Presidency Lesson Sunday June 3

Positive Uses of Guilt

(Follow Me-R.S Personal Study Guide)
Instructor:  Jane Higgs

2Nephi 4:28

Feelings of guilt can be useful and constructive and can move us forward toward repentance and the Lord's forgiveness.

Everyone is familiar with the wail of a siren. They often signify danger. We have a similar warning signal, our conscience  indicates to us when we are going down a wrong path these warning signals(are suppose to help us improve not to push us into despair)

2 things we must remember about guilt:

1.  Feelings of guilt for sin should move us to repentance

Elder Marion D Hanks commented on 2 Nephi 4:28 and said the following:
"Nephi understood that true remorse is a gift from God, not a curse, but a blessing. True remorse involves sorrow and suffering; but the sorrow is purposeful, constructive, cleansing, the godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation, and not the sorrow of the world"

2.  We should not continue to feel guilt after we have repented

Elder Scott said the following:
"Can't you see that to continue to suffer for sins, when there has been proper repentance and forgiveness of the Lord, is not prompted by the Savior but by the master of deceit, whose goal has always been to bind and enslave the children of our father in heaven?...If you, through poor judgment, were to cover your shoes with mud, would you leave them that way? of course not. You would cleanse and restore them. Would you then gather the residue of mud and place it in an envelope to show others the mistake that you made? No. Neither should you continue to relive forgiven sin"

The following questions may help us evaluate our individual needs to resolve guilt feelings:

• Have I repented of any past sins? Do I need to confess a sin or make a restitution to someone I have offended? have I asked foriveness of the Lord?
• If Necessary, have I soulght the help of my bishop and followed his counsel?
• Do I feel the love of the Lord for me?

4th sunday lesson August 25, 2013

Lesson: These things I know by Boyd K. Packer April 2013 General conference

Instructor: Linda Rotnem

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/05/these-things-i-know?lang=eng

Here is the link for the dutch translation of the article

This seemed like a final testimony of President Packer:

This is a poem that Pres. Packer wrote

I had a thought the other night,

A thought profound and deep.

It came when I was too worn down,

Too tired to go to sleep.

I’d had a very busy day

And pondered on my fate.

The thought was this:

When I was young, I wasn’t 68!

I could walk without a limp;

I had no shoulder pain.

I could read a line through twice

And quote it back again.

I could work for endless hours

And hardly stop to breathe.

And things that now I cannot do

I mastered then with ease.

If I could now turn back the years,

If that were mine to choose,

I would not barter age for youth,

I’d have too much to lose.

I am quite content to move ahead,

To yield my youth, however grand.

The thing I’d lose if I went back

Is what I understand.

Ten years later, I decided to add a few more lines to that poem:

Ten years have flown to who knows where

And with them much of pain.

A metal hip erased my limp;

I walk quite straight again.

Another plate holds neck bones fast—

A wonderful creation!

It backed my polio away;

I’ve joined the stiff-necked generation.

The signs of aging can be seen.

Those things will not get better.

The only thing that grows in strength

With me is my forgetter.

You ask, “Do I remember you?”

Of course, you’re much the same.

Now don’t go getting all upset

If I can’t recall your name.

I would agree I’ve learned some things

I did not want to know,

But age has brought those precious truths

That make the spirit grow.

Of all the blessings that have come,

The best thing in my life

Is the companionship and comfort

I get from my dear wife.

Our children all have married well,

With families of their own,

With children and grandchildren,

How soon they all have grown.

I have not changed my mind one bit

About regaining youth.

We’re meant to age, for with it

Comes a knowledge of the truth.

You ask, “What will the future bring?

Just what will be my fate?”

I’ll go along and not complain.

Ask when I’m 88!

And last year I added these lines:

And now you see I’m 88.

The years have flown so fast.

I walked, I limped, I held a cane,

And now I ride at last.

I take a nap now and again,

But priesthood power remains.

For all the physical things I lack

There are great spiritual gains.

I have traveled the world a million miles

And another million too.

And with the help of satellites,

My journeys are not through.

I now can say with all certainty

That I know and love the Lord.

I can testify with them of old

As I preach His holy word.

I know what He felt in Gethsemane

Is too much to comprehend.

I know He did it all for us;

We have no greater Friend.

I know that He will come anew

With power and in glory.

I know I will see Him once again

At the end of my life’s story.

I’ll kneel before His wounded feet;

I’ll feel His Spirit glow.

My whispering, quivering voice will say,

“My Lord, my God, I know.”¹

And I do know!

He also spoke about the dangers that are creeping into our homes and destroying our families:

There came into my mind the warnings spoken by the prophets. We will not always be safe from the adversary’s influence, even within our own homes. We need to protect our nestlings.

We live in a very dangerous world that threatens those things that are most spiritual. The family, the fundamental organization in time and eternity, is under attack from forces seen and unseen. The adversary is about. His objective is to cause injury. If he can weaken and destroy the family, he will have succeeded.

Latter-day Saints recognize the transcendent importance of the family and strive to live in such a way that the adversary cannot steal into our homes. We find safety and security for ourselves and our children in honoring the covenants we have made and living up to the ordinary acts of obedience required of the followers of Christ.