A Teacher's Greatest Challenge - Irreverence

The cardinal rule for any teacher is to be able to love your students of any age through their challenging behaviors and come through on the other side with both sides feeling better about the interaction.  Additionally, another rule as passed along by my dear friend JKM - never let them see you cry when you are frustrated. 

Last week I failed on both accounts.  And my heart has ached for an entire week about it.  Why, you ask ?  Because I 100% love these kids. I remember what it was like to be the kid who couldn't stop talking, who from the age of 5 had years of " excessive talking" on my report cards. As an extrovert, I am drawn to people, and my extroverted kids are drawn to each other in the same way. They gain energy from each other, and that in and of itself isn't a bad thing at all.  However when 8 boys, or at least 5 of them choose to have that moment all at the same time, the results are less than stellar.

I want them to talk. I want them to share. I want to see them processing the information, and pondering things they may not have considered before. AND... I want the sweet feelings of the Spirit to be part of our class. Because at the end of the day, it isn't me who teaches them. When the lessons really sink in, it is because the Holy Ghost has spoken to their hearts.  I am simply the teacher who is called to share these lessons with them and encourage them to more often think of spiritual things. I am one of many reminders that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that their lives are of such incredible importance. I feel as if there is so little time to share what is important with them.

And I want reverence in my class.  And so today, I have decided to write them a letter so I can share how I feel about them, and what I want for them.  And for those of you in our class who actually read this blog, you may be hearing this again during our class. 

Dear Amazing Youth,

I love you. Regardless of how frustrated I am when you talk over each other, when you fool around, remove your ties, irritate the person next to you, or simply act silly, that will not change. 

My love for you isn't about how obedient you are. It is because you are fantastic children of a loving Heavenly Father and you deserve to be loved.  And I thank you for the reminder I am far from perfect, that patience is a virtue which I should continue to nurture. You help me to be a better member of the Church - and I'm sure you don't know that.

I see myself as a youth in your behavior, and it is like looking in a mirror. I know many of you are trying to listen, trying to participate and I know there are those who simply aren't there yet. We all have the opportunity to practice the great virtues of compassion and forgiveness, to be kind and to be generous in our understanding of those who are different. Truthfully, we are all different. And we are here on this earth for the same reason - to work out our salvation so we can return to our Heavenly Father. 

The moments the Spirit has born witness to those in our class have been sweet and memorable. And I look forward to more of those moments.  

If I could ask one thing of each of you, it would be to come prepared. Bring your scriptures, bring your spiritual experiences, bring those things that will uplift and bless the lives of your friends and strengthen us all. Bring your challenges and concerns, and allow the Atonement to work in your life, to heal those hurts and to help you walk through this time in your life with grace and confidence.

For everyone who does come prepared to listen, to participate, who brings their own scriptures,  who sets up chairs, gathers scriptures, offers prayers and helps bring a sense of reverence to our class, I thank you.  Your actions bless the lives of our entire class, including me. 

I'd like to end this both with the wise words of President Gordon B. Hinckley from April 1995 General Conference:  

"In the Young Women conference emphasis was given to the words of Alma found in the thirty-second chapter of the book of Alma. His teachings include these words: “Awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith” (Alma 32:27).

My beloved associates, far more of us need to awake and arouse our faculties to an awareness of the great everlasting truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing. We can be a little more kind. We can be a little more merciful. We can be a little more forgiving. We can put behind us our weaknesses of the past, and go forth with new energy and increased resolution to improve the world about us, in our homes, in our places of employment, in our social activities.

We have work to do, you and I, so very much of it. Let us roll up our sleeves and get at it, with a new commitment, putting our trust in the Lord. "

Here's to another great week with my class. I can't wait to see what happens. 

Rachel xo

Keeping the Commandments - The World From Their Eyes

In case you want to read the lesson itself, you can find that

here: September - Commandments - Lesson # 3

I asked the youth to give me a few things they see at school among their peers that could be better if their peers knew and lived the commandments. 

1) Respect of parents - It seems pretty common place for the kids to hear of their peers talking poorly about their parents. It could be because they are angry about discipline handed to them, or because they esteem the parents as old fashioned or out of touch.  We agreed it is okay be unhappy with your Mom or Dad if they give you a consequence, but it isn't okay to gossip about them. (Unless of course you are going to say how AMAZING your parents are, then they felt it was absolutely okay to spread that message.)   I'll go along with that .

2) Taking the Lord's name in vain - Every person in my class has been bombarded with this kind of language, without exception.  And when I asked them if that included their teachers, several said yes, including them as well. 

