To start the lesson I held up a piece of dark blue thread about five inches long. I asked the class to look at it, decide what it was, and come up with uses for it. I walked up and down the middle of the class as the kids in the back could not see what I was holding. I then asked that the second smartest kid in the class could tell me what it was. Without thinking one young woman said, "It is black thread." Right away the class laughed and laughed in fact, one of the men asked who would ever want to be the second smartest, and of course, she got it wrong; it was a blue thread. Then I asked whoever thought they were the smartest in the class raise their hand and then tell me how they would use it. Every hand went up. I loved it! The first answer was tie a knot in it. I ask what good a knot in this piece of thread would be and, again they all laughed. Someone suggested that I use it to floss my teeth, but when I tried to do it, the thread was too short. No one else had any other ideas. "Does this mean," I asked, "that this piece of thread is pretty useless?" They agreed that it was. I then taped the thread to the middle of the white board and since no one in the back could see it, I underlined and overlined it with marker.
We then went on to read parts of an article by Elder Jeffrey Holland about why it is important to keep God's Law of Chastity. It was deep doctrine. They had great conversations in their partnerships that read and in the class discussion that followed each section of the reading. It was heavy stuff and they were champs at staying focused, listening to each other, asking questions and contributing to the discussion.
I asked them how the physical side of a relationship got started (hand holding) and where it went
from there listing each more serious step in a stair format that went down. We then discussed each step. When we got to kissing which was the third step down because they included hugging, we talked about what kind of kissing is OK, and when to kiss. One guy, bless his heart, asked, "Sister Tennis, what about kisses on the forehead?" Sometimes I just hate my mouth--it runs away with me. Without thinking, obviously, I said, "Oh I know where those kisses end up!" while drawing a line from my forehead to my lips. I thought I had lost total control of the class. They laughed and laughed and laughed. I thought Scott was going to fall off his chair laughing. I know it isn't funny here, but it was so funny there. I finally gave up and laughed too. The interesting thing is that the laughter allowed us to talk of necking, petting, etc. without a lot of embarrassment. It allowed me to talk of sexual passion and how it is really not a good thing outside of marriage. We talked of when things had gotten beyond OK with the Lord and when one needed to see the Bishop.
I ended the lesson with the thread which I took off the board. We read pieces of the story of Lot and his fascination with the city of Sodom. He did not want to live in it, but he wanted to watch it and it got him into trouble. We read where Abram tells the King of Sodom that he does not want a "thread" of the King's. Then I bore my testimony that when it comes to moral purity we can not be fascinated with what the world is doing, in fact, we do not want a thread of what the world has to offer. The Spirit was so strong.
Afterwards, two of the YSA woman (both RMs) told me they had never heard the terms necking, or petting and thanked me for helping them see what was acceptable and not acceptable to God. I am sure they were not the only ones; it is why so many LDS young adults here are not married in the temple first. They have never been taught what is not acceptable and then they find themselves not eligible for temple blessings.
Tonight is why I am here.
No comments:
Post a Comment