Lessons from Church

I love going to church. Today one really important lesson didn't come from class. More on that in a bit. One thing I did learn in the Gospel Doctrine lesson was about the Hebrew word "yom." The teacher didn't source it, but taught that yom may mean "time," "day," or "period." On one site I found a word study on it. I haven't checked the entirety of the site's content, so I can't say I agree with it all, but the information on yom is fascinating. As an aside, I like the intent of this site. I don't think there is any conflict between science and religion. In any case, yom is translated into English in various verses of the Bible as "time," "year" or "years," "ago," "always," "ever," and "evermore." For those of us who believe God used the laws He created to organize the Earth, that's an important concept.

The lesson I learned that didn't come from class was fascinating. At the beginning of the third hour of worship, all the priesthood holders come together to start their meeting together before dividing into various quorums. Usually, we sing the first verse of a song. Today, the gentleman leading the music told us we'd sing the second verse of "Sweet Hour of Prayer." A couple of times before we started he signaled the group with two fingers, recognized as, "We're singing the second verse, guys, not the first." More than half the group, having been oblivious in their side conversations, happily sang the first verse. Many of the rest just reverted to singing the first out of habit.

It was a fantastic lesson on obedience. Obedience is not to simply continue engaging in our comfortable habits, heedless of any new direction. Obedience involves flexibility and listening for God's instructions from the Spirit.

O Remember, Remember

The EQ President called up and asked if I could teach the lesson tomorrow, apologizing for the short notice. Fortunately, having just been released from Primary, Bubbles and I were renewed in our resolve to deeply study our lessons before going to Church, so I'd had some good preparation. He suggested linking the below video to the very basic lesson on God. I'm glad he recommended it. It's given me new resolve to do better in my record-keeping. Here it is for the interested:



I've also transcribed it to hand out with my lesson. For those who want President Eyring's words:

When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day.

Before I would write I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us?” As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what he had done.

You might pray, and ponder, asking the question, “Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life?”