I shared with them a story of a recent experience I had at a local grocery store with a group of young men who were cursing up a storm. They were absolutely clueless that anyone else was listening to them, and moreover they were unaware that their language was of any concern. They didn't even remember what they had said that could be offensive.

I'm fairly certain that the next time a 50 year old woman saunters up to them to say something, they will think twice about what comes out of their mouth. (At least that is the hopeful attitude I'm going to keep regarding that incident.)

3) Drugs - Word of Wisdom 

This is always an interesting conversation. They seem to clearly understand that marijuana, cocaine, heroin, beer, liquor,and cigarettes are things to stay away from. They know there are kids that are doing drugs in their schools, and they haven't experienced it in their circle of friends.  What's interesting to me is to have the conversation about the gray areas in people's understanding.  What is the Church counsel on the Word of Wisdom ?  Do you drink Dr. Pepper to get out of bed ?  Do you use cough medicine to go to sleep and you aren't sick ?  The buzz words are stimulate and excess. 

One of my senior students said, " Keeping the commandments could help everyone - all over the world!" 

EXACTLY! 

Our class then took a turn as we read about Abinidi and his stellar example of keeping the commandments. He died because he wouldn't deny the commandments. So what does that tell us about our efforts to keep them ?

1) You always have a choice to be an example. 

2)  Search for ways to keep the commandments even if it            seems like it may be hard to do so.

3) The Spirit can guide you if you keep the commandments       and stay worthy to receive that guidance.

My heart aches for the youth of today. The adversary wants to desensitize their souls and cause them to be beyond feeling. He wants them to be so used to pain, suffering, death and destruction that they turn a blind eye. He uses the great and spacious building to keep them from holding on to the rod, learning about the Savior and choosing the right. 

I hope that my class knows that if they arm themselves with the shields of prayer, hope, faith in Jesus Christ and keeping the commandments, they will be "the light of the world."  They have been sent here at this time to be examples to those in their circles of influence. I see their brightness, their goodness and their potential.  I can't wait to see what these young people become. 

Keeping the Commandments - When the Rubber Meets the Road - Part 2

There are people who are meant to be examples to others. Their lives are a testimony of their faith, and their convictions are solid and immovable. They inspire me to do better, to examine my own walk and make the needed course corrections. 

One such person was Abinidi, a prophet from the Book of Mormon. If you want to read more about him, you can click here: Abinidi's Life - Chapters 11-17 .


Abinidi's entire mission was to warn the people of King Noah that they needed to repent and help them to turn their lives around. He wasn't the least bit concerned that this made King Noah angry, uncomfortable or that his life would be in danger by following through on his mission. He had a message to deliver, and he wasn't going to be deterred in any way until he completed his mission.
He is the epitome of steadfast and immovable.  He called out the king, questioned his leadership, and made the consequences very clear: 

 20 And it came to pass that there was a man among them whose name was Abinadi; and he went forth among them, and began to prophesy, saying: Behold, thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go forth, and say unto this people, thus saith the Lord—Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations, and their wickedness, and their whoredoms; and except they repent I will visit them in mine anger.

 21 And except they repent and turn to the Lord their God, behold, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; yea, and they shall be brought into bondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies.

 22 And it shall come to pass that they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of my people.

 23 And it shall come to pass that except this people repent and turn unto the Lord their God, they shall be brought into bondage; and none shall deliver them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God.

 24 Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies.

 25 And except they repent in sackcloth and ashes, and cry mightily to the Lord their God, I will not hear their prayers, neither will I deliver them out of their afflictions; and thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me.

When a prophet tells you 4 times to repent, you better take a good hard look at your life and figure out what he is talking about.  Fortunately Abinidi is so clear ; there is no way his words could be mistaken.  And King Noah doesn't care - AT ALL !   He's more than happy to continue the path of idolatry, greed, burdening others for his own gain and complete disregard for the teachings of Abinidi, his father and his ancestors. It is astounding to me that he could hear all of this and his heart be so very blinded to his own personal sins and misdeeds  

And Abinidi's message almost sinks in ...King Noah  gets really close to letting Abinidi go...unfortunately, he only gets close before his wicked priest convince him otherwise. 

So why am I telling you the story of Abinidi and what does it have to do with my work dilemma I spoke about in last week's blog  ?  Let me get to the point.   The last few verses of chapter 17 are the account of the very last words of Abinidi as the flames are burning him to death.  He doesn't mince words: 

14 And now when the flames began to scorch him, he cried unto them, saying:

 15 Behold, even as ye have done unto me, so shall it come to pass that thy seed shall cause that many shall suffer the pains that I do suffer, even the pains of death by fire; and this because they believe in the salvation of the Lord their God.

