Teaching Gospel Principles

by Terri Wagner

I felt pretty secure teaching just about any age group and any lesson until I got called as the Gospel Principles teacher. I never realized how important it is to both stay focused on the general doctrine and accommodate a wide range of gospel knowledge. The questions can be extremely challenging. Not because I do not know the answer, but because I find it hard to explain it simply. Fortunately, the instruction manual gently suggests do not worry if you do not really cover the lesson, let the discussion flow in a natural direction.

Yesterday was one of those Sundays we all sigh over. I have spring allergies and a raspy voice, so I was counting on my class to carry the lesson as they usually do. For some reason maybe the same reason they were not inclined to talk. That meant I had too. The lesson was on keeping the Sabbath Day holy which is a tricky principle at best. Tricky because so many people here are in part member homes, coming from another religion, or have family situations where the Molly Mormon way won't work well. Wow, did you see how many "w" words I got in there? Ok back on track.

The lessons are written to facilitate discussion in a class filled with non members, returning members, and non members married to members. Half the time I'm taking time to gently correct the member who has not quite learned a certain principle is not necessarily set in concrete. For example, if you have to work on Sunday, are you exempt? No, you are not. The Lord kinda leaves up to you the individual to come up with creative ways to still keep the Sabbath Day. Fortunately I had a visitor who was in the medical field and offered up some fun ideas to both work and yet acknowledge the day for what it is.

I thought we would have a nice lively discussion on the fact that we are given guidelines about the Sabbath, but are cautioned not to become like the Sadducees and Pharisees of the Savior's day. That's really what I mean by tricky. I like the fact that Heavenly Father gives us the guidelines and we then can make choices that serve our families better. But I have found that coming from another religion, investigators are looking for hard and fast rules they can check off. I appreciate that. I sometimes wish there was a set of rules. Do this, don't do that...but then again I'd probably be the one that griped about the rules not giving me much freedom. It's a balance.

Please don't take all this as a rant about teaching this class. It has to do with making wise choices for you. On this blog, we have often discussed the pros and cons of writing on Sunday. After teaching this class, I stand pretty firm on the it's entirely up to your personal circumstances. Does that make me a situational ethics person? I'm not sure. Why do you think?