Lesson 14: Losing Ourselves in the Service of Others

I am married to a wonderful woman who was taught the value of service growing up.  As a result, she has made sure that our kids (and me, by extension) have learned and never forget the joy of service and the immense good that each of us is capable of, if we are aware and take the opportunities to serve that surround us daily.  Because of her influence, this lesson means even more to me.  Plus, I think the world in countless subtle ways (II Ne. 26:22) tells all of us that we are the center of things, we deserve more (anything we could wish), we are who should be being served; service seems to be one of the tools the Lord has given us to counteract these tendencies and forces that push us to selfishness and self-centeredness.  So, this lesson is important.

The Activity:

1. Pose some variation of the following question to the class:  What does the world tell us will make us happy and carefree?
2. List the answers on the board
3. Tell the class that you are now going to see how a prophet of God tells us to find happiness.
4. Read all or some of the following quotes (or other quotes that you fell would be more compelling/powerful for your class):
1. Section 1, last paragraph ("If we will give such service . . ."
2. Section 2, paragraph 4 ("I believe that for most of us . . ."); paragraph 7 ("The best antidote I know . . ."); paragraph 10 ("Give expression to the noble desires . . .")
3. Section 4, paragraph 1 ("Brothers and sisters, you will never . . ."); paragraph 7 ("Do you want to be happy? . . .")
5. Discuss the following things:  how do you find ways to serve?  why does service make us happier?  how have you seen this in your own life?

Using the Activity:

To me this activity, is most useful at the beginning of a lesson.  It works there because it does 2 things.  First, this activity helps to give reason for the rest of the lesson.  Most of us are seeking to be happy; even if we already consider ourselves happy, we want to stay that way.  So, this lesson begins by showing everyone that the material here is something that we want/need in our lives.  Second, this activity also begins by pointing out common misconceptions that the world wants us to hold and that many of us-- even as Church members-- succumb to at least on occasion.  In other words, this activity helps us by making visible misconceptions that we may have that are buried deep in our ways of thinking without examination. 

Too often, we begin lessons by simply jumping in and covering material.  For most people to learn this is ineffective.  Whether the learning is worldly or spiritual, people need to be prepped for learning.  This can be done in many ways (two of which are exemplified in this activity).  We could also use opening activities to activate what the class already knows or doesn't know (this activity does something similar to this); to create curiosity; to generate questions; to hook the interest of the class members; or to cause students to wonder.  In all of these cases, what we are really doing is trying to help our class members to engage with the material.  It is through the engagement with gospel truths that conversion happens.  We see this when two people sit in the same class and one is moved tremendously and the other is simply bored.  One of those people is engaged with the material (remember, when we are engaged, we exercise our faith, which leads to feeling the Spirit) and one is simply passing time.  As teachers, our job is to help our class members engage.

As always, I hope you find this activity useful as is or with modification.  Please feel free to let me know what you think of any of these activities.  God bless.