Priesthood Power

 

Kevin asked that I post some thoughts from the Young Women's lesson I taught on priesthood power back in June. So here they are (finally!)... feel free to add!

To introduce the lesson, I told the girls I was leaving on a 3 month vacation to the Bahamas and I asked for volunteers to take care of my various possessions and responsibilities. I gave each volunteer a responsibility and then the respective key from my key chain so that they could fulfill that responsibility. For example, I asked someone to keep my house clean, to check in on my car, and to check my emails at work. I told them that they were welcome to ask others to help because I knew I had given them a lot of responsibility, but told them that they were to be the leader over their specific section and that they were to keep track of the keys and who they let in and out.

I asked the girls what they thought I would do if I heard that one of the girls was misusing my car key and had been dragging main. They immediately knew that person would most likely have the key taken away and the responsibility would be given to someone else who was trustworthy and who would better fulfill the responsibility.

We used this analogy to discuss the differences between priesthood keys and authority, as well as the characteristics God expects in those He asks to take care of His responsibilities here on earth.

We then went on to talk about priesthood power and how it differs from priesthood keys and authority. I made the terrible wives' tale mistake of opening an umbrella indoors and asked one young woman to come hold it to protect herself from the invisible rain. I then asked if anyone else wanted to get out of the "rain" and had several other girls and leaders join us under the umbrella. I then asked, is it necessary for all of you to "hold" the umbrella in order to benefit from it's protection and blessings? Of course not.

We then finished up with answering the following questions by reading the attached quotes and using the scriptures or other church resources.

1)  What different responsibilities do men and women have?  What can you do now as a young woman to best fulfill your responsibilities?

Dallin H. Oaks: “The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood. But, as various Church leaders have emphasized, men are not “the priesthood.” Men hold the priesthood, with a sacred duty to use it for the blessing of all of the children of God.”

Dallin H. Oaks: “In the eyes of God, whether in the Church or in the family, women and men are equal, with different responsibilities.”

2) What blessings can we as daughters of God receive through the power of the priesthood?

Sheri Dew: “Sisters, some will try to persuade you that because you are not ordained to the priesthood, you have been shortchanged. They are simply wrong, and they do not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. The blessings of the priesthood are available to every righteous man and woman. We may all receive the Holy Ghost, obtain personal revelation, and be endowed in the temple, from which we emerge armed with power. The power of the priesthood heals, protects, and inoculates all of the righteous against the powers of darkness.” 

 3) Do you have to have someone in your home that holds the Priesthood in order to have access to Priesthood power and blessings? How do young women obtain the power and blessings that come from the Priesthood?

Daughters In My Kingdom: One young man shared, “Just as I was preparing to serve a full-time mission, my father left our family and the Church. Under these circumstances, it was difficult for me to leave home for two years, but I went. And while I served the Lord in a faraway land, I learned of my mother’s strength at home. She needed and appreciated the special attention she received from men who held the priesthood- her father and brothers, her home teachers, other men in the ward. However, her greatest strength came from the Lord Himself. She did not have to wait for a visit in order to have the blessings of the priesthood in her home, and when visitors left, those blessings did not leave with them. Because she was faithful to the covenants she had made in the waters of baptism and in the temple, she always had the blessings of the priesthood in her life.”

In a separate lesson taught by the advisor I work with, we reviewed the following scriptures and wrote down the responsibilities that priesthood holders have: D&C 20:38-67. This was a pretty cool experience for me, so I would invite you to do the same. Once the girls wrote down all of the responsibilities, she had them each teach a piece of chalk and circle the responsibilities they also had as young women. It was a perfect way to visually see how interconnected men and women are in fulfilling God's work here on the earth, as well as to distinguish between the few significant differences between our responsibilities. 

I'd love to hear any additional thoughts!

(Just a note... I can't take credit for the umbrella analogy! A friend of mine used it in a Relief Society lesson & I loved it!).