Teaching Our Youth to Find Answers to their Own Gospel Questions

Really awesome article that every parent and teacher should read

(This is Shannon – John’s post is below)

Today I was looking over the youth’s Sunday School lessons for this month (November) and I was looking at the lesson titled, “How can I find answers to my own gospel questions?”  and I was struck with the importance of every parent knowing how to teach this to their children.  What a wonderful and valuable thing for children to feel confident and know how to be taught by the Spirit and receive specific answers.

The lesson also dives into HAVING QUESTIONS and DOUBTING THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL.  This is a paramount thing to understand, because I believe that many are confused and scared when they have questions.  And they can gain a lot of benefit from knowing how to face this.

So, after I looked over the lesson, I picked up a new book that has been sitting on my nightstand.  It is called 52 Life-Changing Questions from the Book of Mormon, by John Hilton III and Brad Wilcox.  Totally by chance I started reading chapter one.  It was SPOT ON, exactly about this.  The chapter is titled, Wherefore Can Ye Doubt.  PLEASE read this – Deseret Book actually has this chapter available for you to read HERE.  Just click on “Excerpt”.   And please consider how and if you should discuss this with your children.  What a relief it will be for many of them to know that they can question and be OK – in fact questions precede revelation.

After I finished that chapter I put the book down and immediately emailed John Hilton.  I mentioned what the lesson is about and he graciously wrote a post and had it to me within an hour.  He will share parts of another chapter that is also applicable to this lesson.

But let me just share that I HIGHLY recommend this book.  The book covers and discusses questions found in the Book of Mormon.  I am finding so much value in this book.  Not only as a student of the scriptures, but also as a teacher.  One common thread of discussions among seminary teachers is “how to ask powerful questions”.  So, as I am reading this book I am noticing the power of the question as the student, and as a teacher.

And oh, how I wish I would have had this book when I taught seminary! I would have gone right into my scriptures and marked everyone of these questions. And then EVERY time one of these questions came up I would have been reading this book in my lesson prep. But now, I believe we will use this in family scripture study.

And you can get it HERE.

Ok… here is John:

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Really great article about teaching your children (or youth) to find answers to their own gospel questions

Note to teachers: I think a fun way to introduce the topic of answering gospel questions would be to play the question game. Do you ever play that game? There are three rules:

1.       You have to carry on a conversation by only asking questions

2.       You can’t repeat the same question

3.       If you hesitate too long, you’re out.

For example…

Person 1: What’s your name?

Person 2: Why do you care?

Person 1: Are you being rude?

Person 2: No <<OUT! THAT WAS A STATEMENT!!>>

Or…

Person 1: What’s your favorite color?

Person 2: Were you talking to me?

Person 1: Who else is in the room?

Person 2: What?

Person 1: Who else is in the room? <<OUT! THAT WAS A REPEAT!!>>

Take a couple minutes and let people play each other. But then transition to the idea that we all have questions. And we can find answers. If I were teaching the class, I’d share some of my experiences, like the below. Feel free to draw on anything below that is helpful to you, but I think the most important thing is to share from your heart how the principle of inquiring of the Lord has blessed your life.

***

One evening, one of my institute students approached me at an activity  and asked if I would give him some advice. He wanted to go to graduate school and was trying to decide which school he should attend. As we talked, I thought of a phrase from 1 Nephi 15. Nephi’s older brothers didn’t understand what their father had taught about the tree of life. When they came to Nephi and asked for an explanation, he asked, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?” (1 Nephi 15:8).

“Have ye inquired of the Lord?” Often when we have problems we turn to friends or family members and seek their advice. This isn’t necessarily bad; in fact, often it is part of the process of studying things out. But do we sometimes forget to inquire of the Lord? Similarly, when others approach us for advice we may be tempted to draw on our reservoirs of knowledge and forget to point them to the One who knows all things. I realized that the best advice I could give my student was to invite him to inquire of the Lord. If he did, he would get the guidance he needed.

The question, “have ye inquired of the Lord?” can be extremely useful when you are trying to help out others. For example, one teenager I knew had a friend who was struggling with a very difficult problem. When she asked him for his advice, he simply asked, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?” Later his friend texted him and thanked him for encouraging her to go to the Lord. She had been able to find an answer through Him.

You may struggle sometimes with questions about the gospel, or what to do in your life. You can inquire of the Lord. One way you can do this is simply by praying and studying their scriptures. Wendy Watson, a professor at Brigham Young University explained,

“[A] woman was guided to learn how to hear the voice of the Spirit while reading the scriptures. She was tutored to kneel in prayer, to thank her Heavenly Father for the scriptures, to request that the Spirit be with her as she read, and then to tell the Lord what she needed from the scriptures that particular day—one question she needed answered, perhaps guidance in a relationship, perhaps confirmation of a decision. She would then open her scriptures . . . and begin reading. She never had to read very far . . . before the Spirit gave her the answer she was seeking. Through these daily question-and-answer sessions with the scriptures and the Spirit, her sensitivity to the whisperings of the Spirit increased—and she fell in love with the scriptures.

I have related her experience to others who then tried the same experiment; the results have been astonishing. Everything from financial problems to relationship concerns have been solved. And in the process, their ability to hear the voice of the Holy Ghost has increased” (Wendy L. Watson, “Let Your Spirit Take the Lead,” in The Power of His Redemption: Talks from the 2003 BYU Women’s Conference[2004], 326).

I began to search the scriptures and found that the phrase “inquire of the Lord” appears many times. As I studied these passages I saw immediate application for my institute students. They frequently face important life decisions, such as, “where should I go to school?” “Where should I move?” “Should I serve a mission?” “Whom should I marry?”

Several weeks after I taught this principle to my students, as the semester ended, I invited them to evaluate my teaching. One of the questions I asked was, “What can I do to be a better teacher?” One student responded by writing, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?”

That student taught me an important lesson. I learned that in addition to seeking feedback from my students, I could receive divine guidance in how to improve my teaching. The need to “inquire of the Lord” is not limited to students, but is an important spiritual key for all.

The next time you or I need advice, or somebody approaches us with a difficult dilemma, remember Nephi’s simple question: “Have ye inquired of the Lord?”

 

Based on a chapter in 52 Life Changing Questions

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And HERE is our teaching package for this lesson:

How can I find answers to my own gospel questions teaching package-800x800

You can find it and read more about it HERE.

9 comments

  1. I really appreciate how you are doing more and more Sunday School lessons. I was just released from YW and called into Sunday School and I love all of the ideas. Thank you!

  2. You are awesome and an answer to prayer. I was really hitting a blank wall on this lesson for my 13-14 yr olds. Thankj you, thank you.

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