Incorporating Elder Falabella

I find it hard to make out the main point of Elder Enrique R. Falabella's talk, The Home: The School of Life, but he shares a handful of axioms that I can quote while teaching from Elder Oaks' talk, including the following "I Love the Book of Mormon and My Savior, Jesus Christ," and "It Is Not Enough to Know the Scriptures; We Have to Live Them."

If I expand the "Book of Mormon" part to include all scripture, then that'll include the New Testament, which teaches us a great deal about Jesus Christ, and He, in turn, teaches us how we should live our lives. Then I can transition to "It is not enough to just know the scriptures [or even just to love them]; we [also] have to live them." Knowing and loving our Savior, Jesus Christ, are both commendable things, but it's by actually following His example and keeping His commandments that we truly become His disciples.

And with that, I have found a common link between two seemingly unrelated talks. I guess I should have paid more attention to the part of Elder Oaks' talk where he said, "All of the messages of this conference help us follow in the footsteps of our Savior, whose example and teachings define the path for every follower of Jesus Christ."

If I find that I need to fill time, I can talk for a little while about Elder Falabella's talk, and the unspoken message that his talk implies - that we should teach our children while they're young the importance of following the Savior. But more likely, I'd rather spend the extra time talking about how we can act to show the world that we are followers of Christ (as there still seems to be some confusion on that subject). I'll try to organize the thoughts I want to share into a list that I can follow while I'm sharing these messages, then I'll see where I can slip in the mini-messages that don't entirely fit under the new thesis statement. There's enough material in these two talks that I should be able to fill all the time that I'm given, especially if I think of questions ahead of time to foster discussion during the lesson. I need to get better at that skill.

All General Conference talks are good ones, and according to Elder Oaks, they all have at least one thing in common. I like teaching these kinds of lessons because there's a great deal of relevance in them. In these talks, we know that the Prophets and Apostles are speaking to us, telling us what we need to do to gain Eternal Life. I'm grateful for these messages and for that fact that God still speaks to us through His servants. We're so blessed to have so much of God's words. Yet, having God's words and even loving God's words is not enough. We also have to live them. and we can all do a little bit better at that.