Doctrine and Covenants 89-92 Insights and Teaching Activities
- Benjamin Wilcox
- 5 hours ago
- 49 min read
Watch the Insight Video on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/_jBMbHMDp34
Watch the Teaching Activities Video on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/o5pEp7FaHbc
To purchase slides or handouts, go to: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TeachingWithPower
INSIGHTS
ICEBREAKER
We’ll start by studying one of the most famous and well-known sections in the entire Doctrine and Covenants. Section 89. And for an icebreaker I like to show my students the following slide and ask them to come up with their own “Surgeon General’s Warning” for the displayed products. I’m afraid that the official Surgeon General’s warning that we see on tobacco products just seems to be a bit of an understatement in my mind. So, what would you add? What other warnings would you give about smoking, drinking alcohol, or doing drugs? And then let your students share. I’m sure you’ll hear some great ones.
Now my great grandfather Jensen had a gift for writing and was once asked by a local bar owner in Idaho to write an advertisement for his business. My great grandfather agreed but warned him that he would only do it as long as he was ok with him telling the truth. The owner agreed and this is the advertisement my great grandpa wrote which I think totally puts the Surgeon General’s warnings to shame. He entitled it “An Honest Saloon Keeper”. Here’s how it goes:
Friends and Neighbors: I am grateful for past favors and having supplied my store with a fine lot of choice wines and liquors, allow me to inform you that I shall continue to make drunkards, paupers, and beggars for the sober, industrious, respectable part of the community to support. My liquors will excite riot, robbery, and bloodshed. They will diminish your comforts, increase your expenses, and shorten your life. I shall continually recommend them to multiply fatal accidents and incurable diseases. They will deprive some of life, others of reason, many of character and all of peace. They will make fathers, friends, wives, widows, children, orphans, and all, poor. I will teach your sons in infidelity, dissipations, ignorance, lewdness, and every other vice. I will corrupt the Ministers of religion, obstruct the gospel, defile the church, and cause as much temporal and eternal death as I can. I will thus accommodate the public. It may be at the loss of my never dying should, but I have a family to support - the business pays – the public encourages it and I have paid my license and the traffic is lawful and if I don’t sell it, somebody else will. I know the Bible says thou shalt not kill nor shall enter the kingdom of Heaven and I do not expect the drunkard to fare any better – but I want an easy living and I have resolved to gather the wages of iniquity and fatten on the ruin of my species. I shall therefore carry on my business with every energy and do my best to diminish the wealth of the nation and endanger the safety of the state. As my business flourishes in proportion to your sexuality and ignorance – I will do my best to prevent moral and intellectual growth. Should you doubt my ability, I refer you to the pawnshops, the poorhouse, the police court, the hospital, the penitentiary, and the gallows where you will find many of my best customers have gone. A sight of them will convince you that I do what I say. Allow me to inform you that you are fools and that I am ……. An Honest Saloonkeeper
Isn’t that great? I think that should be the surgeon general’s warning on every bottle of liquor sold.
Well, surprisingly, the saloon keeper loved it, and had it published. And did it have any effect on the saloon business in that community? Was there a sudden drop in liquor sales? Nope. Didn’t change a thing. Unfortunately, many are content to be willingly deceived.
BACKGROUND
Section 89 can help us not to be deceived. Here the Lord is going to give us a key to finding health and happiness. I like to display this picture that we just saw last week. If you remember, it’s the room where the organization called “the school of the prophets” was located on the upper floor of the Newel K. Whitney store. It was here that the early leaders of the church would frequently assemble to discuss the deep and glorious principles of the gospel. However, the atmosphere in the school of the prophets may surprise you. Brigham Young described it like this:
"The brethren came to that place for hundreds of miles to attend school in a little room probably no larger than eleven by fourteen. When they assembled in this room after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions, he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 12:158.)
So, there was something about that atmosphere that made Joseph think, “Hmmm, it’s really hard to feel the Spirit in this kind of an environment. I wonder why that is?” And I can picture the Lord up there saying “Joseph, I’m so glad you asked, let me explain. Now you’re ready for some added understanding and wisdom regarding these things.” That’s just how the Lord seems to manage things in the Church. He didn’t just lay things out for us unprovoked. He waits until we asked. That way, we are in a state of readiness to receive the revelation. Revelation grows out of real situations. I also love Emma’s part in the reception of the Word of Wisdom. How gross must that have been for her to clean up after these meetings. That was also part of the reason that Joseph went to the Lord because he agreed with Emma that it didn’t seem fair that she should have to clean up such a revolting mess. Thus, section 89 came to be.
NOTE
A quick heads up here before we go any further. One thing you’ll notice that I’m not going to do here is to site a bunch of modern nutrition and scientific research that backs up the wisdom of the Word of Wisdom. For example, saying something like, nutritionists and scientists have found that tobacco is detrimental to our health and Wow! Joseph Smith revealed that a century before. And that’s great. That certainly shows that prophets are ahead of their time. But I’m always a little wary of continually propping up revelation with research. Because what do we do when the nutritionists come out and say things that are contrary to the Word of Wisdom? Do we place those studies on a higher pedestal than prophetic counsel? What do we do when the experts say things like “Drinking a little bit of wine every day is actually good for you”? It’s a healthy practice! Or green tea, or coffee. What are we going to trust and follow: Revelation or research? Hopefully we’ll stick with revelation.
PICK AND PONDER
But to begin, I like to divide section 89 into three parts.
The Why (1-4)
The Don’ts and the Do’s (5-17)
The Promise (18-21)
We’ll begin with these first four verses I label the “Why’s” and do a little activity I call “Pick and Ponder”. Ask your students to pick a phrase of their choice and ponder its importance in understanding the Word of Wisdom. Give them a couple of minutes to do that and then you can randomly call on some of them to share what they learned. Here are the four phrases they could choose from.
Let’s take a look at each of these ourselves to help you be prepared to discuss them.
89:2 To be sent greeting, not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom
The Word of Wisdom was not originally given by commandment or constraint. You might look at that and say, wait a second, I thought it was a commandment. You can’t go to the temple if you’re not living the Word of Wisdom. This happens to be a great example of line upon line, and the Lord’s understanding and mercy. It was initially given as wise counsel from a prophet of God, not a commandment. Now why do you think He did that? Why give this revelation as wise counsel instead of a hard and fast commandment? Joseph F. Smith had this to say about it:
“If [the Word of Wisdom] had been given as a commandment it would have brought every man, addicted to the use of these noxious things, under condemnation; so the Lord was merciful and gave them a chance to overcome, before He brought them under the law”
Joseph F Smith
(in Conference Report, Oct. 1913, 14).
