Satan's Chains

February 5, 2012

Well, another Sunday School lesson is come and gone.  Today I took my small chain and my bigger chain and the hooks that hold them together.  Also took some dirty washrags.

The lesson was about the things that Lehi taught his sons shortly before he dies.  Some of them being that they needed to "shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound"....in other words.....repent, suck it up and keep the commandments, and get your lives in order....quit trying to kill your brother!  Be men!  Make that...Be righteous men.

I had Spencer come to the front and as I talked about how Satan does not bind us with hugh chains to begin with....no, he starts with little chains....really sinks his teeth into us, and then goes for the big chains.  While I was talking I bound him up in the little chain.....(he had to hold the end together because the hook I bought wouldn't go thru the chain....just a minor glitch!)  Then further discussion brought out that the more receptive we are to Satan's ideas, the bigger problems we have....ie...doing drugs, pornography, breaking the word of wisdom, skipping school...loosing our temple recommends...the list goes on and on.  We put a bigger chain on Spencer.  In the end the kids said that he looked like something out of A Christmas Carol....OK!

Further discussion was about how we can break free of the chains.  Spencer decided he wasn't going to turn into the "Hulk".  We saw no evidence of him turning green and developing big muscles...so we decided that we needed to come up with a better solution for him to get out of his chains, because currently he wasn't able to move much.

The discussion turned to how do we make the break....return to a life without the chains.  We talked about repentance, sources of help, the need to read our scriptures, follow the living prophet, attend our church meetings, put the atonement into effect, and to just return our lives back into being a righteous person.  We talked about the qualities that righteous men have....being of one mind, unified, seeking the Spirit and the word of God.  All in scriptures that we read.

We took off the bigger chain....then further discussion about possible smaller steps to getting rid of the little chain.   Service to others, strengthening our testimonies, and utilizing charity in our lives.  In other words, becoming like our Savior.

The little chain was removed, and the dicussion turned to the scripture that "No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God".  They decided that if they were unclean, they probably wouldn't want to be in the Savior's presence when they leave this earthly existence....they wouldn't be comfortable there.  So, the thing we need to do is to not let Satan even get his little chains around us.  That makes being clean a little easier.

For the handout I gave them a white washrag that I had smudged in dirt with the scripture "No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God" written in permanent black marker.  And attached was a little piece of a chain with a tag that read.."shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound".

The kids got the point.

I showed the handout to the bishopric member who is over me, and he said that he had talked to several of my class members after last week's journey to the wilderness....and that they told him they can't wait to get to Sunday School to see what's happening this week.  He said adults and younger kids all want to attend my class.  I told him I was a teacher...that's my special gift from my Heavenly Father.  I spend hours each week preparing my lessons, and I try to make sure the kids are feeling the Spirit during the lesson.  Guess you could say it's working.  I'm grateful...some weeks it is really a struggle to figure out something creative that I can use to teach the kids.  All these hours of preparation pay off in the ability to not use the manual except to remember the scripture references we need to read.  The kids seem to all be participating, and that's a good guage about how they are feeling.  Now if I can somehow just keep the momentum going.....

They have asked Cymbre to speak next week in Sacrament meeting about the Book of Mormon being a keystone of our religion....she is using my lesson from the first week of this year, at least some of it.  I won't be surprised to see C3PO show up in her talk.

With everything else going on in our lives right now....teaching this class is a blessing to me.  It focuses my mind not on the tremendous trials we have, but on the teachings of the Savior, and then blessings we obtain for righteous living.  Sort of hard to focus on when EVERYTHING is going wrong in the other areas of our lives.

Now I just have to come up with an idea for next weeks lesson.

The girls dress rehearsal went well for dance competition....I should have taken pictures of the costumes, but some of them are not yet rhinestoned.  So photos will come later.

This week will be busy in getting little treats off the the grandbabies...finishing costumes, and lesson preparations.  Physical therapy exercises are helping to keep the pain level managable most days in my back...survival mode keeps me moving on the bad days.

Remember that you should be doing some service for someone everyday....so get out there and do it.

Mom and Dad love you all.  And especially those grandbabies.

Mom