 16 And it will come to pass that ye shall be afflicted with all manner of diseases because of your iniquities.

 17 Yea, and ye shall be smitten on every hand, and shall be driven and scattered to and fro, even as a wild flock is driven by wild and ferocious beasts.

 18 And in that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies, and then ye shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death by fire.

 19 Thus God executeth vengeance upon those that destroy his people. O God, receive my soul.

 20 And now, when Abinadi had said these words, he fell, having suffered death by fire; yea, having been put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God, having sealed the truth of his words by his death.

And that is what stopped me in my tracks. Verse 20.  He was put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God. 

How in the world can I stand before my youth and tell them about keeping the commandments, keeping the Sabbath day holy and not find any other way around my work dilemma ?  Did I even try to find a solution ?  Sadly to say that up to that point, I had not.  I was willing to give into the story I was telling myself, " I have to work."    I promise you, there was nothing forcing me to work. I  chose to be the captain, I chose to participate and I wanted to make a different choice. 

I wasn't sure I could find a replacement, or even a decent compromise, but I was 100% certain that if I didn't ask, I wouldn't know what my options were.  However, I felt as if somehow it would all work out.

I spoke to my colleague and told him of my situation. He immediately said, " I can take the team for you so you can teach your kids. That is much more important than being at the Walk."  (This conversation took place via IM and when I saw his words, tears came to my eyes.)   

Yes, indeed, it is more important. Our solution was that I would handle the set up of our table, meet with the team for photos and then hand over the rest of the event to my colleague.  And that is exactly what I did. I left the event, quickly drove to the freeway and arrived just in time for my class to start.  They were surprised to see me, and I was surprised I made it on time.  I told them the story of how I was able to be there and while I am not entirely sure it mattered to them all that much, it mattered to me.  It helped me remember that sometimes we have to stretch ourselves to keep the commandments. I needed the lesson as well as the reminder. 

I may have been called to be their teacher by the Bishop, but there is absolutely no denying that they are the ones that teach me, encourage me and inspire me to be a better member of the Church and a better person overall.  I thank them for being the catalyst behind this lesson and for giving me yet another reason to continue to read the Book of Mormon.  And thank you, Abinidi, for your unwavering faith and commitment to keeping the commandments. I am striving to follow in your footsteps. 

It has been a glorious week! 

RMC 

Keeping the Commandments - When the Rubber Meets the Road

I'm a few weeks behind in my stories about my class, so I'll start with today and work backwards.

First, I think my class finds it both cool and weird that I would write about them. When I spoke with them today about it, I found out one of the girls actually went to the page to check it out!  No one is more surprised than me that there is any interest in the things I have to say about them. Although, it could quite possibly be that they are worried I'll tell some secret, which isn't the point of this blog at all. It's more for me to remember what I taught, what they thought and to keep a journal of this extraordinary group of young men and women. Now on to today's tale.

We had 8 youth today, 5 young men and 3 young women. I love every one of them! Their personalities, their laughter, the things they say that they don't think I hear. (And if they only knew that my ears work much better than they think!) They are a blessing to me and keep me on the right path.

The theme for the month is Commandments, and this is lesson #2. In case you are wanting to learn more about the lessons we teach our youth, you can click here:Come Follow Me - September - Commandments

The lesson I chose for this week is: What blessings does Heavenly Father promise if I obey the commandments ?

The most important scripture I can think of that explains this basic principle of how blessings work with our obedience is found in Doctrine and Covenants 82:10 which states: " I the Lord am bound when you do what I say. And when you do not what I say, you have no promise. "  It could not be more clear.  Obedience brings blessings!  And Heavenly Father is under no obligation to bless us when we aren't listening to him - and He gives us hundreds and hundreds of chances!  Still, there are going to be those times when we will blow it and we need to stop, change our course and start over.

I realized today that the youth don't understand what the commandments are related to the Church.
They know the should's/should not's of the Church, but I can tell it is kind of a gray area. My guess is because no one has ever said to them, " We are commanded to pay tithing. We are commanded to love one another. We are commanded to fast", etc. It is simply something they do, so defining it as a commandment may be new to them. We truly have our own language in the Church.

I also recognized that they haven't yet learned about what tithing is used for, who benefits from fast offerings etc.  As the youth grow in the Church they learn more about the "why" as they continue to learn about the "how".  Line upon line...

This class is full of "what if" questions. And honestly at times, it is hard not to laugh. Their imaginations run wild and sometimes we are waaaaaay off course! But part of being their teacher is to know that delicate balance between spiritual lessons and lighthearted learning.

The hardest part of the class today, for me,was the end, and as I type this, that feeling is still sitting in the pit of  my stomach. This is my "when the rubber meets the road" experience.