Many of the early church members had already formed these addictive habits. To suddenly drop that on everyone and bring them “under condemnation” would most likely have caused some problems in the early church. The history of the development of the Word of Wisdom in the Church is really a fascinating subject. Brigham Young does make a formal statement about it and asks the general membership to commit to it in 1851 but it doesn’t really become a term of temple worthiness until 1921 under Heber J. Grant, and a lot of members really struggled with that, but I think the Lord had figured that by that time church members had had ample opportunity to adjust.
Keep in mind though, that much of the Word of Wisdom still falls into that category. Not by commandment or constraint. That applies to those things prohibited by the Word of Wisdom but there’s a whole lot more to this law than just the Don’ts. We’ll look at that as we go along.
89:3 A principle with promise
The Word of Wisdom is a principle with promise. There are specific blessings affixed to obedience to this counsel he’s going to give. I love the way the Lord is introducing this. It’s a great example of leading by persuasion. He’s not introducing this as a commandment, he’s not affixing punishment to it, but he’s promising them a great blessing if they’re willing to live it. We’ll be taking a closer look at that promise later in verses 18-21.
89:3 Adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints
Another phrase in verse 3. We learn that the Word of Wisdom is adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints. That’s an interesting revelation. The Word of Wisdom is a principle that should be able to be lived by even the weakest of saints. Now why would he say that? I think it’s because the body naturally rejects these things. You almost have to train it to become accustomed to them. The first time someone smokes (from what I understand) it’s not a pleasant experience. Drinking beer or alcohol is difficult at first. Even the weakest of individuals should know better and be able to resist. I agree. I really don’t think it’s that hard to live the Word of Wisdom. If you’ve never tried these things before and you’ve been taught to avoid them, there isn’t a lot of temptation involved. When I walk past a bar, I don’t have to tell my wife to hold me back because I’m afraid I might run in and have a drink. There’s no part of me that desires it. And I know that we often pride ourselves as members of the church by the fact that we don’t use these things, but really, if you’ve been raised in the church, this commandment shouldn’t give you a lot of trouble. Even the weakest saint should be able to live this law.
89:4 In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days.
Our last phrase and one of the best phrases to help us explain why we have the Word of Wisdom. I’d like to introduce this phrase with a little story. When I was first married my wife and I decided to take a short cruise together. We saved up our money and took the trip. At dinner on one of the nights, the waiter kept trying to push alcohol on us, pushing past our initial rejections until I finally had to explain, “Sir, we don’t want any alcohol, it’s against our religion”. But man, this guy was so persistent, not even that deterred him. His rebuttal? What religion is that? Even Jesus drank wine. And that’s when I very forcefully told him to leave us alone. But his reason is an interesting argument. What do we do with that? Is it true? Did Jesus drink wine? Well, it seems that for years and years, there has been a bit of a church myth that has been (I believe) innocently propagated and repeated so many times that we almost accept it as fact. Every year I have a student that brings it up as an explanation. And that is that Jesus didn’t drink actual wine. It was just grape juice, and we say that because we have trouble with the thought of Jesus drinking alcohol. Because good members of the Church just don’t do that. I’m afraid though, that historically, and even scripturally, that just doesn’t make any sense. We have absolutely nothing we can base that claim on. You have many examples of people in the scriptures getting drunk from the wine they are drinking. When Jesus turns the water to wine, the master of the feast makes a comment that clearly suggests that it’s alcoholic. So, I’m afraid that, yes, Jesus drank real wine. Can we be ok with that? And how do we explain it? Why was it ok to drink an alcoholic beverage back then, but now it’s not? Did God change his mind? No. I don’t think that’s the explanation at all. The Lord tells us why in verse 4.
In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation.
God didn’t change his mind. The world has changed. Alcohol production, consumption, and abuse has reached an entirely different level here in the last days. The Word of Wisdom was given in consequence of the circumstances of the last days. There are evil, designing, and conspiring people out there that are actively trying to addict people, draw more into substance abuse, and make their products more and more difficult to resist.
Is there any evidence that that is the case nowadays?
The availability and low cost of alcohol has increased substantially in the latter-days. Over the years, there have been plenty of stories and reports of corporations specifically targeting young people with their products and striving to create lifelong addicts that could provide their businesses with a lifetime of revenue. You also have drug dealers, and cartels, and organized crime striving to accomplish the same end. You have clever advertising campaigns that masterfully associate these harmful substances with beauty, popularity, and athleticism. That last one is one that I’ve never really been able to understand--the connection between sports and alcohol consumption. Are great athletes really able to perform at their highest level at the same time they’re drinking alcohol, or smoking, or vaping, or doing drugs? Maybe, I guess I don’t exactly know, but the two don’t seem to really go together in my mind. Athleticism and substance abuse.
Also, I believe there are a great deal of other vices that go hand in hand with substance abuse. Partying, idleness, sexual indiscretion, negligence of family responsibilities, gambling and violence are all too often a part of the package with these products. Times have changed and have made alcohol, tobacco, and other habit-forming drugs a greater hazard to our health and well-being than in any other previous time period.
Well, because of these latter-day issues, our Heavenly Father, in his love and concern has given us this wisdom—that it’s just better for us to avoid these things altogether, since it’s gotten so bad. God didn’t change his mind. The world changed. From Joseph Smith’s day to now, we need the protective power of the Word of Wisdom to keep us safe from the influence and power of the devil. There are just too many evil, designing, and conspiring people out there.
Now there is a principle, as far as alcohol consumption is concerned that has never changed. Drunkenness has never been ok with our Heavenly Father. God loves agency and an excess of alcohol or drugs begins to take away that agency. On my mission, I frequently ran into people that were drunk or high on drugs and they had no idea what they were saying or doing. They had given up their agency to these substances and weren’t capable of making informed decisions. That’s why so many people that are under the influence end up making such foolish, dangerous, and even deadly decisions. They’ve yielded up their agency to the substance. No wonder Satan has pushed these things so strongly. He hates agency. God wants us to always be in control. Even Jesus himself lumped drunkenness in as an example of the kinds of actions the sinful do in Luke 12:45. Moderation was the key back then, but for us, abstinence is the best policy, considering the circumstances.
THE DONT’S
The next part of this section we’ll all recognize. It’s the don’ts. So for an activity, have your students pick a color and mark all the things that are prohibited by the Word of Wisdom.
When they’ve done that, they should have marked:
5 That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father,
And later in verse 7, And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly,
Then verse 8. 8 And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man,
Then verse 9. 9 And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.
Joseph Smith was later questioned on what he meant by “hot drinks”. One man recalled his reply:
The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I understand that some of the people are excusing themselves in using tea and coffee, because the Lord only said ‘hot drinks’ in the revelation of the Word of Wisdom. . . . “Tea and coffee . . . are what the Lord meant when He said ‘hot drinks.’” (In Joel H. Johnson, Voice from the Mountains [Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1881], p. 12.)
Now that’s really helpful because someone may wonder if it’s ok to drink hot chocolate. Or, does that mean that cold coffee or iced tea is ok because it’s not hot. Nope, tea and coffee, hot or cold are prohibited by the Word of Wisdom. It’s not the temperature of the drink that really matters here, it’s what’s inside it.
