Focus on Faith

My next Primary lesson is about the pioneers travelling to the Salt Lake Valley. However, I won't be talking about all of them. The pioneers travelled there in several groups. I talked about the first group last Sunday. This Sunday, I'll talk about the pioneers who use ox-drawn covered wagons, leaving the lesson on the handcart pioneers to my teaching companion. Considering how much time we're spending on the pioneers, it will be difficult not to grow repetitive. Thankfully, I've discovered a solution. Rather than covering the breadth of the subject, relating the various trials, challenges, and miracles the pioneers experienced, I'll focus on one element: their faith.

The specific lesson I am to teach shares several stories of pioneers who showed their faith by following (or ignoring) the counsel of their church leaders and facing dangerous odds in order to reach the Salt Lake Valley. Some of them expressed faith by requesting unorthodox miracles and following the spirit. While perhaps not all of the examples set forth by the pioneers are worth following, I will encourage my primary kids to exercise the same faith that they had. They were confident that they were headed toward a better place, and whether that "better place" was the Salt Lake Valley or the spirit world, they all made it. The determination and endurance of the saints is next week's lesson; my lesson will focus on the faith the saints must have had in order to make the journey in the first place.