The Race of Life

There are days that make life feel like a BIG RACE!

To the Hebrews, Paul urged: “Let us lay aside…the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”Hebrews 12:1 

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes suggests that "the race is not to the swift, nor the the battle to the strong". Eccl. 9:11

President Thomas S. Monson says that "Actually, the prize belongs to the one who endures to the end. "Continue in these things even unto the end, and you shall have a crown of eternal life at the right hand of my Father, who is full of grace and truth." D&C 66:12

Using tips for marathon runners I found on the internet, I correlated them with gospel principles that related to the words of President Monson in this conference talk of April, 2012, "The Race of Life" and had a guest marathon runner come in an present these ideas in a creative, fun way. (The guest was a fictional character portrayed by a class member, which made it all the more entertaining. Discussion of the gospel principle was extensively discussed with each tip.

1.       Collect yourself. [PRAYER] An hour before you start, find a quiet place, and spend five minutes reviewing your race plan and motivation. Remind yourself of why you're there," says Rodgers. "Take confidence in the months of effort behind you. An exciting and satisfying day is just ahead of you!"

2.       Draw on your strengths. [LISTEN TO THE HOLY GHOST] Training for a marathon isn't like cramming for a test. That is, doing more miles than you're used to in the last few weeks will hurt--not help--your race. This is the time when many runners have been at it for two months or more and are becoming used to a certain level of training. Have confidence in what you've been doing. From here on out, you're just maintaining your fitness.

3.       Run like a clock. [SCRIPTURE STUDY] If possible, run at the same time of day as the start of your marathon. This way, your body's rhythms--including the all-important bathroom routine--will be in sync with marathon needs come race day. The more times you can do this, the better, but shoot for at least the last three days before the race.

4.       Go with what you know. [FOLLOW THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET] Even if Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor appears on your front porch dispensing advice, don't try anything radical this week. Stick to your plan and what you've practiced during your buildup. For example, if you haven't done regular speedwork, now isn't the time to start just because someone told you it will keep your legs "fresh" while you're tapering. At this point, also ignore any "can't-miss" diet tricks from friends. "So much of those last few days is mental," says Wells. "Feel comfortable with what you're doing rather than trying something new and worrying how it will affect you."

5.       Set Goals & Visualize Your Success "Review your training and set one goal for a good race day, and another as a backup plan in case it's hot or windy or you're just not feeling great," Rodgers recommends. "So many things can go wrong in a marathon that you need that secondary goal to stay motivated if things aren't perfect, which they seldom are." Your primary goal is the one you've been working toward during your buildup: a personal best, qualifying for Boston, breaking five hours, whatever. Your secondary goal should keep you motivated at the 22-mile mark on a bad day: finishing in the top 50 percent, slowing only 10 minutes over the second half, or just reaching the darn finish line.    

Quote B:  Experience During the Race: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven. . . .” (Orson F. Whitney, as cited in Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98.)

Serving HERE

YOU ARE HERE!

Think of all the place you see this phrase....It's everywhere.

We did a brainstorming activity to come up with all the places we are each day:

Home

Church

Work

School

Places in the community

We took in one more step and identified all the people who are HERE with us:

Family

Friends

Neighbors

Strangers

Familiar community members we see weekly

Elderly

Children

Co-workers

Employer

We live HERE - in the center of our lives.

There are many opportunities around us to offer service to others.

And we depend on others for help all of our lives.

Through service we increase our ability to love, we become less selfish, and helping others helps us see our own problems in the proper perspective. Jesus commanded us to serve all people, not just the ones we enjoy being around. He is our perfect example.

Pres. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”

Types of service range from smiling and saying hi, to risking your life to save another. If you ever wonder who you can serve or where to serve, look around!

We ended the class listening to a SONG

by Hilary Weeks, titled "Not Too Far From Here"

Prioritizing Essential Moments

What things make us go? What keeps you busy during the day or the week?

Do you feel like you are juggling too many things at once?

Prioritizing our time, and dealing with the essentials

was a topic for a lesson I recently taught.

I had about 30 balloons blown up and tied.

I wrote suggestions of things that keep us busy on each balloon and threw them in the air.

The class was instructed to keep them up in the air.

Suggestions for the balloons from the class included:

Driving kids all over the city

Cleaning the house: laundry, vacuuming, dishes,

More laundry, more dishes, picking up clutter

Grocery shopping

Working

Helping a friend

Running errands for husbands

I continued adding more balloons...

The class did a pretty good job, but I did notice a few landing on the ground.

WE CAN'T KEEP EVERYTHING GOING ALL AT ONCE!

I think I got that point across. It was a great visual.

We then tried to think of things that cause us to slow down from our frantic pace.

Interestingly, we could only come up with a few:

Getting sick

Having a baby

Going on vacation

Taking care of someone else who might be sick

Pure exhaustion and/or having a mental breakdown from trying to keep up.

CONCLUSION: We must make time to slow down.