You might notice that there is a big one missing from this list that is definitely prohibited by the Word of Wisdom. Illegal drugs are also considered prohibited by the Word of Wisdom. If someone were to argue with me over that because it doesn’t specifically say it in Section 89, I would gently remind them that we believe in living prophets and modern revelation. Section 1 taught us that this is a true and “living” church. Changing times have required updated instruction and knowledge from God. You may have noticed that verses 5 and 6 authorize the continued use of wine in church sacrament meetings. What’s going on there? Well, that’s true. The Church did use real wine throughout the 19th century in church meetings. It’s not until around the turn of the century that Church leaders discontinue the practice. And there have been more updates throughout the years. In fact, the church, even as recently as 2019, has released updated revelation concerning the Word of Wisdom. One portion of that most recent statement read:
In recent publications for Church members, Church leaders have clarified that several substances are prohibited by the Word of Wisdom, including vaping or e-cigarettes, green tea, and coffee-based products. They also have cautioned that substances such as marijuana and opioids should be used only for medicinal purposes as prescribed by a competent physician.
So, no, not all truth regarding the Lord’s laws of health is contained in Section 89. The Lord reserves the right to give additional understanding as time and circumstances change.
LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES
Before moving on, I like to ask a question:
Have you ever seen any evidence of the wisdom of rejecting these things?
Personally, I’ve seen ample evidence of it. I know a woman whose son was killed by a drunk driver. My wife worked at a women’s drug rehabilitation center for a time and some of the stories she told me about the struggles, and the relapses, and the effects on body and mind these women were suffering from are tragic. My grandpa, for many years drank and smoked and lived a very unhealthy, very “un-section 89” kind of lifestyle. Now he changed in his older years and quit all of that and he lived all the way into his eighties. But you know, one of the reasons people are told not to do drugs or smoke or drink alcohol is because they might kill you. And they do. Millions of people worldwide die every year due to substance abuse. But, perhaps another thing to consider as a warning is that perhaps they won’t kill you. Those last decades of my grandpa’s life, health wise, were in a lot of ways miserable. I remember him once joking that he’d had every disease in his life except breast cancer. His years of not living the Word of Wisdom took a heavy toll on his quality of life. Can you see the wisdom, in the Word of Wisdom?
THE DO’S
Now that’s usually our focus when it comes to the Word of Wisdom. The Don’ts. If I were to ask the average latter-day Saint to explain the Word of Wisdom, I can almost guarantee they are going to list off all the don’ts. But what about the do’s? There’s so much more to the Word of Wisdom. Read verses 10-17 to find and mark those things in a different color that we should consume. What do you find?
Wholesome Herbs-Which I would say is another way of saying vegetables
Fruits
Meat-although with a warning to eat it sparingly
And Grains.
I know the statement about only eating meat in times of famine or winter gives some members fits and there is a lot of debate as to what that means, and has been for many, many years. Forgive me, but I’m not going to take the time to dive into all of that here. Other places online deal with it in much more depth, but for me, if only eating meat in winter or famine were a major concern of church leaders, I imagine we would have heard more about it and received more clarification. I don’t see in these verses a call for vegetarianism as some do, and I also don’t see a total “free for all, eat as much meat as you want” message either. I would imagine the truth of it lies somewhere in the middle. Balance in all things.
But there you have it. If you wish to live a healthy lifestyle eat a good mix of fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats. Some basic Do’s when it comes to how we eat.
WORDS OF PRINCIPLE
However, I still don’t think we’ve really struck at the heart of the Word of Wisdom yet. I don’t think it’s merely a list of Do’s and Don’ts. Don’t get too caught up in the particulars. To me, the Word of Wisdom is much more about the principles behind it. What’s given here in these few 21 verses of scripture is just basic guidance. Like most of God’s commandments, he’s going to give us the big picture kinds of things. Like the famous Joseph Smith quote, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves”. Here’s a perfect example of that. I’ll give you a couple do’s, and a couple of don’ts, but for the rest of this and how you take care of your body, govern yourself. This is between you and God and the Spirit. So, there are a couple of Words that seem to jump off the page that capture, to me, the essence of this law, the principles with promise. I see six key words. These are the words that I hope will first come to mind when we hear the phrase “Word of Wisdom”. As an activity with your students, you can ask them: What individual “principle” words from the following verses do you feel capture the heart of the Word of Wisdom? And then let them share. And you know what? They might pick different words. And that’s ok. As long as they explain why they chose that word, it’s right. This doesn’t have to be “guess what I’m thinking” kind of activity. Validate their answers, and then you can share what you see. And I’ll show you the ones here that stand out to me.
:4, :8, :11, and :12
:4 in verse 4. The word is wisdom. It’s called that for a reason. When it comes to taking care of your physical body, this temple of the spirit, be wise with how you take care of it--with what you put into it, with how you treat it, with the risks you take. Just be wise.
:8 in verse 8, I see two. Judgment and skill. When making decisions about the care of our bodies, we should use judgment and skill. So, we do our research. We experiment. We make intentional decisions about what we eat and what we do. Hopefully, we become skillful in the maintenance of our health.
:11 Prudence is a key word. Some synonyms for prudence? Common sense, caution, judgment. This is what we need to have as we take care of our bodies. Does it make sense to eat and eat until you are stuffed full every meal? Does it make sense to eat greasy fast food all the time. Is it good judgment to eat junk food all the time and processed foods? No, that’s not prudent.
Another word in verse :11 that also appears in verse :12 is thanksgiving. Are we thankful for the food we have to eat? Remember that a large portion of people in this world are either starving or just have enough to stay alive. Do we express gratitude to God for the gift of our bodies and the means to nourish them? Are we grateful for clean water and access to good medical care?
And another word is verse :12, sparingly. There are some foods and drinks that are not prohibited by the Word of Wisdom but should be used sparingly. Another word for this would be moderation. Moderation in the amount of meat we consume. Moderation in the number of sweets and treats we indulge in. Moderation in the diet we choose. As in most things and principles of the gospel, extremes are typically unwise.
These six words are what I feel the Word of Wisdom is all about. These are the words that I hope come to our minds when someone asks us what the Word of Wisdom is all about. So that we’re no longer saying “Oh, it’s about not using alcohol, tobacco, tea or coffee”, but “It’s about using wisdom, judgment, skill, prudence, thanksgiving, and moderation in the way we take care of our physical bodies”. Use these words as guiding principles in making those decisions.
SLEEP
Now, as long as we’re talking about health and the care of our bodies. There is another verse that I’d like to add from section 88 for our consideration. It’s verse 124. How does this add to our understanding of caring for the body?
