Sunday School Supplements

I have a vivid missionary memory — swooping along on my Graziella bicycle, coat buttoned tight against the Brenta valley fog, and sending up to the Lord what felt like a last-effort mental prayer, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m here. At least I’m here.”

Developing gods means we have to learn to have perfect understanding and this takes practice. Probably more than this lifetime, but let’s work with what we’ve got. And while there are many proactive ways to develop, today I want to consider the ways I inadvertently curtail my growth.

This lesson focuses on David’s relationships with King Saul and his children, Jonathan and Michal. After the victorious battle with the Philistines, the women of the kingdom are heard proclaiming, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). David’s defeat of Goliath has gone viral, raising his profile to celebrity status. This causes Saul to essentially lose his mind with jealousy. Saul nourishes his jealousy and hatred toward homicidal proport

A couple weeks ago the Maxwell Institute at BYU hosted a Forgiveness and Reconciliation symposium bringing together speakers from Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Speaking of the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa, Mpho Tutu van Furth—Anglican theologian and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke about the steps required for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Recently I was involved in an art project that required me to do some research about the natural world. Now, this is not my forte. While I can spend oodles of dreamy time with line and color and form, researching biology…well, I passed that class, we’ll just say. Waffles with my study partner helped a lot. But, this time, I actually got enthralled.

Solomon was known as the wise king blessed with an understanding heart, and yet also sadly fulfilled Samuel’s prophesy of the ills that would befall the Israelites if they were ruled by a king. The abundance the Israelites enjoyed as God’s chosen people proved insufficient for their contentment as they also longed “to be like other nations” even at the cost of losing their sons, daughters, servants, and a significant portion of their income to the service of a king that Samue

My family recently returned from spending 18 days in another country for a combination of work and vacation. I absolutely loved visiting the different cities and sites and experiencing just a little of the richness and depth of the culture and history in this area. As we talked to local people, I also had the opportunity to reflect on the impact of good and bad—or wicked and righteous as this lesson calls them—leaders.

When Jesus taught about his own purpose, he frequently referenced two Old Testament figures: Moses and Elijah. These two embodied the Law and the Prophets, standing for the traditions that Christ both fulfilled and transcended. It was Moses and Elijah who appeared at Jesus’s transfiguration, ratifying Jesus’s messianic role with their own authority.

In 2 Kings 2, we see an example of how the prophetic authority was transferred in ancient times. Elijah was given the heads up that he was to be translated. So, he embarked on a four-city-I’m-Gettin-Translated tour.

In this lesson, the Prophetess Huldah is the fulcrum of this story. I had no idea who Huldah was, which speaks to my neglect of Old Testament scripture reading. I will focus on the House of the Lord in this commentary and urge you not to follow my example of Old Testament reading.

The young future Relief Society President Bathsheba W. Smith read Eliza R. Snow’s first draft of the poem “Eternal Father and Mother” in Nauvoo—we know it as “O My Father.” This introduction to the Mormon doctrine of a Heavenly Mother was so pivotal for Bathsheba that decades later she still remembered the room, the furniture, and a litany of other little details surrounding her when she read the poem.

When I was a teenager, I thought I understood the purpose of the book of Job. In my mind, Job modeled how to calmly and uncomplainingly accept everything God allows to come your way. My takeaway was that I should strive to be as mellow as possible about my trials, and I’d recognize I had achieved this when I didn’t even feel upset if something painful came my way.

The story of Jonah and the whale may be one of the best-known stories from the Old Testament, delighting young Sunday School students around the world almost as much as Noah and his menagerie. Much is made in the lesson of the size of the fish – what kind of animal could it have been? – and how Jonah would have survived.

Hosea is a metaphor, and metaphors are powerful things – easy to remember, great at making complicated subjects simple, and capable of expanding our perspective on a given topic. Christ’s parables still resonate nearly two thousand years later.

We’ve had a lot of convert baptisms in our ward this year, so that nearly every second Sunday another new person is confirmed during sacrament meeting. I can’t help sitting up a little straighter when I hear those words, “we say unto you, receive the Holy Ghost.” They make me wonder how the Spirit will show itself in the life of this just-baptized person.

I look around my house as I read this accusation in Isaiah 3:14. My mind wanders through my kitchen cupboards—small and crowded—through my children’s shelves of toys, through closets full of clothing and shoes.

The prophecies of Isaiah contained in this week’s passages contribute to a rich scriptural tapestry of symbols, in this case, relating to Christ, women, trees and light.

These heavy chapters begin with God’s words of comfort to His covenant people. We are given to see the end from the beginning—all the crooked byways of the earth will be made passable and humanity will participate in one great theophany. All flesh will see the glory of the One Lord together!

Sometimes, we throw up our arms and give up before we’ve even started with Isaiah. We will never begin to understand the value of Isaiah, if we continue in our ways of learned helplessness. To be pragmatic: get a new translation

In the spirit of the book Let Me Tell You My Story, I approach this lesson supplement with my own very personal experience, born of humility, not hubris, for I only have my own knowledge of scriptures as I have likened them unto me, but these are the things as they are. So, forgive the anecdotal nature of this essay.