Reflecting on and assessing spiritual learning can help us draw closer to the Savior. This lesson can help students remember and evaluate how their experiences studying the Doctrine and Covenants have helped them grow spiritually.
Possible Learning Activities
Note: You may not have enough time in class to do every assessment opportunity provided in this lesson. Choose the sections that you feel would be of greatest benefit to your students in assessing their learning.
Assess your growth
Consider providing an opportunity for students to share answers to the following questions with multiple classmates. This could be done by giving them one minute to find a classmate and each share their answers. This could be repeated multiple times.
(You may want to provide an example by sharing an activity you enjoy. Consider displaying or showing a picture of a tool that is used to measure progress in your activity. For example, if you enjoy running, you could show a stopwatch and explain how it can be used to measure your growth.)
What is an activity you enjoy participating in?
How do you know if you’re improving? Are there specific tools that you use to measure your progress?
Just as measuring our physical progress helps us see our growth, we need to take time to assess our spiritual growth. The Holy Ghost is instrumental in helping us measure our spiritual progress. One way we can invite the Holy Ghost to help us see our progress is by prayerfully reflecting on spiritual lessons we have learned and considering how we have grown spiritually as we have applied those lessons in our lives.
Invite students to read through their notes and scriptures from the past few weeks of seminary (Doctrine and Covenants 51–75), looking at the lessons they’ve learned and goals they’ve set. Display the following questions to help students reflect on their spiritual growth. Students could choose to write their answers in a study journal or ponder their responses.
What are some of the things you have done to apply spiritual truths you have learned in seminary? How is applying these truths helping you grow spiritually?
How have you noticed Heavenly Father and the Savior helping you as you apply what you learn in your efforts to become more like Them?
Provide an opportunity for students to share responses that are not too personal. Encourage students to be sensitive to the Spirit as they look for ways to further apply these lessons to their lives.
Explain the purpose of commandments
Consider displaying the first sentence of the following statement by President Russell M. Nelson, replacing the word “laws” with a blank. Students could suggest possible options for the missing word. After students have attempted to identify the missing word, display the full statement.
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President Russell M. Nelson
Because the Father and the Son love us with infinite, perfect love and because They know we cannot see everything They see, They have given us laws that will guide and protect us. There is a strong connection between God’s love and His laws. (Russell M. Nelson, “The Love and Laws of God” [Brigham Young University devotional, Sept. 17, 2019], 2, speeches.byu.edu)
What is a commandment that has helped you feel protected and loved by God?
Invite students to use their scriptures and notes to find answers to the following question.
What are some of God’s laws that we have recently studied in the Doctrine and Covenants?
You could have a student write responses to the question on the board. They may mention some of the following: repentance (58:42–43), keeping the Sabbath day holy (59:9–13), chastity (63:13–16), and forgiving others (64:9–11).
Display a scenario like the following. Invite students to practice how they would explain the purpose of commandments to their friend. The questions that follow the scenario could help guide their responses.
Imagine one of your friends shares his frustration with you about a commandment. He wonders why God would even bother to give us commandments.
Choose a commandment you have studied in the Doctrine and Covenants this year and share:
How that commandment is a protection and guide from our Father in Heaven.
How that commandment is evidence of God’s love.
Giving your heart and willing mind to the Lord
As part of studying Doctrine and Covenants 64:20–43, students may have been invited to draw images like the following in their study journals. Consider displaying this image and asking students to share what they remember about that lesson. They were invited to color in the amount of their minds and hearts they felt they were giving to the Lord.
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heart and mind
Invite students to find their drawing or to try to remember what it looked like. Help students remember that how they colored their heart and mind was just a snapshot of a moment in time. It’s changeable, not permanent. They can seek the Savior’s help to become willing to give more of their minds and hearts to Him. Encourage students to reflect on their experiences by responding to some of the following questions in their study journals.
What did or could you do to increase your desire to give the Savior your heart and mind?
What changes have you noticed in your desire to give your heart and mind to the Savior?
How have your thoughts and actions influenced your relationship with others and with Jesus Christ?
Give a few students the opportunity to share what was meaningful to them about this experience and how it impacted them.
Students could then draw a second heart and mind in their study journal next to their original drawing. Invite them to color in the quantity of their heart and mind they are now giving to the Savior as a result of their efforts to improve. Students can compare the two images and determine if their willingness to give the Savior their heart and mind has improved.
Keeping the Sabbath day holy
Consider displaying the following part of a temple recommend question and inviting students to share what they have learned about keeping the Sabbath day holy this year. (If needed, you might give students time to briefly review Doctrine and Covenants 59 or their journal entries from the lesson on that section.)
Do you strive to keep the Sabbath day holy, both at home and at church…
As part of the lesson on Doctrine and Covenants 59, students may have been invited to make a plan to honor the Savior on the Sabbath day. If so, invite them to reflect on what they have done as a result. It may be helpful for volunteers to share part of their plan with the class.
Consider displaying the following questions to help students assess their efforts in keeping the Sabbath day holy. Invite students to select two or three questions from the list to answer in their study journals.
Think of something you have done to keep the Sabbath day holy. How has your Sabbath day experience improved because of this?
How have your efforts to keep the Sabbath day holy drawn you closer to Heavenly Father and the Savior?
What are some challenges you face in keeping the Sabbath day holy?
What is something you would like to start doing to keep the Sabbath day holy?
Why is it important to keep the Sabbath day holy?
What is something on your list that you haven’t done yet that you could start working on this Sunday to keep the Sabbath day holy?
How have you been able to better honor Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ as you have started or stopped doing certain things on the Sabbath day?
While these questions are intended for students to individually assess their efforts in keeping the Sabbath day holy, if appropriate, you could invite willing students to share some of their answers and experiences.
Encourage students in their efforts to receive the blessings of honoring the Sabbath day, especially those who may not have taken any action yet. You could invite them to set a reminder in their phone to do something to better keep the next Sabbath day holy. Testify of the Savior’s desire for them to come unto Him and that keeping the Sabbath day is one way we can draw near to Him.