124 Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
What’s the wisdom here? Don’t be lazy. Our bodies need action, movement, work, and exercise. Don’t be unclean so practice proper hygiene. Don’t judge others and look for the negative. That’s some good advice for our mental and spiritual health, and, very importantly, get enough sleep. Make sure that you are prudent with the amount of shuteye you’re getting. Oftentimes, problems with sleep can lead to problems with other things that are prohibited by section 89. There are addictive substances people turn to when they feel they can’t continue functioning without them. Usually, a little more sleep would be the best solution.
THE PROMISE
On to our final part of section 89. The promise. Earlier we learned that the word of wisdom was a principle with promise. Let’s take a look at it. What’s the Lord’s promise to those who remember to keep and do these sayings? Health in their navel and marrow to their bones. That’s a poetic way of saying physical blessings. Health and strength are a part of the promise of keeping the Word of Wisdom. Maybe that’s part of what the Lord meant back in section 84 in the oath and covenant of the priesthood by “the renewal of their bodies”.
But what do you say to someone who lives the Word of Wisdom, and then they get some terrible disease or they suffer some serious physical malady? A good friend of mine just lost a sister to lung cancer. And this woman had never smoked a day in her life. How do we explain that? I don’t think that the promise of the Word of Wisdom is that we will be invincible to all disease or injury or that we’ll live forever. That would be unrealistic. But if those things do come into our lives, at least we can rest easy knowing that it wasn’t because of our poor choices. Life brought those things to us, but not our own carelessness. All I think verse 18 is getting at is that we will experience physical blessings for living the Word of Wisdom—our bodies will have the best health and strength that they are capable of having. And I believe that’s true. Our bodies will run better for us, we will feel better, we will be happier if we live our lives guided by these principles. Members of the church that live the Word of Wisdom, on the whole, are healthier and happier and experience less disease and illness than those in the world that do not.
But there’s more! The blessings of living the Word of Wisdom are more than just physical. What else does God promise?
19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
If we live the Word of Wisdom, we’ll have greater access to personal revelation. That seems to make sense to me too. If I’m getting enough sleep, and I’m not filling my body with harmful or mind-altering substances, and I’m eating sensibly and giving my body the nutrients it needs, then my heart and mind are going to be clearer and more receptive to the voice of the Spirit. It helps to clear the channels of divine communication.
There’s still more:
20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
I don’t believe that this means that living the Word of Wisdom will guarantee that you can go out and run a marathon. Now, I feel there IS a physical element to that promise, that those who live the Lord’s law of health will have more endurance, more stamina, more strength. But there’s a spiritual aspect to that promise as well. The scriptures often speak of the straight and narrow path of discipleship. Living this law will help us to stay on that path and endure to the end of that path. We will walk it and not faint. As we mentioned earlier, many of the things prohibited by the Word of Wisdom can lead to other spiritual vices as well. Enduring on the path will protect from those things.
And, there’s still more:
21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.
What’s the promise here? Protection. Protection from temptation and sin. Protection from disease. Protection from death. Protection from the consequences that so often accompany mismanagement of our bodies. Sounds like some powerful promises. Physical and spiritual health, physical and spiritual strength, physical and spiritual revelation, physical and spiritual endurance, physical and spiritual protection.
TRUTH
The truth then. If I live the Word of Wisdom, the Lord will greatly bless me physically and spiritually.
LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES
When have you seen one of these blessings in your life?
Then, as a handout you could give your students this quick application activity. Have them choose a goal from the list that they feel would help them to live the Word of Wisdom more fully. Or there’s the option to make their own goal.
CONCLUSION
I’m so grateful for the guidance of the Word of Wisdom. I believe that it was inspired and is great evidence of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling. As members of the Latter-day Church, we are protected from so many modern problems by living this one law. So, let’s be wise, and prudent, and grateful, and moderate. I feel confident that a number of many of the problems we face in life could be solved by living the Word of Wisdom more carefully. Maybe we pray to Heavenly Father for a miracle to help give us more energy, more strength, more ability to stand up under the stresses and responsibilities of life, more happiness, and more freedom from disease. Maybe we complain about or pray for God to have fewer headaches, insomnia, or sickness. And I wonder if Heavenly Father sometimes throws up his hands and says, “I would love to help” (and at times I’m sure he still does, because he’s a merciful and loving God) but, many of these problems could be solved if we were just more wise in our diet, our exercise, our sleep—if we avoided or were more moderate in our consumption of unhealthy foods. And please don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not trying to be judgmental. I know that there are many who have no control over the health problems they suffer from. Some of these things are genetic, hormonal, or caused by disease or stem from psychological issues and many suffer poor health through no fault of their own. I’m not talking about that. It’s those things that we can control. We do have agency to choose what we put into our mouths. I believe that if we don’t have these three things under control, our diet, our exercise, our sleep, then we may face some difficult things because of it. And I know it’s hard. I struggle with these things myself. I wouldn’t consider problems with the Do’s of the Word of Wisdom as moral failures. This life is a learning experience, and we grow, and we fail, and stumble, and we pick ourselves back up and try again. And I hope I’m not giving a false impression here either. I don’t think we have to all be bodybuilders with six packs or super skinny supermodels to consider ourselves true keepers of the Word of Wisdom. In fact, from what I know, many of those people are living anything but healthy lifestyles in order to look that way. Let’s not judge our health or the health of others by some standard of worldly outward appearance. We’re talking about being wise in the way we treat and regard our bodies. We can’t let the adversary push us to extremes. To love or hate our bodies too much. They’re a gift--the greatest temporal gift we’ve been given. Hopefully we see the wisdom in doing everything we can to maintain and use them wisely. With wisdom, judgment, skill, prudence, thanksgiving, and moderation. We are so fortunate as members of the Church to have the direction of the Word of Wisdom. It’s blessed my life immeasurably, and I know it will bless yours as well.
90-92 MINI LESSONS
For the rest of today’s video, we’re going to look at some shorter principles from the remaining three sections. They’re all pretty short sections, and there are other great principles you could pull from these, but I’ve boiled it down to four. What you can do with these is give your students a chance to be student teachers. I’ve found this can be an edifying and educational experience for them. I’ve selected these four great verses from sections 90-92. And what you’ll do is give them this lesson prep sheet to work on to help them feel more confident with their lesson.
First, you divide them up into groups of four. That’s the group they’ll be teaching their lesson to. Teaching in front of the entire class can be quite intimidating for some of your students, but they seem to be a bit more comfortable with the idea of just teaching three others. Then you number each person in the groups from 1-4. Whatever number they’ve been assigned, the corresponding reference will be the verse that they will teach.
First, they will write in their assigned reference in the top line here.
Then. They are instructed to read their verse at least 3x and ponder its meaning and lesson.
Then. They should write down the truth they feel was the most important thing they learned from their verse.
Then. Prepare a statement explaining why that is an important truth to understand.
