gesture wildly, jump up and down - anything to make the lesson stick in peoples' minds.  People cannot help but pay attention, and it sticks with them!  This works excellent in primary - no need to discipline much, the kids are too taken aback by me being vivid and dominating the class!

I like to also try and get discussion going as appropriate for the lesson, in between me bringing an appropriate amount of fire and brimstone into it.  Powerpoint slides can be good, depending on what the lesson is about, if they can be made interesting.  Food can help encourage a mood of brotherhood in the class.

Things I hate seeing in lessons include small groups (forced participation), passing out slips of paper with passages for people to read (again forced participation), and reading from the book (lack of preparation).

Anyhow, that is what works for me.

[Guest]

We set examples as grandparents.  We show how to endure to the end.  We show that we never stop.

One reason why Mormons live longer than the population as a whole is that we continue to have purpose after retirement.  Temple work and genealogy come to mind.  But simply having callings keep us around.

We have one semi-active HP in our ward who comes to take the sacrament, then leaves.  He refuses callings.  He doesn't come to any other meetings or activities.  That is not a good example to set for the children or grandchildren.  Us being examples does not stop when we become grandparents.

As a parent, I try to teach by both precept and by example.  But so often, I find myself explaining to the kids why I was not so good at XYZ before.  But I've made improvement.  It seems that the example I'm setting is how to improve, because I'm constantly in the process.  And it is a noticeable process.

Their grandparents, on the other hand, have gone through all that already.  They're the example of what the end goal is (you know what I mean).

Edited June 7, 2017 by Guest