3 Nephi 15 & 16 - Scripture Power!

I watched with delight the Primary children sing yesterday (at the top of their lungs) "Scripture Power...keeps me safe from sin..." It's the new song for the Primary program in the fall.

I pondered long and hard about the words to that song. Truly I have a testimony as to the power that comes into our lives when we study the scriptures each day - not just reading lightly the words, but truly studying them, cross referencing them, pondering them, even re-writing them in our journals.

How important for our seminary students to gain this great truth - that there is power in the words of the Lord. And this power will protect them from the deceitfulness of the adversary - if they will but employ it in their lives.

So I today covered 3 Nephi 15 and 16 in class. I passed out a Scripture Scholar sheet for each of the students to use as they poured over these two chapters. I shared with them a personal experience from my life when I was challenged as a youth.

I had been with a friend at a concert of another friend. Alcohol was being served, and as college kids, we were of the legal drinking age. She tried to get me to drink. I guess since she knew I was a Mormon, she thought it a fun challenge to see if she could drag me down.

She tried multiple times, applying various forms of persuasion to get me to order a drink. "Come on, no-one here knows you." "Come on, I'll pay for you." On and on came the pressure. But it didn't work.

How come? I'm not sure, but I think it had something to do with the fact I'd already made up my mind. I could see where alcohol would lead me...and it wasn't any where I wanted to go.

I shared with the youth that the more they stockpile the scriptures in their hearts, the more they will lean on the Lord in times of pressure and find themselves still standing when the pressure is gone.

So in class we turned to the Scripture Scholar sheets and the students filled in their responses to the thinking questions on the sheets. While doing that, they were to be on the lookout for at least one verse in each chapter that spoke to them. Then they were to mark those particular verses. In essence, they were on the lookout for a scripture they could stockpile in their hearts for future times of peer pressure or trial.

After they had marked them, we had a moment during class where they turned to their neighbor to share one of the verses and why it was important to them. Then they were to turn to the neighbor on the other side (I do this to make sure no-one is left out during these kind of sharing moments), and share at least one other verse they'd marked.

At the end of class, they each took turns sharing with the entire class something their neighbor shared with them.

Not only is it a positive stroke for the students to hear about their selections from the mouth of another student, spoke of as an important thought, it also provides a variety of opportunities for the kids to read and hear in various ways these amazing truths from the scriptures.

And after having been immersed in the scriptures like this, hopefully they too have (or are soon gaining) a testimony that "scripture power...will keep them safe from sin."


Warmly,

Seminary Mom

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