Then. They’re encouraged to share an experience or illustration of that principle in real life. Now that experience doesn’t have to be anything grand or miraculous. It can just be a brief explanation of how that truth has manifested itself in their own life. Now if they can’t think of a personal experience with that truth, they could also just give a hypothetical example of how a person could apply that truth in their life.
Finally. A brief statement of testimony for that truth. What is their statement of belief?
And that doesn’t have to begin with “I’d like to bear my testimony”. It’s just a powerful concluding statement of conviction. I believe this principle is true because . . .
Once they’re finished preparing, you can allow each student to take a turn in sharing their mini lesson with the other three in their group. As the teacher, you could walk around and listen to some of the lessons being taught, and then afterwards, if you wish, you could allow some students to volunteer to share all or part of their lesson with the whole class or choose some of the students you heard teaching that you feel had something very insightful or profound to share. You, as the teacher, could also share some insights that you have found in these verses.
For the purposes of the video. I’d like to share just a few brief thoughts on each.
90:5
This verse reminds me of a story from Buddhism. A king has a dream, and in the dream, he finds himself on the banks of a great river. As he stands there, he looks upriver and sees giant heavy boulders floating down the river, bobbing up and down as if they weighed nothing as they sail by.
Then a short time later, he sees empty hollow pumpkins cast into the river, which then proceed to sink to the bottom as if they each weighed 1000 lbs.
When the king wakes up, he relates the dream to the Buddha and asks for an interpretation. The Buddha tells him that this is a vision of how things will be in the future when unrighteous men will rule. Things that are important, weighty, and essential, will be treated lightly. People will let them float by in their lives as if they didn’t matter. On the other hand, things that were inconsequential, trivial, and frivolous would sink deep into people’s hearts and consume their attention and time.
Now I think that’s a perfect description of the latter-days. We live in the day and age of floating boulders and sinking pumpkins.
There is a floating boulder in verse 5. Can you find it?
5 And all they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them lest they are accounted as a light thing, and are brought under condemnation thereby, and stumble and fall when the storms descend, and the winds blow, and the rains descend, and beat upon their house.
The floating boulders are the revelations that flow from the oracles of God. The prophets. We must be careful not to treat the words of the prophets as light things. Hopefully, their counsels and commandments are sinking boulders that dive deep into our hearts.
I’m afraid though, that too often, that it’s the pumpkins that get a lot of our attention. The hollow things of this world. The entertainments, distractions, and vain things of life. Do we allow those things to sink far deeper than they should?
There is a consequence for allowing those boulders to float by found later in the verse. We are brought under condemnation, we stumble and fall, when the winds blow and the rains descend, and beat upon our house. That’s a clear reference to the parable of the wise and the foolish man. Do you know that primary song? The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came a tumbling down. Well now we know what it means to build your house upon the sand. We build our house upon the sand when we treat the revelations of God lightly. When we allow the boulders of revelation to float idly by.
90:24
Oh, one of my favorite scriptural principles of all time. I usually quote it from Romans 8, but the same idea is found here.
It says:
24 Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.
I love the principle of all things working together for our good if we walk the path of righteousness. If you want to assure a happy ending to your story, just love God, and the rest will take care of itself. It’s that simple. He can make goods out of all our bads. He can take any negative in your life, and you may have a lot. You could probably very easily list them. In my life there is this negative and this one and this one, and this. And Christ comes along, and he says, just search diligently, pray always, walk uprightly before me, and remember your covenants, and I promise you that at some future point, by the power of my cross, I will cross all your negatives, and make them positive. The story of Joseph of Egypt in the Old Testament is probably the best case study of this principle. He had so many negatives in his life for years and years. And then finally, because he persevered in walking uprightly throughout it all, God turned all of it around and made it positive. God has the power to take anything and make good out of it. Our mistakes, our weaknesses, our sorrows, our tragedies. Even if we can’t see it now, somewhere down the road, we will look back at these negatives in our lives, and we will see, with an eternal perspective, the good that came out of them. Perhaps you’ve had an experience like that already, where in the midst of your trial you couldn’t see any earthly good that could come from it, but later in your life, in hindsight, you see it. Even though it’s hard to imagine it now, at some point you may very well find yourself saying: I’m grateful for that “suffering”. God made it good. C.S. Lewis spoke of this phenomenon in this very eloquently expressed passage from The Great Divorce.
"ye cannot in your present state understand eternity: . . . But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. . .. all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. . .. all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, `No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say `Let me but have this and I'll take the consequences': little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, `We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, `We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly." "Ah, the Saved . . . what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water."
(C.S. Lewis "The Great Divorce: 67-68)
So, remember, all things work together for good to those who walk uprightly and remember their covenants. That little statement right there in verse 24, is the kind of statement that can guide an individual for a lifetime and get them through almost anything. I know it’s done that for me.
91:5 Enlightened by the Spirit
Section 91 is a fascinating one. At first glance it may not seem like much, but it contains a truth that has the potential to really enrich your life. The section revolves around the translation of the Apocrypha. No if you don’t know what the apocrypha is, it’s a collection of Biblical writings that are of questionable authenticity. In other words, they’re not really sure if they’re truly prophetic writings. Here’s a list of the books found in the Apocrypha. Now, the Apocrypha is typically included in Catholic Bibles, but not so much Protestant ones. The Church has followed in the footsteps of the Protestant tradition, and you won’t find the Apocrypha in our Bibles. But I do have a copy of it, and I’ve read it before, and I usually like to show that to my students. The Bible Joseph was translating from, during his inspired translation of the Bible, did have the Apocrypha in it and so he wondered if it should be translated. Section 91 was the Lord’s response. Now I want you to listen to this section with more than just the Apocrypha in mind. The Lord is going to teach us a principle here about reading, or watching, or experiencing things that don’t necessarily fall under the realm of scripture or prophetic revelation. Here’s what the Lord says:
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the Apocrypha—There are many things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly;
2 There are many things contained therein that are not true, which are interpolations by the hands of men.
3 Verily, I say unto you, that it is not needful that the Apocrypha should be translated.
4 Therefore, whoso readeth it, let him understand, for the Spirit manifesteth truth;
5 And whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom;
6 And whoso receiveth not by the Spirit, cannot be benefited. Therefore it is not needful that it should be translated. Amen.
Now that’s an enlightening principle. Just like the Apocrypha, there are many things out there that have things in them that are true, and things in them that are not true, and are interpolations by the hands of men. So, what do we do when we encounter such things? How about literature, poetry, other religions, theater, or even movies? Is it possible to gain benefit from those sources too? Or can we only find truth and inspiration in revealed scripture? The answer is that, yes, we can find benefit in those other places. But the key is to have the Spirit. If you are enlightened by the Sprit, you will obtain benefit therefrom. That’s a comforting thought for me because I love literature, and I love movies, and I love learning about other religions. If you have the Spirit, you’ll be able to pick out the things that are true in them and disregard those things that are not. For example, I just shared a story from Buddhism a little earlier. That was a true principle taught from the scripture of another religion. But we benefitted therefrom. Just like I feel we can benefit from reading the Koran, or the Upanishads, or the Talmud. Now there are going to be things in each of those sources that we can’t accept and that are not true. But the Spirit will help us to draw those things out. I’ve found inspiration and truth in the writings of Shakespeare, and the Bronte sisters, and Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens. I’ve also learned great truths from movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Man of La Mancha, or even Star Wars.
