Summary of April 28, 2013 RS Lesson

Lesson: "Be Anxiously Engaged" by Elder Ballard

Teacher:  Debby DeBenedetti

Sisters,

It was good to be back teaching and amongst the greatest RS sisters in the galaxy!

 

Today's lesson was based on a talk given by Elder Ballard called, "Be Anxiously Engaged", from Oct 2012 General Conference.

OF COURSE, I recommend you read it for yourself, but here is the summary of the talk and our vibrant class discussion - Elder Ballard brings up the life of a bee.  You will learn some very interesting facts about bees.

The talk was about service...and I personally learned so many new things about service.

 

Service-

• Lightens the burdens of others.  (I kinda think it lightens our hearts, too).
• When we work together, the results of our efforts far exceed those of as many individuals.
• Is the definition of pure religion (James 1:27)
• Should be done everyday.  Elder Ballard suggested we pray every morning for the Spirit to open our eyes to the needs of others, and He will accommodate.
• There is some service that you, and ONLY you can provide, whether it is because of a specific relationship, your skills, the timing of the situation, etc.  
• The world needs service now and even more in the future.
• Our service is a testimony to others that God loves them.  
• There is power in God's love.
• It must come from the heart for it to be most effective - but Lucy shared a story where sometimes we just have to keep performing our service until it DOES come from the heart.  She calls those "rehearsals".  I like that.  Sometimes the spiritual witness doesn't come until after the service is performed. 
• Invokes the Light of Christ.  Kind of like the Liberty Mutual Insurance commercials, where one person has a kindness shown to them, so they do something kind for another person, and so forth.  Until, "all of a sudden", a whole community is serving one another.  I think it is commonly called "paying it forward", or "the ripple effect".

The only thing I would add that didn't come up in the discussion, is that service does not have to be performed outside of your family for it to qualify as service.  I love to listen to John Bytheway tapes...he's a motivational speaker and teaches religion.  On one of his tapes, he mentioned his sister, who was a young mother at the time and had many little ones.  He summarized the job of a mother as, "SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE!!!!!"  And you don't have to have little ones to be serving family members.  Much of the service we all provide is within our home & family.

 

The class was closed with my testimony that I know the principles about service, listed above, are true.  If we take Elder Ballard's suggestion to prayerfully ask for spiritual guidance to lead us to serve another everyday, our prayers will be answered.

We can change the world 1/12thof a teaspoon at a time!  (Gotta read the talk to understand that last part!).

Deb DeBenedetti