Teaching the CTR-7s in our Primary continues to be a fun calling. These kids are excited for their baptisms, and to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ. Today we learned about our choices and how they determine the way our life will go.
Every day, all day, is a series of choices. We choose to wake up on time, we choose to eat breakfast. We choose to do homework, read the scriptures, watch TV, or be helpful in our homes. Sometimes we make good choices, sometimes we make bad choices, and mistakes. No matter what we choose, there will be a consequence or reaction to our choices. Apparently this week everyone had their TV and video games taken away at some point. They were all able to earn their privileges back, but they are learning.
And he hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence. (2 Nephi 1: 20).
“What about commandments? What are the commandments we’ve been asked to keep?”
“Don’t hit!”
“Don’t lie!”
“Don’t be mean!”
“What about doing what your mom and dad ask? Are we supposed to honor our parents?”
“YES!”
“Should we be helpful to other people?”
“Love one another!”
“Is read the scriptures a commandment?” Yes it is!
We adults need to quit snarking about “the primary answers”. Yes, those are simple, but powerfully true and at the foundation of the gospel. I think if more of us were doing the “primary answers” we’d have a lot less problems in our lives. For an object lesson, I passed out some hats, gloves, scarves and umbrellas. We talked about the commandments protect us, like their gloves and scarves protect them from the cold or the rain.
“For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility” (2 Nephi 2: 11).
What about Adam and Eve? They had a choice to eat the fruit of the the Tree of Knowledge. Without that choice the would not have known the difference between good and bad, happiness and sorrow, joy and despair. Most of the world likes to malign Mother Eve for making the choice to eat the fruit, but I love her for that choice. We cannot appreciate the beauty of a warm summer day, unless we understand a cold winter day. Winters make us thankful for summers. Eve made a hard choice, but a wonderful choice.
So, what do you choose? Life and liberty thru the commandments, or misery and death thru the ways of world? Heavenly Father will bless our lives beyond measure when we obey His commandments and follow His son, Jesus Christ. As our new primary song, I Will Walk With Jesus teaches us, “As I walk with Jesus to my home above, he will bless me with his spirit and fill me with his love. Change my heart forever, so I can clearly see, as I walk with Jesus, and He will walk with me!”
This week as well, my friend Georgi Lukov gave the devotional at BYU-Hawaii. His talk goes along with our Primary lesson this week Georgi and his wife Tatyana were some of the first members of the Church in Bulgaria and the best people. I hope you will listen to him.