The key is the Spirit. If we approach these things with a firm grasp and testimony of the restored gospel, and cultivate the Spirit in our lives, then we can reach out and search through all the amazing things that have been created by the hands and minds of our fellowmen. God is the inspiration behind all truth, and members of the Church do not have a monopoly on it. He has spread that truth and inspiration throughout all cultures, religions, and peoples. If we search with the Spirit, these things can enrich our lives and deepen our understandings.
One other quick idea for this section. If you want to give them just a little taste of Apocryphal writings. Perhaps one of my favorite stories from it is this little story from the book called Bel and the Dragon and it’s purportedly from the life of Daniel. It’s found in verses 1-22 and before you read it to the class, you challenge them to see if they can figure out the mystery. There’s a giant idol called Bel that the Babylonians worship. And the priests teach the people that Bel will only be pleased if they bring a large offering of food and wine to it every night. And every night, the door is locked to the idol’s chamber, but then lo and behold, every morning when the doors are opened, all the food is gone and the wine drunk. Now the King really believes in Bel because of this. But Daniel says that Bel is not a real God, just a statue, which makes the king angry, and he demands proof of Daniel’s assertion. What Daniel does next is really fun. I’ll leave the rest of the story up to you. I think you’ll like it. I’ll put a link in the video description below to where you can read it online. But this is just one example of a positive, uplifting story from the Apocrypha that we can obtain benefit from. The moral that it teaches, I believe, is true.
92:2 Last one.
Section 92 is only 2 verses long and is directed to Frederick G. Williams, a counselor to Joseph in the first, First Presidency. There is just one phrase that I’d like to point out to you here. Verse 2 encourages Frederick G. Williams to be a “lively member”. Oh, that’s a good phrase. Would that we could all be considered lively members of the Church. That word suggests activity, vigor, anxious engagement in good causes, and doing many things of our own free will. Maybe we could use that word instead of active. We could talk about being lively, less lively, or non-lively members of the Church. I pray that we can all be lively members of Christ’s church.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
LESSON #1 THE WORD OF WISDOM (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 89)
NOTE:
If I only had one opportunity to teach a lesson from these sections this week, I would choose to teach from section 89. The section that, in the church, we refer to as the Word of Wisdom. But if you were to try and teach all of the ideas and insights that I gave you in the insight video regarding the Word of Wisdom, you would probably be frustrated and disappointed that you weren’t able to cover it all. There’s a lot to the Word of Wisdom and many different aspects of it that you could focus on. In the insight video I divided up my ideas into the categories of the Why’s, the Don’ts, the Do’s, and the Promise. So, here’s what I’m going to do here. I’m still going to show you those different portions, but I’d also like to give you a little guidance to consider as you decide where to prioritize your time. Here’s my suggestion. I probably wouldn’t spend much time on the don’ts. I know that’s what we usually associate with the Word of Wisdom, but your students probably don’t need to be told again that alcohol, tobacco products, and illegal drugs are bad for them. But maybe they do! That’s going to be up to you as the teacher to consider your audience or your particular teaching situation. For me, I would summarize the Why’s and the Don’ts, and focus my time on the Do’s, and the Promise, just because those aspects of the Word of Wisdom often get short-changed because we spend so much time talking about the Don’ts.
TRUTH:
If I strive to live the principles of the Word of Wisdom, the Lord will greatly bless me both physically and spiritually.
FIRE IN THE BONES:
The fire in the bones can burn from your personal commitment to the principles of healthy living. Consider the extraordinary gift of your body, even with its flaws, pains, and imperfections. Help your students to understand that the Lord gave this revelation for multiple divine purposes. It protects our bodies, unlocks spiritual blessings, sharpens discernment, and preserves the gift of agency. Your charge is to help them move beyond the “don’ts” and discover the deeper “whys” that form the heart of this law.
OBJECT:
For an object, bring in a chain. The chain could be used throughout the lesson to illustrate how Satan seeks to use the gift of our bodies against us. The most obvious application of this principle is the chain of addiction to substances like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. However, there are other chains he also seeks to wrap around us. It can represent anything that diminishes our freedom to act or think clearly. Overeating, sleep deprivation, energy drink dependency, poor nutrition, an unhealthy relationship with body image, too much junk and processed foods in our diets. There are a lot of chains that we need to beware of out there.
ICEBREAKER:
For the icebreaker, you might consider doing the Surgeon General’s warning activity where you invite your students to write their own warning for alcohol, drugs, and tobacco products. How would they express it? And you’re also welcome to use my Great-Grandpa’s “Honest Saloon Keeper” warning if you’d like. This icebreaker also allows you to quickly cover the idea of the Don’ts of the Word of Wisdom so that you can spend more time on the Do’s.
SEARCH ACTIVITIES:
Pick and Ponder
If you choose to focus on the Why’s of section 89, I recommend the “Pick and Ponder” activity. Ask your students to pick a phrase of their choice and ponder its importance in understanding the Word of Wisdom. Give them a couple of minutes and then randomly call on some of them to share what they learned. The four phrases they could choose from are:
89:2 To be sent greeting, not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom
89:3 A principle with promise
89:3 Adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints
89:4 In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days.
If you’re hoping to summarize that portion of the lesson, as the teacher, you could point out some of those phrases that you feel are most significant and give a brief explanation of it. Personally, of the four, I would suggest that last phrase as being one I would definitely want my students to understand as it gives us the Lord’s explanation for why he’s given his Saints these instructions in the latter days.
Do’s and Don’ts Marking
For the Do’s and Don’ts, I find a simple search or marking activity works well. Invite your students to read verses 5-17 looking for the Do’s and the Don’ts of the Word of Wisdom in two different colors. If you wish to shorten this activity, I suggest you highlight the Don’ts yourself as the teacher since most of your students are going to be familiar with those and then challenge them to find the Do’s. Then ask if they have any questions regarding those verses, which they typically do. One principle that I would want my students to understand from this section is the reason why we don’t find illegal drugs discussed in the Word of Wisdom, even though that has officially been added by the Church to the list of items prohibited by the Word of Wisdom. I like to remind them that one of the most wonderful things about being a member of this Church is that we believe in continuing revelation. Later Church leaders have added to our understanding of this law and modified it as circumstances have required. That may also help them to understand the sometimes-puzzling verses about only eating meat during times of winter or famine. I like to say that if the Lord was really concerned about us not eating meat except in winter, certainly our modern Church leaders would have clarified and addressed that more specifically. I personally believe that those lines were probably addressing a concern specific to the Saints in 1833.
