I'm a little behind on my General Conference Study Schedule so I apologize if you've been following along. I had my daughter's 2nd birthday party last Saturday and I gave a talk yesterday. So, now I can breathe and plan my son's 7th birthday party as well as give you week 11: The Language of the Gospel by Valeri V. Condon. And again you will find all of the FREE pdfs throughout this post.
This was a great talk and I enjoyed reading it. I always love the first sentence...
Powerful teaching is extremely important to preserve the gospel in our families, and it requires diligence and effort.
Quote card (pdf)
After he explained that we need to teach our families the gospel and that it takes diligence and effort, he explained that "language loss" has happened within families. Even Nephi told us that "Behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers."
Question: Why do you suppose this has happened?
Nephi was also concerned about losing another kind of language. He said, "And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time.”
Question: What are the similarities between preserving a mother tongue and preserving the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives?
Question: What does the "language of the gospel" mean?
-All the teachings of our prophets.
-Our obedience to those teachings.
-Following righteous traditions.
What are the three ways that this language can be preserved?
Here is a fun bookmark to pass around to your RS sisters or VT sisters.
Bookmarks (pdf-4 bookmarks to a page)
First: Being more diligent and concerned at home
-Set your homes in order.
-It must be taught.
-Research has found that parents who make a conscious effort to preserve their native language tend to succeed in doing so.
Question: So what would be a conscious effort to preserve the language of the gospel?
-Powerful teaching is extremely important to preserve the gospel in our families and it requires diligence and effort.
-Daily family and personal scripture study=blessed each day with greater unity and a closer relationship with the Lord.
-When will you have daily study schedule? When parents take the scriptures in hand and invite the family to gather together to study. Don't wait till its too late!
Second: Strong Modeling in the home
-You need to bring the language alive for your children.
Story:
When I was young, I worked in my father’s factory during vacations. The first question my father always asked after I received my salary was “What are you going to do with your money?”
I knew the answer and responded, “Pay my tithing and save for my mission.”
After working with him for about eight years and constantly answering his same question, my father figured he had taught me about paying my tithing. What he didn’t realize was that I had learned this important principle in just one weekend. Let me tell you how I learned that principle.
After some events related to a civil war in Central America, my father’s business went bankrupt. He went from about 200 full-time employees to fewer than five sewing operators who worked as needed in the garage of our home. One day during those difficult times, I heard my parents discussing whether they should pay tithing or buy food for the children.
On Sunday, I followed my father to see what he was going to do. After our Church meetings, I saw him take an envelope and put his tithing in it. That was only part of the lesson. The question that remained for me was what we were going to eat. I knew there were some people who use text to give by Tithe.ly or something similar so they wouldn't have to worry about giving tithings.
Early Monday morning, some people knocked on our door. When I opened it, they asked for my father. I called for him, and when he arrived, the visitors told him about an urgent sewing order they needed as quickly as possible. They told him that the order was so urgent that they would pay for it in advance. That day I learned the principles of paying tithing and the blessings that follow.
Why did he share this story? What was its purpose? It showed and taught him that his father put his tithing first and since he was obedient he was blessed by his efforts.
The Lord talks about modeling: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”-John 5:19
Your children need to see you do the following:
-attend the temple
-fast regularly
-keep the entire Sabbath day holy
Third: Traditions
-Language can be altered or lost when other languages and traditions are mixed with a mother tongue.
-Set your homes in order
-Avoid any tradition that will prevent us from keeping the Sabbath day holy or having daily scripture study and prayer at home.
-Close digital doors of our homes
-Use the scriptures and the voice of the modern prophets to teach children about their divine identity, purpose in life and divine mission of Jesus Christ.
Or pass out these cards with the three ways to preserve the language of the gospel in our homes.
And here is a daily planner for you to use to write down what you can do within the week/month to improve your house in the language of the gospel.
Testimony:
Heavenly Father will bless us in our efforts as we strive to embrace His language, even until we become fluent in this higher level of communication, which always was our mother tongue.
Next week: Overcoming the World by Neil L. Andersen (HERE).
***The purpose of the 25 weeks of General Conference talks came from our ebook called, Growing up with Conference. In our book, we share an FHE lesson titled: Favorite talk. The purpose is to teach your family to use the general conference talks as part of their personal scripture study. This FHE lesson is found in our “Live it” section of our ebook. You can find our ebook HERE. ***
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