Perfecting the Saints — One Lesson at a Time
At what point in the scripture block did the Spirit touch you and whisper to you that something you read was true? Maybe a particular part was something with which you have already had experience. Bear testimony of it during class, and invite students to do the same. Look For: Be aware of your feelings as you read. What verses touch you? Look for phrases that speak to you. Example:…
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Many scriptures make promises and conditions by putting them in a formula, usually stated as a “If [this happens], then [that will happen].” Look For: Watch for the words like “If…” and “then…” CAUTION: many times the “then” part is implied and the word “then” word is left out. Example: 1 Nephi 2:20 “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, (there is no “THEN” but it is implied!) ye shall…
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Use a respected adult to help you teach the class. Separate into groups and have the other adult teach one group while you teach another. Give the students a few minutes at the end of class to share what they learned. EXAMPLE: When teaching Ruth, I asked my husband to take the boys while I took the girls. We wrote down the qualities that Ruth and Boaz had that would…
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When a weasel finds an egg, he punctures it and sucks the life out of the shell. In a similar way, some words in the scriptures suck the life out of a story or verse. Look For: Look for words that seem to deflate everything that was said before or after. Example: Jeremiah 6:14 “They (the priests) have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly ….
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The Student Study guide is full of great definitions for scripture terms and symbols. When you hit a difficult passage, look at the student guide for help. If that doesn’t work, keep a good dictionary nearby that gives the root meaning of words as well as definitions that you can understand. See what this does by looking up words–even common words–and see how the definitions give deeper meaning to the…
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Look for ways to help students share those ideas that they have in common. For example, all of your students have had experiences with prayer, church attendance, hurt feelings, etc. EXAMPLE: I asked the students to tell me what they had learned about the benefits of scripture study. Going around the room, each student told the class what they learned about the benefits of scripture study. They came up with…
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These words say a lot without a lot of letters. And they are meant to draw our attention in a hurry–just like a billboard–and usually there is a message just after them that we were intended to focus on. Look for “Wo”(especially double or triple Wos), “O,” “Thus,” “And Thus we see,” “Behold,” “Nevertheless,” “Therefore,” “Yea”,” “Now,” “Likewise,” “Let us,” “Finally,” etc. Today, we use superlatives such as: “good, better,…
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This exercise requires a good imagination. After reading the verses silently (perhaps a few times), invite your class to close their eyes and take a few minutes trying to visualize the scene depicted in the scriptures in your mind. Try to imagine every detail, see how people walked, talked, and acted. What is the scenery? The elevation? The weather? (Adapted from Panning for Gold: Various Methods to Understand and Apply…
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Assign students to make a movie about a gospel topic. You may want to have students plan their script so that a Primary child can understand it. My students happen to love anything dramatic, so this is very easy for us. I have a big box of dress up clothes and wigs that they use to make movies. They write short scripts based on gospel topics or they just read…
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What are things in the scripture block that you could actually see, touch, smell, visualize?. Picture these in your mind or better find the actually object and see what it teaches you about the way it is used in the verses you are reading. Look For: Look for objects in the scriptures–things that you could see, hold, touch, etc. Example: Isaiah 5:18 describes people that carry their sins like beasts…
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Give the kids a sum of fake money. Students will use the fake money to “buy” a scripture. The teacher auctions off different significant verses in a block of scriptures that students can search for principles and applications. You might even attach different candy to different verses — the “better” the verse (or, the more things to describe in the verse) the better/more candy there is so it is “worth”…
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Sometimes we get into the habit of saying that this particular chapter has nothing to do with us and there is no way to apply it to us or find something meaningful to our situations. But sometimes we must take a step back and look at the overview and then compare similarities to our lives. Look For: Try to state the overall essence of what you read in the simplest…
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