Things That Make Me Happy: Teaching

One of the things I love about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the opportunity to learn and grow through teaching others.  Through my various callings in the church, I've had the chance to teach groups ranging from age 4 (Sunbeams - nearly impossible) to 84 (Relief Society - the most fun), with a lot of teenagers in the middle.

I find that I am often called to teach lessons about which I know very little - the experience of learning a topic and then teaching it is simultaneously humbling and exhilarating. Sometimes I teach quite well, other times not so much, but every time is a learning experience for me.

I have always known that the skills that I display as a teacher aren't really mine - the Lord truly inspires and leads me through the Holy Ghost.  It's the only way to explain the contrast between the ease and eloquence of my teaching and the complete and utter ineptitude I show daily in social conversation.  Many, many times I have said something and simultaneously thought to myself - "Wow!  That sounded amazing!  Where in the heck did that come from??"  I don't say these things out of conceit, but rather as testimony to the truthfulness of the following scripture:

Doctrine & Covenants 84:85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man. (emphasis added)

The Lord truly does give me the words that I need to say, when I need to say them.  Often He does this as much to teach me as to teach others - I can't tell you how many times I've been in a situation and been reminded of something that I said during a lesson that is exactly what I need to hear at that moment.  Sometimes, He leads me to do or say something in a lesson that seems counterintuitive to the message, and once in a while He lets me see the impact that it has had on someone else.

image credit

That happened to me today.  Last week I "taught" in Relief Society - I use quotes, because there was very little original content - I replayed Elder Uchtdorf's talk from the General Relief Society Broadcast followed by a summary slide by Shawna Banagas, which I found on Sugardoodle.net.

In his talk, Elder Uchtdorf specifically talks about good and foolish sacrifices, and uses the example of making hand-embroidered potholders for every member of the class as an example of perhaps not choosing to spend our time wisely.  In spite of this example, I felt inspired to make a copy of this wonderful visual for each class member on 4x6 photo paper.  It seemed counterintuitive, but it was so pretty!

Today in Sunday School, while discussing "patience" as taught in James, a woman shared her story of how my lesson and the visual had made a huge difference in how she handled a situation that had been troubling her for quite a while.  She had the photo in her hands as she spoke, and kept pointing to it.  It brought tears to my eyes, and I was filled with gratitude that the Lord had let me see how He had used the efforts of Elder Uchtdorf, Sister Banagas, the Sugardoodle.net staff, and my skills with Google and a good photo printer to change someone else's life for the better.

For that reason and the countless other blessings it brings, teaching makes me happy.