Independence, Missouri, by Al Rounds

May 24–30

Doctrine and Covenants 58–59

“Anxiously Engaged in a Good Cause”

After reading Doctrine and Covenants 58–59, consider the following questions: What do you feel inspired to share with your class? What do you hope they will discover? How will you help them discover these things?

Record Your Impressions

Invite Sharing

To prompt class members to share what they learned in their scripture study, you could write the following questions on the board: What did we learn? How will we live what we learned? Class members could list under the first question truths they found in Doctrine and Covenants 58–59. Then they could spend a few minutes discussing ideas for living by those truths and writing their ideas under the second question.

Teach the Doctrine

Doctrine and Covenants 58:1–5, 26–33

Blessings come according to God’s timing and our diligence.

• Doctrine and Covenants 58 teaches truths that can bring peace in times of trial. Class members may have discovered some of these truths during their study of this section; invite them to share what they found. Or they could search verses 1–5, 26–33 in class, individually or in groups, for something that might be helpful to someone who is suffering adversity or who is waiting for a promised blessing. After sharing what they find, perhaps some class members could share experiences or other scriptures that have confirmed the truths in these verses.

• As part of your discussion of this principle, you could show the video “Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time” (ChurchofJesusChrist.org) and discuss what we might do to help those who are going through difficult times. The quote by Sister Linda S. Reeves in “Additional Resources” could also help your discussion. How do Sister Reeves’s words affect the way we view our trials?

Doctrine and Covenants 58:26–29

We can “bring to pass much righteousness” of our “own free will.”

• What did class members learn from their study of Doctrine and Covenants 58:26–29 this week? Perhaps you could divide the class into groups and invite class members to discuss in their groups phrases they found meaningful in these verses. How do these verses inspire us to “bring to pass much righteousness”? (verse 27). Why does the Lord want us not to be “compelled in all things”? (verse 26). What do these verses suggest about what the Lord desires us to become?

Doctrine and Covenants 59:9–19

The Sabbath is the Lord’s day.

• To help class members explore what the Lord taught the early Saints in Missouri about the Sabbath, you could invite them to search Doctrine and Covenants 59:9–19 and make a list on the board of what each verse teaches us about the Sabbath. Class members could also share how their testimony of the Sabbath day has grown as they have kept the Sabbath day holy. Sabbath.ChurchofJesusChrist.org has some videos that could help start a discussion.

• In Doctrine and Covenants 59, the Lord taught about the Sabbath day using words like “rejoicing,” “cheerful,” and “glad” (verses 14–15). Class members could look for words like these in verses 9–19. Class members could then share what they do to make the Sabbath joyful. How might we use these verses to teach others why we honor the Sabbath day?

• This discussion could also be an opportunity for class members to share ideas about how they and their families use the Sabbath to make their homes the center of their gospel learning. Invite them to share how their efforts help them remain “more fully … unspotted from the world” (verse 9).

  

  The sacrament is an essential part of honoring the Sabbath.

Additional Resources

Our tribulations can guide us to the Savior.

Linda S. Reeves, former member of the Relief Society General Presidency, taught:

“The Lord allows us to be tried and tested, sometimes to our maximum capacity. We have seen the lives of loved ones—and maybe our own—figuratively burned to the ground and have wondered why a loving and caring Heavenly Father would allow such things to happen. But He does not leave us in the ashes; He stands with open arms, eagerly inviting us to come to Him. …

“… He is eager to help us, to comfort us, and to ease our pain as we rely on the power of the Atonement and honor our covenants. The trials and tribulation that we experience may be the very things that guide us to come unto Him and cling to our covenants so that we might return to His presence and receive all that the Father hath” (“Claim the Blessings of Your Covenants,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 119–20).

Improving Our Teaching

Ensure you are teaching true doctrine. “Continually ask yourself, ‘How will what I am teaching help my class members build faith in Christ, repent, make and keep covenants with God, and receive the Holy Ghost?’” (Teaching in the Savior’s Way, 20).