Monday, April 3, 2017

A "New" Primary Answer

Several questions we ask each other in the church can be answered with the same set of familiar responses. "How can we draw closer to God?", "How can we increase our faith?", and "What do we need to do to be saved?" can all be answered with "Pray", "Study the Scriptures", "Be Baptised", and "Go to Church." There are many other questions to which the "Primary" or "Sunday School" answers apply, and there are many more Primary answers than those I listed, including one I only heard recently.

In the first talk of the April 2017 General Conference, Sister Bonnie H. Cordon of the Primary General Presidency taught us how we can come to know and trust the Lord. In doing so, she used the two most common Primary answers, praying and studying the scriptures, plus a "new" Primary answer, or at least one that I hadn't heard of being used as a Primary answer before: "Give Service."

Giving service to others is an essential element of the teachings of the Savior. He spent and gave His life in the service of others, and we can hardly call ourselves His disciples unless we are willing to serve others as well. Through service, we attract the Spirit and many other wonderful blessings, including inner peace, a sense of perspective, and an awareness of God's love. Service is such an integral part of the gospel and a source of so many great blessings, I'm surprised I hadn't heard it used as a Primary answer before. Perhaps I simply wasn't listening well enough before. At any rate, I certainly consider it a Primary answer now, and I consider it a "new" Primary answer, even though it probably always was one.

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