My favorite activity for this entire lesson, though, and the one that I find most fruitful is this one regarding the key words of principle found in section 89. This is the activity that focuses on the six key words of the Word of Widom. If you really want to understand what the Word of Wisdom is all about, focus on these six and you’ll probably understand everything you need to know. You can encourage them to look for those words in verses: 4, 8, 11, and 12.
As an additional handout activity this time around, you could do this as a crossword puzzle. Can they find those six words and can they get them to fit in the puzzle.
And those words are wisdom, judgment, skill, prudence, thanksgiving, and moderation.
A quick reminder here. I also like to take at least a minute or two to add verse 124 from section 88 to this discussion. That’s the verse regarding the importance of work, cleanliness, and sleep as considerations to taking care of our physical bodies.
The Promise
Our final activity involves the promise of the Word of Wisdom found in verses 18-21. For these verses, I would ask my students to read them with the following questions in mind.
1. What promises do you see here for obeying the Word of Wisdom? Mark them in a unique color.
2. What evidence do you see from these verses that the blessings for living the Word of Wisdom are physical?
3. What evidence do you see from these verses that the blessings for living the Word of Wisdom are spiritual?
4. How do you interpret the promise to “run and not be weary, and walk and not faint”?
5. Does living the Word of Wisdom guarantee that you will be healthy, disease-free, and live a long life? Why or why not?
VIDEO:
Two possible video suggestions here. First, the following which just features a brief historical and doctrinal explanation of the Word of Wisdom which you might consider using as a means of summarizing some of the more basic principles of the Word of Wisdom.
Or, there’s also this video that features a man who committed himself to living the Do’s of the Word of Wisdom and how that affected his overall quality of life.
QUOTE:
A few quotes you might wish to share during your discussion of the Word of Wisdom might include the following from Brigham Young who explains the origins of Section 89. Also, as you discuss how the application of the Word of Wisdom has changed over time, you might want to share this quote from President Joseph F. Smith.
TAKE IT TO HEART QUESTION:
Have you ever seen any evidence of the wisdom of rejecting those things prohibited by the Word of Wisdom?
When have you seen one of the promised blessings of the Word of Wisdom come into your life?
I WILL GO AND DO QUESTION:
I like the application handout I created. It gives your students an opportunity to make a goal that would help them to more fully live the Word of Wisdom. It gives them a number of suggestions and also a line where they could write an idea of their own. Those suggestions are:
• Stop using substances that are prohibited by the Word of Wisdom
• Limit some things that I’m consuming without “prudence” (Soda, fast food, sweets, processed foods, meat)
• Plan to eat healthier by adding more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to my diet
• Express more gratitude for my body and the food I eat
• Exercise more
• Get more sleep
• Other: _______________________________________________________
TAKEAWAY:
The takeaway slide highlights what I feel to be the most important aspect of the Word of Wisdom. Those six words of principle I mentioned earlier: wisdom, judgment, skill, prudence, thanksgiving, and moderation. Be sure to testify to your students that their physical bodies are one of the greatest gifts from God they have ever been given. Caution them to not allow the adversary to push them to extremes in either obsessing about or disregarding their physical health or appearance; to neither worship nor hate their bodies. We are so fortunate as members of the Church to have this heavenly help and instruction regarding our physical health. I’m convinced that the way we take care of our physical bodies has a profound effect on our quality of life and our spiritual health as well.
LESSON #2 ENLIGHTENED BY THE SPIRIT (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 91)
For lesson #2, I’d like to give you a full lesson idea for teaching section 91. Section 91 contains a very unique but powerful truth that you can teach to your students.
TRUTH:
With the Spirit as our guide, we can find truth and value in many different sources, even outside of scripture.
FIRE IN THE BONES:
To get some fire in the bones for this lesson, I encourage you to think of some sources of truth outside of scripture that have inspired you throughout the years. Is there a book, a movie, a piece of music, art, poetry, theater, or religious text from another faith that you have found truth in. Now seek to help your students to find inspiration and truth in the same way. Your students will encounter countless voices in their lives. Some are wise, some are misleading. Doctrine and Covenants 91 offers them a powerful tool: the Spirit, which can help them discern truth from error, even when it comes from unexpected places. This lesson invites them to engage with the world in a thoughtful and spiritual way. As teachers we can help them to develop the discernment needed to walk through Babylon with the light of Zion.
OBJECT:
For an object to display, a couple of ideas for you. You could try to find a Bible that includes the Apocrypha that you could pass around to your students to take a look at. The library would be a good place to find one.
Another idea. You could bring in some books or examples of things that you have found inspiration or truth in. Personally, I might bring in some books by C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, or Shakespeare. A CD of classical music. Or I might bring in a copy of the Koran and Bhagavad Gita. A caution here though. For these objects, and also with the examples that you use in this lesson, be sure to use good judgment in what you decide to refer to. Realize that students come from different families and different backgrounds and you want to be careful in what you reference as a source of inspirational truth. Just, do you best to stay on the safest ground possible in making those decisions.
And then, my favorite idea for an object for this lesson. A compass. Not the kind you use for navigation, but a compass that you use for drawing circles. The kind that has a pencil attached to one side and then a point on the other. I like to use that as an illustration for a wise approach for seeking truth in our lives. We should be sure to firmly plant our faith, our efforts, our studies in scriptural and prophetic truth. We want to have a strong foundation in those divine sources of truth. That should be our first priority and our main focus. But then we have that other point. And what do we do with it? We stretch our search outward, looking for truth everywhere, with the Spirit of course as our guide, but stretching our minds and being open to finding truth in all that we experience and see. Looking for the good, because God can reveal truth in many, many different ways. And if we stretch that point out with faith, again, firmly rooted in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and his Church, then we can circumscribe a beautiful circle of truthfulness and inspiration. At some point in the lesson, you may want to use that illustration. I’ve found it to be a powerful way of visualizing what I see to be the message of section 91. I’ll include a link to an inexpensive compass you could buy on Amazon.
Link to purchase compass: https://amzn.to/46MRc9T
ICEBREAKER/GAME:
For the icebreaker and game suggestion for this week I might give my students the following word unscramble game. The word, of course, is APOCRYPHA, which is probably going to be fairly challenging for them to figure out. So, you tell them that you are going to give them some hints to try and figure it out. Here are the hints:
• It sounds like it could be a spell from Harry Potter, but it’s actually real
• Its Greek root means ‘hidden’ or ‘secret’—like something lost or mysterious
• It’s the name of a collection of ancient books
• Catholic Bibles include these books, but most Protestant and Latter-day Saint Bibles do not
• The Section Heading of section 91.
Then you can give them a short explanation of what the Apocrypha is and an introduction to the story behind Joseph Smith’s experience with it while translating the Bible.
