Of course I always love teaching, so it's not really a surprise that I would write about it. It's just that right now I am appreciating my job at church a little bit more than usual. That usually happens at some point during a calling. Over the years I've taught in the Young Women program, in Relief Society and in Primary, but I have never had a Sunday School or Senior Primary assignment in all of my adult years in any ward. The thing that I am appreciating that is different between this calling and the others I've had is that the curriculum for my Valiant 9 class comes straight from the scriptures, and my preparation each week requires me to read several chapters from the Book of Mormon. I am immersed in my scriptures more than ever before, and appreciating and being reminded of the specific purpose and lessons from individual experiences recorded in the Book of Mormon. I know a lot of people have had this experience (and my husband is probably laughing at me while reading this), but I wanted to write about it because I've been having some interesting issues with finding value in my assignment.
My class is darling--three or four students each week, all very quiet and thoughtful, and one of them is my daughter. It is great to have her in there and be able to cover Gospel subjects with her. But the kids are young, and I have struggled to find meaning in teaching the scriptures to this cute age when they don't always understand the text and appear to not be soaking anything in. A few weeks ago, I finally had a lightbulb moment (or a DUH! moment) where I felt impressed to look at the
Purpose at the beginning of each lesson. The lesson tells me what to focus on. I don't know why I didn't look at this before. Knowing the objective really helped me to worry less that the kids wouldn't understand and focus more on the way that the stories in the scriptures could illustrate a Gospel principle that we need to learn. Once I found the center and focus, I was able to make my lessons more effective. Somehow I had lost sight of what I already knew -- good teachers know their objective from the outset are more effective and confident in their teaching when they have a clear objective. I really do feel silly for not realizing part of my problem. I kind of took for granted that I had been successful in all of my teaching assignments, and I over looked that I had some learning to do in this calling.
There is always a time during the week were I've run out of sufficient time, and I remember with a sigh that I need to prepare. But each and every time I am grateful for all that I learn while I'm preparing. I know I'm supposed to be in my scriptures every day. I am so far from perfect at this, and I am very thankful to be having this experience. I'm getting a taste of what it means to be studying my scriptures regularly (see, old dogs can learn new tricks), and although it's a little embarrassing to admit that I haven't been good at personal scripture study, I'm simply grateful today that our Father in Heaven provides ample time for us to learn and improve. I tend to be one that takes a little more time to find the lightbulb, but I eventually find it.
