Sunday School Svithe (part one of three)

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If you're at Church with me right now, you already know that as this post is magically hitting the web, I am teaching Sunday School. I prepared three lessons for this hour and expect to get through at least two of them. For the next three weeks (unless something interrupts me), my svithes will be my notes for these three lessons. Starting with the first.

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On how stupid we can be in ignoring what we feel to be true, et cetera

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Ammon's put with the flocks (which, given the life expectancy, makes you wonder about the daughter offer)

When the bad guys scatter the flocks, here is the servants' assumption:
We will all get killed

Ammon's solution seems so obvious (gather the sheep) that we wonder how they could never have thought of it before

Possible reasons
Afraid the bad guys will kill them (problem with this?)
Afraid it cannot be done (problem with this?)
Basically, their feelings about the balance between their skills and the task at hand (comments?)

Q: How is the servants' response similar to the reactions of the Nephites as Ammon recalls them in Alma 26:23?

How do our spiritual capabilities sometimes fail to match our opinions thereof?

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Matt 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
2 Nephi 4:19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.
Alma 34:15 And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

So in the end, does it MATTER if our spiritual capacities fail?
Could the servants of Lamoni have collected the flocks if Ammon hadn't been cutting off arms?

Which brings us to Ammon's pov. (Please emphasize the first 20 words.)
2 Nephi 2:8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

WHY is Ammon off in the land of the Lamanites, anyway? Why is he there?

(testimony)

Let's return now to the convert of Ammon's that Mormon found most interesting: Lamoni.

He's heard the story, he's got the pile of arms at his feet, he's wondering what the heck is going on and----

I'm changing the subject entirely. Don't raise your hands, but how many of you shut off the water while you're soaping your hands?

Turning it off while brushing my teeth was easy to grasp onto and easy to implement.

Soap on handles, slipperiness, messiness of cleaning, etc.

And what about the lengthy showers I was once known for?

With the recent water restrictions, I began to fear exceedingly, lest I had done wrong in wasting so much water. My conscience pricked me and I now use about three gallons per shower.

Sometimes, we don't listen well to the Light of Christ, or the Holy Ghost. It doesn't occur to us (or we won't LET it occur to us) that taking long showers or not gathering the sheep or killing our servants isn't the best path to take.

Let's look at Lamoni:
18:4-5 --- And now, when the king heard these words, he said unto them: Now I know that it is the Great Spirit; and he has come down at this time to preserve your lives, that I might not slay you as I did your brethren. Now this is the Great Spirit of whom our fathers have spoken. Now this was the tradition of Lamoni, which he had received from his father, that there was a Great Spirit. Notwithstanding they believed in a Great Spirit, they supposed that whatsoever they did was right; nevertheless, Lamoni began to fear exceedingly, with fear lest he had done wrong in slaying his servants;

Plainly, deep inside, Lamoni had always known this was wrong.
How often are we the same? How often do we require a big something to get us to make a change we already know needs to be made?

(stories? examples? thoughts?)

last week's svithe