Important Dates
- Nov 27: Thanksgiving
- Dec 2: Boy Scout Court of Honor, 6:30pm
- Dec 5-6: Troop Campout
- Dec 12: Ward Christmas Party
- Dec 25: Christmas
Nov 2014 Lesson Schedule
- Nov 2: Chapter 21: Proclaiming the Gospel to the World
- Nov 9: Visiting Teaching Conference
- Nov 16: Chapter 22: Prayer--a Commandment and a Blessing
- Nov 23: Chapter 23: Individual Responsibility
- Nov 30: Covenant Daughters of God by Sis. Stevens and Sharing Your Light by Sis. Marriott
Teachings of the
Presidents of the Church, Joseph Fielding Smith
Chapter 23: Individual
Responsibility
President Joseph Fielding Smith emphasized
that although Latter-day Saints should diligently help others receive the
blessings of the gospel, salvation is an individual responsibility. He also encouraged the Saints to be
self-reliant and to work industriously in temporal pursuits. “That is what life
is all about,” he said, “to develop our potential, and especially to gain
self-mastery.”
President Smith
reminds us that our self-reliance is not “merely to be applied to plowing
fields, or to reaping and harvesting and engaging in industry, but it means
likewise that a man should be industrious in spiritual things as well as in the
temporalities by which he makes his living.”
Question to
ponder: What can we do to be more
self-reliant temporally? What skills or
knowledge do we need to gain? How would
temporal self-reliance bring us peace of mind?
As to our temporal
blessings, he further states, “We cannot take any of them with us when we
depart. Gold, silver and precious stones, which are called wealth, are of no
use to man only as they enable him to take care of himself and to meet his
necessities here….The Lord…expects us to have knowledge of temporal things so
we can care for ourselves temporally; so we can be of service to our fellowmen;
and so we can take the gospel message to his other children throughout the
world.”
Coupled with
individual responsibility is free agency.
God has given us agency and expects us to do all we can for
ourselves. President Smith explains:
“Agency [is] the great gift the Lord has bestowed upon every soul to act for
himself, to make his own choice, to be an agent with a power to believe and
accept the truth and receive eternal life or to reject the truth and receive
remorse of conscience. This is one of the greatest gifts of God….Joseph Smith
was asked how he governed so great and diverse a people as the Latter-day
Saints. He replied: ‘I teach them correct principles and they govern
themselves.’”
Question to
ponder: How can this teaching benefit
families? How can it guide priesthood quorums and Relief Societies?
President Smith
states that “We believe that it is by grace that we are saved after all that we
can do, and that building upon the foundation of the atonement of Christ, all
men must work out their salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. [See
2 Nephi 25:23; Mormon 9:27] It is an important fact…that God has done for men
all that men cannot do for themselves to secure salvation, but he expects men
to do all for themselves that is in their power….It is a most serious error to
believe that Jesus did everything for men if they would but confess him with
their lips, and there is nothing else for them to do. Men have work to do if
they would obtain salvation.”
Our two great
responsibilities are to seek our own salvation and to work diligently for the
salvation of others. President Smith
said, “It is my duty, as it is your duty, my brethren and my sisters likewise –
for responsibility is placed also upon you – to do the very best that is within
our power, and not to shirk, but endeavor with all our soul to magnify the
callings the Lord has given us, to labor diligently for the salvation of our
own house, each one of us, and for the salvation of our neighbors, the
salvation of those who are abroad.”
