Lesson 10: Nurturing the Eternal Partnership of Marriage

For me, the messages of President Hinckley shared in this section encapsulate what he did so well.  He conveys a hopeful message of what we can be/achieve and then gives us a gentle nudge to up our game, so to speak.  The activity I am sharing would seem to me to fit best after we have spoken about the potential of what a celestial marriage could be.  The focus is on, as President Hinckley liked to say, doing just a little bit better.

Activity:

1.  Read the last two paragraphs in section 1 ("Surely no one reading . . .)
2. Then, ask the class to divide up into partners.
3. Assign each partnership a paragraph from the lesson that provides a description of some aspect of marriage.  For example:
1. In section 3, paragraphs 2, 3, or 4
2. In section 5, paragraphs 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8
4. Ask the partners to read the paragraph and then make a short list of specific ways they could behave to create the type of relationship that President Hinckley is describing.  Push them to think of and list specific gestures and words they might use in specific (common) situations.
5. Come back together and discuss what the partners talked about.

Using the Activity:

As I said before, it feels like this activity is built on a base of conveying the importance of establishing not simply a marriage but a celestial marriage like the one that President Hinckley describes.  Of course, like with any of the activities I describe, there are countless ways to alter the logistics of this activity (or even make greater changes).  For example, it might help to type up and print the paragraphs you want the partnerships to read and discuss.  This will speed up the process a little bit as opposed to telling each group what they are to read and discuss. 

Also, it should be noted that some people during this activity may identify some personal actions they should take that may be too intimate to share.  So beware of pushing too hard to get people to share.  Having said that, you can phrase questions in ways that suggest to people they are sharing more generalizable comments.  That way they can interpret their more personal ideas into ideas that are more appropriate for larger groups and less threatening to themselves.

As always, please feel free to leave some feedback on how these ideas are working for you.  I'm just curious.  Thanks.