RS Lesson Recap: September 23

Today Tori shared thoughts from the talk from Elder Wilson, entitled "Only upon the Principles of Righteousness" 

The talk starts off with a story about the young newlywed couple on a car trip. This story shows the concept unrighteousness dominion. This reduces the power from heaven. We cannot force others to do the right thing because it is not God's way.

"We simply cannot force others to do the right thing. The scriptures make it clear that this is not God’s way. Compulsion builds resentment. It conveys mistrust, and it makes people feel incompetent. Learning opportunities are lost when controlling persons pridefully assume they have all the right answers for others." - Elder Wilson

This year the theme for primary was agency. It is an important concept that children must be able to choose. We learn how to foster this concept of agency with leading and parenting our children.

"Wise parents must weigh when children are ready to begin exercising their own agency in a particular area of their lives. But if parents hold on to alldecision-making power and see it as their “right,” they severely limit the growth and development of their children.

Our children are in our homes for a limited time. If we wait until they walk out the door to turn over to them the reins of their moral agency, we have waited too long. They will not suddenly develop the ability to make wise decisions if they have never been free to make any important decisions while in our homes. Such children often either rebel against this compulsion or are crippled by an inability to make any decisions on their own." - Elder Wilson

Several sisters shared their thoughts on raising children by righteous principles. We never have to rely on the phrase, "because we say so." We can rely on the scriptures to back us up. In the words of Joseph Smith we "Teach correct principles and allow <them> govern themselves. Out Father in Heaven is our example. He doesn't take away the consequences when we sin, but he always loves us. Kids are different. Some will more naturally obey and some will be more resistant, but we should still teach the principles like prayer. These are the tools for everyone. We can incorporate this concept in daily life as we set consequences for behavior but we allow children to make the choice. We also should teach them the blessings of being obedient. The framework must be set. See Doctrine and Covenants 82:8-10.

One sister shared that she felt that she wasn't punished, but her parents expressed their disappointment. One day her father told her that "the trust bank was empty". That made a significant impact on her.

George Albert Smith said in his creed that he would not force people to choose the right but love them into doing so.

If we are going to help those in our stewardships make the all-important link with heaven, we must be the kind of parent and leader described in Doctrine and Covenants, section 121. We must act “only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”⁹President Henry B. Eyring has said, “Of all the help we can give … young people, the greatest will be to let them feel our confidence that they are on the path home to God and that they can make it.” - Elder Wilson

Sometimes we want to take over to fix things for those we love. When we jump in we are not just failing to trust that person but we are not trusting The Lord. He loves all of us and he will let us know when we need to jump in.

One of the most difficult part if stewardship is understanding where agency ends and stewardship   Begins. The answer was trust The Lord. Children do not always choose the right, but remember that the choices children make are not always the final choices.

"Respect Agency. A governing doctrine of the universe, applicable in all ages including the eternities before God formed this earth, is that God has granted to people their agency—the right to choose between good and evil. Because we have agency, it is fair and just that we account to him for our use of it, whether good or bad. If we had no agency, God would be responsible for us and everything we did, which would result in our never really knowing the depth of our personal convictions regarding either good or evil.

This is not a neutral world. Good and evil bombard us and our children. Teaching our children correct principles allows them to make informed choices. But when children make choices contrary to gospel teachings, they always suffer the consequences, some of which are serious. In theDoctrine and Covenants we read, “My people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer (D&C 105:6; emphasis added)." - "When Our Children Go Astray" - Elder Carmack, Ensign 1997

In 1929 Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said: “You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don’t give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours—long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, 110).