Lesson 11: Home-- The Basis of a Righteous Life

The family is the center of our religion.  In many ways, the church as an organization serves primarily to support the family.  The purpose of this lesson is to help strengthen class members' testimonies of the importance of family and elevate their vision of what is possible and necessary in their own family relations.

The Activity:

1. Pass out a piece of paper to each class member
2. Pass around a number of quotes from the lesson on individual slips of papers and ask each class member to take one that seems to speak to them.  For example, I might choose to pass around quotes such as the ones found in the following places.
1. Section 1, paragraphs 1 and 3
2. Section 2, paragraphs 1, 2 (first sentence), and 7
3. Section 3, paragraph 6
4. Section 4, paragraph 4
5. Section 5, paragraph 4
6. Section 6, paragraphs 2 and 3
7. Section 7, paragraphs 1, 6, 8, 9, and 10
3. Ask the class members to spend a few moments writing down their thoughts about the quote they chose.  This could be a bulleted kind of list of ideas or a more extended traditional paragraph structure; it doesn't matter.
4. Put the class members in groups of 4 or so.
5. Have each group spend time discussing the quotes they chose and what they meant to them.  You might ask the group members to look specifically for places where their ideas seem to be related in some way and to pay attention to ideas that are new to them.
6. Come back together as a whole class and discuss the insights gained.

Using the Activity:
A pretty standard variation of this activity that may go over a bit better if you have a class that does not take to writing easily is to skip the writing step.  Simply give the class members a few moments to consider what their chosen quote means to them and/or what it teaches them about the family and their responsibilities as family members.  You could even push this one step farther by asking class members to stand up and walk around sharing their thoughts orally with a partner and listening to their partner.  Then, they move on and talk to someone else.  This last variation seems to be better suited to classes that are larger.  In any case, the idea here is to ask student to exercise their faith by carefully considering a quote and its application in their life, recording somehow (in writing or mentally) their ideas, sharing their thoughts and ideas about the quotes with others, and listening attentively to their peers share their ideas.  Those who engage in this type of faith exercising will surely be rewarded with increased understanding and a strengthened testimony.
I hope this lesson is helpful and please remember to leave comments about your experiences.  I look forward to hearing from you.