 In my work life, I am the team captain for our company at a local charity event. The annual walk takes place on a Sunday, and is scheduled to happen on September 18th. Being the captain now for the 3rd year, I look forward to participating, to fundraising and to spending time with my colleagues.
However, today was different.

I had just finished giving my lesson about obeying the commandments, and talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy. I had one more thing I wanted to share - I would be out next Sunday.  As I made mention of my absence, one of the boys wanted to know if I was going on vacation,and for a split second I wished I was. It certainly would look better than making a choice to break the Sabbath. As I explained that I would be participating at the charity event, I felt so uncomfortable.  It reminds of words I have heard in holy places, " Is there no other way ?"  And those words have been in my mind and heart the rest of the day.

While I could have lied to the youth about my choice, I decided being honest was better. I wanted them to know that this is a hard choice for me and I would rather teach them than go on the walk. And sometimes, there are choices like that.

I wanted so much to put a big red bow on my lesson - to tie it all up nicely that I did the right thing and it was easy as pie, but the truth this, this one isn't quite so easy.  The unsettled feeling I have in my stomach tells me that I need to explore ways to be able to keep this commandment rather than giving in to the situation at hand. I may end up at the same location and I may end up at the walk, but I will have asked for guidance to find a solution rather than accept that obedience in this instance isn't possible.

In the Book of  Mormon, Nephi faced challenges as well. 1 Nephi 3:7 says,  " I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." 



It is now my turn to find the way to accomplish the thing which I am commanded to do AND accomplish the task I was asked to do at work.  Even I don't know the outcome of this story, but I have faith that the Lord's hand will be in the details. 

Have a blessed week!

RMC 

Come Follow Me - A Peek Behind the Youth Sunday School Curtain - The Backstory

Who actually wants to be a youth Sunday School teacher ? Me, that's who!  I wanted this calling and a year ago, I actually asked to the Bishop to please call me.   But it wasn't time and so I waited, not knowing if I would actually be called.  For some reason, I felt like I could make a difference in the lives of these youth, and selfishly, this calling always refocuses my spiritual efforts.

You see, if I was called this would be the 3rd time.  Some people would wonder if God has a sick sense of humor to call a single woman who has never had children to wrangle these souls, not once or twice but three times.  Yes, I am certain He has to have a sense of humor! 

The first time I was called I was 29 years old. I was in the middle of a divorce, and my very wise Bishop knew that I needed a calling that would help me stay spiritually solid during a time of personal turmoil. That clearly happened, as I needed to be 100% on top of my game to teach that class. I didn't have that calling very long, and considered it a blessing to have survived it the first time. 

The second time I was in the Bay Area. I walked into the class and a young man sized me up and said in a mostly sarcastic voice, " So are you here for good or are you leaving ?"   I instantly felt the urge to hightail it out of that room, never to be seen again. However, I resisted that temptation and shot back my own response, " I'm here for good. Are you going some place ?"  "Nah man, I'm here."

"Good, then we'll both be here for a while. Why don't you tell me about the other teachers you have had."  Pandora's box was now open.  I sat and listened as the class shared with me the revolving door

of well meaning adults that had been in their class over the last 2 years. If my memories serves me correctly, they had 6 teachers in those 2 years. I was astounded. Why in the world would that be happening ? If there is ANYTHING youth need, it is reliable, predictable, stable adults in their lives. 

There was a part of me that was angry. I knew these youth deserved something better. 

On that day, I made an agreement to that class. I would either be there myself or I would make sure they had a substitute they both knew and were comfortable with. And I asked the Bishop to please not move me for at least a year. They needed to settle down, create bonds of trust with each other and I wanted to create a safe space for spiritual questions to be asked. I was blessed to teach those young people for 2 years before I moved to a different city.  On my last Sunday there, they invited me to join them in Sacrament meeting, and one by one they got up and bore their testimonies.... and their teacher shed tears of absolute joy to see how much they had grown and how strong their testimonies had become.  It was a send off I will never forget.

On January 28, 2016, I was blessed to receive the call to teach youth Sunday School for the 3rd time. 

I could not have been more excited! And honestly, if I had paid the slightest bit of attention to who was actually going to be in my class, I would have thought twice. I mean who can handle a class comprised of mostly boys!   I speak 2 other languages, but I don't speak teenage boy! Thank goodness for a sprinkling of young women to give some balance.  Overall, they are really great kids. 

I can say that now, nearly 7 months later. 

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing a few of the inspiring moments of teaching this group, the lessons I share and the spiritual gifts I receive from them. I look forward to sharing this journey with you. 

See you soon, behind the curtain!

RMC

And if you would like to know more about the curriculum for our youth,
click here: Come Follow Me, Youth Sunday School Lessons