We then discussed the four key relationships that are worthy of our time:

Our relationship with God

Our relationships with our family members

Our relationships with our fellow men, friends

Developing good feelings about ourselves

*********

M. RUSSELL BALLARD APRIL, 1987 - "The night before my surgery, my doctors talked about the possibility of cancer. When I was left alone, my mind filled with thoughts of my family and of my ministry... I realized that I needed to rearrange some of my priorities to accomplish the things that matter most to me. Sometimes we need a personal crisis to reinforce in our minds what we really value and cherish. The scriptures are filled with examples of people facing crises before learning how to better serve God and others. Perhaps if you, too, search your hearts and courageously assess the priorities in your life, you may discover, as I did, that you need a better balance among your priorities."

**********

"Many times we insist on having all the best things because that's the only way we can ensure 'quality of life' for ourselves. I can neglect myself in every other way, but if I have the best watch or pocketbook or car or square footage, I get to tell myself I'm the best and how much I deserve to have even more of the best. What I know for sure: Having the best things is no substitute for having the best life.- Oprah

Faith Like Butter

Faith is one of the first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know it's an essential element of our testimony. Trying to teach what it is, is like trying to describe salt....try it. We have to compare it to things we know to illustrate its characteristics.

• For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

• Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. (James 2:18)

To illustrate that faith is an ACTION word, I decided to make butter, or better yet, let the class make butter. My lessons are more effective when the class is engaged with more than one of their five senses.

Faith begins with BELIEF. Do you believe that this cream can turn into butter? If you believe, than experiment and practice that belief.

Experimenting is ACTION: You must shake the jar. Believing the cream will turn to butter isn't going to make it happen.

Faith develops with DOING: Faith is the reward of being patient and consistent with belief and action. Butter is the result of shaking a jar full of cream.

We had a great discussion about faith, and read supporting scriptures and quotes from leaders while class members shook their jars. At the end of class we ate homemade rolls, lathered with the butter we made.

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

We can all make a long list of things we can't, or shouldn't do on Sunday, but for my lesson I wanted to focus on the things we can do.

Lately, I have been intrigued by the power of words and I've incorporated my fascination with them into my lessons. I made a list of verbs, (action words) on the board, like build, allow, praise, surrender, enrich, visit, share, etc. I then had the class add the nouns, as many as they could. They came up with and endless list of things we can do on Sunday:

• Build: relationships, a testimony
• Allow: laughter, quiet time
• Praise: each other, family members, the Lord
• Surrender: worldly interests, bad habits
• Enrich: your knowledge of Christ, peaceful atmosphere at home
• Visit: family, friends, those who are sick or lonely
• Share: talents, your time with children and spouse, testimony

I shared a couple of quotes and scriptures that supported these activities and that was all it took for a successful discussion and colorful lesson- which is my goal each time I teach.

My Tool Box

In a typical tool box, you might find a hammer or a tape measurer. Each has a specific purpose that is unique and different from the other. The tools I use when building and presenting creative lessons are not so different.

• Gathering (might be a rake)
• Search for valuables (might be a shovel to dig, or a metal detector)
• Putting the pieces together (with glue, a screwdriver, hammer and nails, or duct tape)

Every lesson has a topic or an objective. I start there, with a plan of what I'd like to build. I then gather materials from all kinds of sources (books, talks, quotes, scriptures, stories, music). This step takes me the longest. If I have enough notice before I teach, I could spend weeks gathering. I feel like a treasure seeker, looking for valuable items, such as words, pictures, or objects that could be tied to a gospel principle or lesson topic. This process is supported by the prayer I offer before my search begins. Sometimes I don't know exactly what I'm looking for until I it "jumps out" at me when I find it.

Example:

I recently taught a lesson on sacrifice. In my search for materials, I came across an object lesson in a book that involved a peanut. The object lesson itself was short, but very relevant to my objective. Rather than just use the object lesson, I found a way to incorporate the peanut into each aspect of my lesson: beginning, middle, and end.

Once I've gathered all my materials, or more than enough to work with, and have found that word, picture, object, or song that I can develop my lesson around and tie to my objective, I begin to put my pieces together like a puzzle and decide in what part of my lesson each piece will fit.

Example:

In a lesson I taught on gratitude, I had a skit, an object, a story, and a demonstration that I wanted to include in such a way that it flowed easily. The story was about the pilgrims putting 5 kernals of corn on their plate each year at Thanksgiving to remind them of their first dinner when that's all they had to eat. I built my entire lesson around those 5 kernals of corn. They became the 5 kernals of wisdom from the talk I was teaching from. I incorporated the skit, the story, and the demonstration into the lesson using the kernals as the object.

These are just a couple of examples to start with. My goal for this blog is to post my ideas here, as they come, hoping that you will use them with your own lessons. I would also love to hear how you used them, who you used them with, and how effective they were. If you have other great ideas to share, please comment.

- Happy Coloring!