Today I had an experience where you realize just how much the Lord helps you. I teach Relief Society every third Sunday, and I was excited to do a lesson on the Prophets of God. I had a handout ready, and enough material to go for the 40 minutes I usually get.
When I walked into the room, and the RS president told me I needed to end about 10 minutes early so we could do visiting teaching assignments, I thought, "No prob. I'll just skip a few questions and quotes. No biggie". And then I watched the clock tick away as we did the opening prayer, song, announcements, music moment, good news moment, the practice hymn, and the visiting teaching moment. By the time I got up to teach, I had fifteen minutes.
How on earth was I supposed to cover all the prophets in fifteen minutes?! I wanted a minute to gather my thoughts and try to pare down my lesson, so I had the ladies work on the handout I had made- a quiz to match each prophet with a little tidbit life fact. By the time five minutes had passed, I still hadn't made up my mind which direction to take, so I said in my head. "Lord, just let me say what the ladies need to hear".
From that point on, I didn't use ONE WORD of what I had planned in my notes. I used scriptures and quotes that I remembered from different lessons from years ago, and I just kept going.
That was the best lesson I have ever given.
I know that I said what the Lord wanted me to, because I had several ladies come up and thank me for the lesson and tell me which things I said that affected them the most. It's always very satisfying to be able to get your point across and help someone in the class.
After I was done cleaning up, I talked to Jessica about not using a thing I had prepared. She seemed surprised and told me she thought it was one of my best lessons I had done. Then we talked about the wonderful power of God and how he uses us to give His messages.
I wish all my lessons could be like that!
No comments:
Post a Comment