Two days ago, I tried to give a lesson on the Second Coming, but even with days of forethought on the topic and studying from the manual, I felt that I did a fairly poor job of actually teaching the lesson. I, personally, got a lot out of studying the lesson, and I got a few good blog posts out of it, but when it was time to teach it in person, I found that I was unable to communicate what I had learned. At this point, I wonder if I'm better at writing than at speaking, but that's not the real reason I had trouble teaching the lesson. Shortly after the lesson was over, I got the impression that I had received through study, and then attempted to share, the message that God had meant for me to learn from that chapter, without pausing to consider that that message might be different from the message that He intended for them.
One thing I love about parables is that they can mean different things to different people at different times. I understand that there often isn't only one correct interpretation to a certain parable, but rather, God uses that parable to teach the hearer whatever lesson they need to learn.
For example, the parable of the sower is largely understood to be related to people's reception of the gospel, but I could see how a person who could use a lesson on tithing could benefit from this parable. The sower needed to do his part and cast the seeds before God was able to grow it into a harvest. But when we think about it, if we are the sowers and the seed is money, we're all casting our seeds out on a regular basis. We buy food, we buy shelter, we buy clothes. The rich may buy large houses or fancy cars. In the end, it doesn't seem to amount to much. The food gets used up and we get hungry again, our clothes and shelter wear out and we need to pay to repair or replace it, and even if we buy something that will last forever, we can't take it with us. So what's the value of money? Money is as temporary and trivial as the things we spend it on. Since most of the sower's seeds are going to get choked, scorched, or trampled anyway, we might as well cast our seeds wherever we want. But there was a small percentage of seeds that landed somewhere special - somewhere where it would really do some good. It went to pay for the printing of the copy of The Book of Mormon that changed someone's life forever. It paid for the church building where a family gathered and grew closer together. It helped pay for the construction of a temple, where the blessings of heaven were poured out on millions. So, the seed fell among good soil and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold (Matthew 13:8).
How about another, less long-winded example? Say a person needs to hear a lesson on the Word of Wisdom, and they hear the parable of the sower. One part in particular catches their attention - the part where some seeds fell among thorns, and they thought about how the ground was good, and good seed fell into it, but because of the thorns, the good seed was unable to grow. Many weeds, like many addictions, are difficult and painful to remove, especially those with thorns, but the result of removing the weeds is that you then have good, clear soil with good seed planted in it, and then, instead of growing weeds and thorns, the ground produces good fruit. It can be an inspiring message on why a person should change their life and what might happen if they do.
As I studied the Second Coming, there were parts that caught my attention, and I learned from those, but if a person teaches a parable or a lesson from the perspective of they learned when they studied it, their students might not pick up on the parts of the lesson that they need to learn. When studying a lesson, a person should listen for the Spirit's influence giving guidance specifically for them, but when preparing to teach a lesson, they should listen for guidance of what they should share with others. That's what I didn't do this time, and that I hope I'll remember to do next time I'm asked to teach a lesson.
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