February 19

Principle: Charity, inspire vs. expire, Genshai and Namaste

Spend time doing each of these five inspirements:
1 hour for Apprentice,
1 1/2 hour for Journeyman,
and 2 hours or more for Master level 

We had a great experience in class listening to Elder Bednar teach us about the Character of Christ. His prayer is, "May we reach outward when the natural tendency for us is to turn inward."

1. Do a word study on the word "character" and write it in your truth book. As you do this you will be amazed at the things you'll discover. You can see an example of how to do a word study here.

1. Select a key word to focus on.
2. Look it up in the Webster 1828 dictionary. Select the definition for your focus (sometimes there is more than one definition.)
3. Underline key words that stand out to you and define them.
4. Look at how it is used in Scripture/Conference addresses. (Not in general quotes or other articles, at least for this purpose...) Write any new insights or definitions.
5. Rewrite the definition in your own words and how you are going to apply it.

 

2. Read this excerpt from a talk given by Pres. Monson in the Oct. 2012 General Conference. See if you can identify how one of the soldiers in the story exhibited character in the way that Elder Bednar talked about in his talk.

3. In Elder Bednars' talk he said that the adversary repeatedly attempted "to attack Jesus' understanding of who He was and of His relationship with His Father." (referencing Matthew 4:1-9) Think about and write about the following questions in your Truth Book:

A. Do you think the adversary uses that same strategy to try to cause us to discount who we are? How so?

B. How would remembering who you are help you to combat this strategy?

C. How would remembering who others are help you to treat them with Genshai/Charity?

4. Read the following scriptures and choose one or more that mean a lot to you, write it in your Truth Book and memorize it.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love castesh out fear

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

5. Watch the following inspirational videos and write any thoughts/inspiration you have in your Truth Book:

The Character of Christ 

The Coat: A Story of Charity

Charity Never Faileth

The following two items for your enjoyment if you're interested:

Here is the link to listen to Elder Bednar's talk on "The Character of Christ" again if you'd like to. You can also print it out at this link. You'll need to scroll down a ways to find it. There is no video of this talk. It was given at BYU-Idaho back when he was the president there.

Watch this TED talk by Kevin Hall on Genshai. He is the one who wrote the book "Aspire" and that is the book I used to teach you about Genshai.  I think you'll like listening to him tell the story himself.