Sorry for the long post but we had an awesome experience today due to an object lesson that went better than planned.
I taught the first part of #john8 today of the woman taken in adultery. I loved the idea by Michelle Caceres but implemented a different approach.
I began the class by giving each student a full sheet of paper and had them write in the middle of the page one thing they need to do better to draw closer to Heavenly Father, a sin they need to over come, or something they need to improve in their life. I made sure they knew ahead of time that no one would see and we would not share what they wrote. When they were done I told them to crumple up the paper into a ball and place it on the desk as we would need it later.
I then asked everyone to raise their hand that had ever had an argument with their parents. All the hands went up and I asked for a volunteer to come forward and share the experience. As a result of the argument with their parents I asked the students what the consequence would be under the law of Moses for contending with their parents. They quickly responded to stone the student. I told them they had all made a stone with the piece of paper and I wanted them to pick up the "stone" and get ready to exact the punishment.
You could see the excitement in their eyes as they all prepared to launch a barrage of paper stones, until I told them, they could only throw the "stone" if they had nothing to write on the paper. You could see the disappointment but also heard several students say, "Oh, I get it." I asked what the lesson was about today which they immediately knew, the woman taken in adultery.
But we were not done, I told them to put their "rocks" back on the table as we would still need them. We then proceeded to read though John 8:1-11. But at verse 11 we paused and asked what Jesus told the woman, "Neither do I condemn thee", at which point I told them instead of throwing our sins at others, we are going to throw them away. I had each student come forward and throw their sin in the garbage. Jesus then told the woman to "go, and sin no more" to which I had the students open their journal and write down one thing they can do starting today to literally throw their sin away and sin no more.
We then moved on to verse 12 where Jesus pronounced, "I am the light of the world". We divided up the other 6 "I Am" statements of Jesus as follows.
John 6:35
John 10:7
John 10:11
John 11:25
John 14:6
John 15:1
They had to re-write the phrase using emojis. When they were done they had to message a friend, family member, church leader, whoever they chose, their reference and emoji.
They were then again told to open their journal and write one "I Am" statement for themselves. I had each student then stand and, one at a time, with conviction, announce their "I am" statement.
We received statements such as:
I am a daughter of God
I am a worthy priesthood holder
I am honest, and etc
To close I told them how Satan will have us focus on the the item they wrote on their paper stone, whereas the savior will have us focus on the "I am" and our true potential.
It was one of those days where it went better then prepared and the spirit testified of the doctrines. The type of day why we all love teaching seminary.
I taught the first part of #john8 today of the woman taken in adultery. I loved the idea by Michelle Caceres but implemented a different approach.
I began the class by giving each student a full sheet of paper and had them write in the middle of the page one thing they need to do better to draw closer to Heavenly Father, a sin they need to over come, or something they need to improve in their life. I made sure they knew ahead of time that no one would see and we would not share what they wrote. When they were done I told them to crumple up the paper into a ball and place it on the desk as we would need it later.
I then asked everyone to raise their hand that had ever had an argument with their parents. All the hands went up and I asked for a volunteer to come forward and share the experience. As a result of the argument with their parents I asked the students what the consequence would be under the law of Moses for contending with their parents. They quickly responded to stone the student. I told them they had all made a stone with the piece of paper and I wanted them to pick up the "stone" and get ready to exact the punishment.
You could see the excitement in their eyes as they all prepared to launch a barrage of paper stones, until I told them, they could only throw the "stone" if they had nothing to write on the paper. You could see the disappointment but also heard several students say, "Oh, I get it." I asked what the lesson was about today which they immediately knew, the woman taken in adultery.
But we were not done, I told them to put their "rocks" back on the table as we would still need them. We then proceeded to read though John 8:1-11. But at verse 11 we paused and asked what Jesus told the woman, "Neither do I condemn thee", at which point I told them instead of throwing our sins at others, we are going to throw them away. I had each student come forward and throw their sin in the garbage. Jesus then told the woman to "go, and sin no more" to which I had the students open their journal and write down one thing they can do starting today to literally throw their sin away and sin no more.
We then moved on to verse 12 where Jesus pronounced, "I am the light of the world". We divided up the other 6 "I Am" statements of Jesus as follows.
John 6:35
John 10:7
John 10:11
John 11:25
John 14:6
John 15:1
They had to re-write the phrase using emojis. When they were done they had to message a friend, family member, church leader, whoever they chose, their reference and emoji.
They were then again told to open their journal and write one "I Am" statement for themselves. I had each student then stand and, one at a time, with conviction, announce their "I am" statement.
We received statements such as:
I am a daughter of God
I am a worthy priesthood holder
I am honest, and etc
To close I told them how Satan will have us focus on the the item they wrote on their paper stone, whereas the savior will have us focus on the "I am" and our true potential.
It was one of those days where it went better then prepared and the spirit testified of the doctrines. The type of day why we all love teaching seminary.
No comments:
Post a Comment