Why I Love Primary!

Our kids are the BEST.  We have 12-13 kids on any given Sunday, and they just ROCK.  They are SO eager to share each other's lives, to laugh together, to question.  They love to learn, to discuss and apply scripture and doctrine, to bear witness of Christ.  They see the world in black and white, and sometimes as a grown-up I think they're being adorably naive...then I realize that, in all important things, the world really IS black and white.  The world adds those grays, and it's our job to see through it...become like a child.

Today, Paul was supposed to give the lesson but he fell ill this morning.  So, for the second week in a row, I had to teach an "impromptu" lesson (meaning I'd looked at it and thought about it during the week, but never really planned anything...)  Today's lesson was about David and Jonathon, and what it means to be a true friend.  We made lists in our church journals about all the qualities we thought were most important for a good friend to have.  Then we read the scripture in John where Jesus calls us His friends.  We went through our huge list together and talked about the ways Jesus exemplified those traits perfectly, and then we re-read the scripture.  Jesus says in this verse that if we follow His commandments, we are His friends.  So we went through that list a third time and brainstormed ways we could exemplify those qualities in being a friend to the Savior. 

It wasn't a particularly unique or brilliant lesson--I'd given ones similar to it in various settings over my life--and any good that came from it certainly wasn't because I am such a marvelous teacher.  But I felt the Spirit more strongly than I have in a long while as I taught between 12:20 and 1:00 today, and I bore witness that Jesus is the Christ, that because He is our truest friend He was able to sacrifice his life--not just by death, but by the way He lived--to teach us how to be better friends to others.  I felt His love more powerfully in that moment than I had in a long, long time, and not just for me, but for those 12 kiddos in the room with me.  Sometimes I get complacent in sharing my testimony, because I think people who know me at all know that I try to really live my beliefs.  But speaking the words, teaching others to love the word of God, is what really jump-starts my own spiritual progression and what strengthens my own testimony.  I want to be better about bringing others to His fold.  I'm not at all, for once second, ashamed or apologetic about being a member of this Church or being a disciple of Christ.  I'm only ashamed I'm not better at it.

I love my Savior.  I have a testimony of Jesus Christ as our older brother, our true friend, our perfect exemplar in all things, our advocate with the Father.  I have a testimony of the scriptures as His words, His guidance and counsel and love, to us--especially the Book of Mormon, which is a perfect witness of His life.  I know that the Book of Mormon was translated through the power of God by a humble, perfectly imperfect man named Joseph Smith, who as a young boy had faith enough to seek out our Heavenly Father in sincere prayer, and because of the magnitude of his faith and the importance of his question he was answered in a divine vision.  He saw God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ.  He did.  He had no reason to pretend it.  It cost him years of anguish and eventually his life, but he was a servant of God and he chose to rise up to his calling.  Because of his efforts and his obedience, the world is a better place because of him, and the kingdom of God moved forward.  Since then we've had many prophets, such as President Monson today, who have followed in the Savior's footsteps, serving and teaching not for the love of power or glory but because of a love for fellow men.   I want to do the same.  I know God answers prayers.  I've experienced it first hand, many times over my life, in ways that are so much more than random stimulus and misperceptions and hoping in vain.  It's indisputable evidence, even in moments when I forget that.  I KNOW He lives.  And I am grateful to surround myself with children each Sunday who know that, too.  Their pure and simple testimonies remind me that everything in our lives boil down to pure and simple love.  I'm blessed to be there. Until we got called last year, I never would have said that.  I just never knew what I was missing.