Thoughts during Sacrament Meeting... I really really really love Ray. We laughed a lot and while it might have been borderline irreverent, it was awesome. Ray was taking some notes for his Sunday School lesson, and just to be playful I hit his arm totally made him mess up. So he retaliated by writing on my hand, but he wrote "I love Ray" which surprised me because I was totally expecting something opposite. haha. I bumped his arm again, with the same awesome result, so he again wrote on my hand, this time drawing an arrow from his previous message up to my ring. haha. It was great to laugh with him so much.
Sunday School was pretty eye opening. Ray's calling in the ward is the Sunday School teacher for the 14-17 year olds. Today he taught for the first time today, and I wanted to check it out, so I went with him. The lesson Ray taught was really good, but the kids weren't necessarily responding the way Ray or I were expecting. So that got me to thinking about why they weren't terribly interested in it. I thought back to when I was a 16 year old, and I realized that when I was that age, I didn't really care to much either. The only way I did get really excited was when I had a fun teacher. That's not to say Ray's not a fun teacher, because he totally is. But he's also got the fact that he's replacing a teacher those kids already loved, so that's hard for them. The challenge will be building a relationship of trust both ways. Those kids are still finding their testimonies. They probably haven't really had any significant spiritually impacting moments in their lives yet. I know when I was 16, I'd hear people tell these intense stories of when they knew that Heavenly Father was aware of them, but I hadn't had any yet, so I couldn't relate because I felt they were preaching to me and not helping me experience that because they were too set on finishing the lesson, therefore the personal touch and motivation to find what they had was almost lost. 14-17 is an interesting age... You want so bad to be your own individual, but you are so influenced by those around you, and they're polar opposites. Do you follow your family's example and risk being a total outcast, or do you fall into the temptations of those their age and risk losing yourself, but not understanding that that's the result of that path... What a terrible decision to have to make...
After Church, Ray and I talked about it, and I told him all these thoughts I was having during his class, and I emphasized that in the end, all they need him to be is their friend. That way, they'll take something home from his lessons, and not go because they have to, but because they really want to. It's just a matter of building that friendship, and that's really up to him to figure out how to do because he's the teacher and definitely has the discernment to be able to know the best way to do that. Ray has the potential to help those kids really discover their testimony, and start making pivotal decisions that will shape who they will be for the rest of their lives. The responsibility and potential that he has with those kids is huge. I know that he will be able to work it out with them. It may take a while for them to like him enough that they enjoy going to class, but Ray is the type of person that makes an impact in the lives of those around him. He figures it out. I'm excited to see the progression of both Ray in his teaching, and the students in their spiritual desires. It will be a challenge, because Ray is used to teaching adults, who don't necessarily need to be befriended or even really entertained by the teacher. Ray has a way of teaching that draws people in, which is incredible. But when you change the audience, the need to adjust the teaching method becomes apparent. He's gonna grow so much from this calling. He already loves teaching, and I think this is gonna get him even more pumped to keep teaching as his life progresses. I wonder what this calling is preparing him to be in the future...
So the experience from Sacrament meeting to Sunday School was night and day. Playful to thoughtful. The transition to Relief Society was no less shocking.
One of the young married women in the ward was asked last minute to teach this lesson from a Conference talk, and before RS started I was talking to her and she expressed that she was nervous about it. The usual pre-teaching jitters I guess. She did a great job though, but the lesson took a spin that she was just not expecting and I had never really experienced before. The lesson was about pain and not becoming bitter towards God for things going wrong in our lives. I guess that it was a super sensitive subject because there were 20 minutes straight of comments and the teacher just stood there listening... haha... But it appeared as if there was a lot of pain that each of those women had experienced, and they had all had really strong experiences that kept them facing in the right direction despite how terribly their life had fallen apart. I know for me, those types of experiences are some of the strongest I have to look back on. They're truly defining spiritual moments. So there were the women in the RS that have had those experiences, and so passionately shared what they learned first hand what they knew to be true. They had to go through the terrible bitterness of the trial, but the came out of it as stronger women. The natural result of that is to share those experiences to help others find motivation to make it through their trials too. So of course there were the few women that haven't necessarily had the testimony building experiences therefore lacking the ability to understand truly what those women were so passionate about, and how they could possibly be forgiving of people that have hurt them so badly, or have lived through trials that came about by means that were out of their control. The passion was clearly there, and I think that it really was positive, but slightly out of control. It was kind of comforting to know how strong the majority of these woman have become because of their trials, but it was strange to recognize how much collective pain the women in our Relief Society have gone through. I guess it also made me realize how much life I still have to live. Just like in Sunday School, how I was wondering the potential that Ray has in his life, my experience in RS made me think of my own potential about who I will become in my life.
Such a reflective day. I really appreciated it. My life has barely even started, but I'm excited to see where my experiences take me and my family.