You could then continue with an additional game. It’s called Real or Fake. Tell them that you’re going to give them some names of possible books from the Apocrypha, some of which are real and some that are made up. Their job is to try and guess which ones are real. This could be an individual challenge where the students just write down what they think, or you could go through them one by one as a class and have them guess as you go. Here are the names:
The Book of Tobit—REAL
The Book of Abel—FAKE
The Book of the Maccabees—REAL
The Book of Esdras—REAL
The Book of Zara—FAKE
The Prayer of Manasses—REAL
The Tales of Beedle the Bard—FAKE
The History of Susanna—REAL
The Song of the Three Children—REAL
The Scroll of Peter—FAKE
The Story of Bel and the Dragon—REAL
The Silmarillion—FAKE
That could be a fun way to introduce your students to the concept of the Apocrypha.
SEARCH ACTIVITY:
The search activity is pretty straightforward. Invite them to read the section with the following challenge in mind. Here in section 91, the Lord is going to teach us a principle about reading, or watching, or experiencing things that don’t necessarily fall under the realm of scripture or prophetic revelation. What do you think that is?
And hopefully they get it. If not, you can help them out a little. Be sure to focus in on verses 4 and 5 that teach us that, with the Spirit, we can find benefit in all kinds of sources.
HANDOUT:
Then to test out that truth and to introduce them to the content of the Apocrypha, you could give them the following handout of one of my favorite books found within it: the story of Bel and the Dragon. Now, you could either read it to them, have them read it by themselves, or read it together as a class with students taking turns narrating it. Either way, you could ask them if there are any truths they feel the story teaches them. Is there value in the story? And there is! And that can serve as an illustration of the principle of finding truth in non-scriptural writings.
QUOTE:
For a quote, you could show your students the following quotation from General Conference where Elder Neal A. Maxwell quotes our verse from section 91 and then shares a thought from apocryphal writings to support his talk. And this is in conference! It just goes to illustrate the principle that, with the spirit, you can find truth in sources other than official scripture.
“A few ancient writings, unavailable to Joseph Smith or anyone else at that time, have since appeared. Apocryphal writings may contain truths to be discerned, for “whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom.” (Doctrine and Covenants 91:5) This is an example from the Nag Hammadi Library. In the Apocryphon of James, Jesus reportedly told an afflicted Peter and James, “If you consider how long the world existed before you, and how long it will exist after you, you will find that your life is one single day and your sufferings one single hour” (Conference Report, Oct. 1985 “Premortality, a Glorious Reality”)
TAKE IT TO HEART QUESTION:
What is one source (outside of scripture) that has taught you something true and inspiring?
And that can be a really fun discussion to have as your students share their experiences with finding truth in the world around them.
I WILL GO AND DO QUESTION:
Make an invitation to them. The next time they are engaged with some form of media or non-scriptural source to pause and offer a quick prayer. To say something like, “Lord, please help me learn what’s true here and to disregard what’s not.”
TAKEAWAY:
Our takeaway slide invites our students to seek for truth, enlightened by the Spirit and draws on the image of the compass that I talked about earlier. Testify that God is the author of all truth, wherever it’s found. It isn’t just confined to chapel walls or scripture pages. If they walk with the Spirit, they will not only recognize God’s voice in General Conference, but in a poem, a movie scene, a conversation, or even in other religions. The Spirit is the key that unlocks the treasure of truth, even in unexpected places. If they invite the Holy Ghost to accompany them, they can fill their lives with truth and light and intelligence.
LESSON #3 MINI-LESSONS (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 90, 92)
For our final lesson idea and to cover the remainder of the sections in this week’s Come Follow Me segment, I suggest the “student teacher” or “mini-lessons” idea that I gave in the insight video. In that activity there were four different lesson assignments, including those verses from section 91 that we just talked about. But since I just gave you an entire lesson idea for that section, I’ve removed that one here for this activity.
TRUTH:
This activity calls for your students to come up with their own principles and truths to share and apply, but you should still be prepared as a teacher to help them or to engage in a discussion about what they find. Here are the three truths that I see in those assignments that I chose. But, feel free as the teacher to choose other verses that I may have ignored that you see truth and inspiration from. You could include those in the assignment. But here are the three verses I chose and the truths I see in them:
D&C 90:5 – If we treat the revelations and counsel of God’s prophets as light or trivial things, we risk spiritual instability when trials come.
D&C 90:24 – If we diligently seek, pray, and walk uprightly, God can turn every challenge in our lives into something that works for our eternal good.
D&C 92:2 – God invites us to be “lively” members of His Church—actively engaged, spiritually vibrant, and anxiously involved in doing good.
I see no reason to give you a fire in the bones or object ideas since your students are going to be the ones doing the teaching and they should feel free to take their lessons in any direction that they wish. I’ve selected these three great verses from sections 90 and 92. And what you’ll do is give them this lesson prep sheet to work on to help them feel more confident with their lesson.
SEARCH ACTIVITY:
But here’s how you do this activity. First, you divide them up into groups of three. That’s the group they’ll be teaching their lesson to. Teaching in front of the entire class can be quite intimidating for some of your students, but they seem to be a bit more comfortable with the idea of just teaching two others. Then you number each person in the groups from 1-3. Whatever number they’ve been assigned, the corresponding reference will be the verse that they will teach. Then give each person the following handout to work from.
First, they will write in their assigned reference in the top line here.
Then. They are instructed to read their verse at least 3x and ponder its meaning and lesson.
Then. They should write down the truth they feel was the most important thing they learned from their verse.
Then. Prepare a statement explaining why that is an important truth to understand.
Then. They’re encouraged to share an experience or illustration of that principle in real life. Now that experience doesn’t have to be anything grand or miraculous. It can just be a brief explanation of how that truth has manifested itself in their own life. Now if they can’t think of a personal experience with that truth, they could also just give a hypothetical example of how a person could apply that truth in their life.
Finally. A brief statement of testimony for that truth. What is their statement of belief?
And that doesn’t have to begin with “I’d like to bear my testimony”. It’s just a powerful concluding statement of conviction. I believe this principle is true because . . .
Then once they’re finished preparing, you can allow each student to take a turn in sharing their mini lesson with the other two people in their group. As the teacher, you could walk around and listen to some of the lessons being taught, and then afterwards, if you wish, you could allow some students to volunteer to share all or part of their lesson with the whole class or choose some of the students you heard teaching that you feel had something very insightful or profound to share. You, as the teacher, could also share some insights that you have found in these verses. And that’s it! A very simple, but effective and interactive way of covering some additional truths that are found here in these sections. And by the way, this is an activity that could be used anywhere for any lesson or section of scripture. It’s a “one size fits all” kind of teaching activity.
I’ll also include here the slides that I used in the insight video to teach some of the insights that I see in those three verses, but feel free to disregard those if you don’t feel they’ll help you in this particular lesson.
Comments