The Dog Ate my Scriptures

Excuses, Agency, Responsibility

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Little Kids say Funny Things

• Kids’ thoughts on love and why it happens between two particular people:

• • “No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That’s why perfume and deodorant are so popular.” (Jan, 9)

• • “I think you’re supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn’t supposed to be so painful.” (Harlen, 8)

Little Kids say Funny Things

• Kids’ thoughts on what people do on dates

• • “Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.” (Jane age 8)

• • “On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.” (Martin, age 10)

Little Kids say Funny Things

• Kids’ thoughts on “What’s falling in love like?”

• • “Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life.” (Roger, 9)

• • “If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don’t want to do it. It takes too long.” (Leo, 7)

Doctrine and Covenants 1:38

2 Nephi 2:27 (Page 59)

“Men are free…to choose”

Moses 4:3 (Page 9)“Because…Satan…sought to destroy the agency of man…I caused that he should be cast down”

Why do you think that making excuses weakens our agency?

Elder Lynn G. Robbins,

Quorum of 70

“Any time you blame, point a finger or self justify it will hurt you.”

“Even if you’re right it will hurt you to blame, to make an excuse, to justify.”

For the Strength of Youth, 5“You are responsible for the choices you make. You should not blame your circumstances, your family or your friends if you choose to disobey God’s commandments. You are a child of God with great strength. You have the ability to choose righteousness and happiness no matter what your circumstances.”

Excuse: It’s just a little thing

Read Alma 57:21 and look for how it relates to this excuse

President Thomas S. Monson

Ensign, Dec. 1990, 4“Before we can successfully undertake a personal search for Jesus, we must first prepare time for him in our lives and room for him in our hearts. In these busy days there are many who have time for golf, time for shopping, time for work, time for play—but no time for Christ.”

Excuse: I don’t have time

Excuse: Everyone else is doing it

Read Alma 39:4 and fill in the blanks:

“Yea, she did steal away ____ _____ _____ _____, but this was no

excuse for thee, my son.”

Alma 42:30 (Page 313)“Do not endeavor to excuse

yourselfin the least point.”

Alma 39:13 (Page 306)

“Acknowledge thy faults and that wrong thou hast done.”

The Language of Responsibility

“You are responsible for the choices you make” (FSY, 5)

•I will do it.•I choose not to… •I won’t work on Sundays.

Language that accepts responsibility states that YOU

are in control. Examples:

The Language of Excuses

The language blames the problem on someone or something else. Examples:

•I can’t.•I have to. •He made me.•I don’t have time.

“When people understand [responsibility] and make no more

excuses is the day they’re on the top and achieve things they’ve never

done.”

Elder Lynn G. Robbins,

Quorum of 70

• Moses 6:27• Moses 6:31• Moses 6:32• Moses 6:37-39

Enoch

Elder Henry B. Eyring

CES Address, Aug. 2004

“In the days ahead, the Lord will raise the spiritual bar again and again. And our youth will rise higher and higher to more than clear that rising expectation. They will make the choices to receive the promised spiritual outpouring deep in their hearts.”

Accepting Responsibility for the

Consequences of our Actions

For the Strength of Youth, 4“While you are free to choose for yourself, you are not free to choose the consequences of your actions. When you make a choice, you will receive the consequences of that choice. The consequences may not be immediate, but they will always follow, for good or bad. Wrong choices delay your progression and lead to heartache and misery. Right choices lead to happiness and eternal life. That is why it is so important for you to choose what is right throughout your life.”

Accepting Responsibility for our

Gospel Learning

Alma 62:41(Page 366)

What would you do if you were in a boring Sacrament

Meeting?

What would you do if you were in a boring Sacrament

Meeting?

“I don't know. I've never been

in one.”

President Spencer W. Kimball

(12th President of the Church)

Elder Gene R. Cook, Church News, 24 Mar. 1990, 10

“That's interesting, isn't it? That tells me that the real meeting was really between President Kimball and the

Lord, in addition to what was happening in sacrament meeting…

If you enter a meeting with your heart prepared to be written upon by the

Lord, then that will happen.”

Elder Henry B. EyringTo Draw Closer to God,

11

You may not know who your Sunday School teacher…will be next week, but you can…pray specifically that the Holy Ghost will come to them as they prepare to teach, and then come again as you sit at their feet to listen next week. I am not sure I understand how this works, but I know it works. I think you can have faith and confidence that you will never need to hear an unprofitable sermon or live in a ward where you are not fed spiritually.

Make Your Scripture Classes POWERFUL

Pray for yourself & the speaker Open your scriptures Write what you learn be Early

Raise your hand to participatesit towards the Front

be Unselfish Look for application

Accepting Responsibility for our Emotions

 A cunning part of [Satan’s] strategy is to dissociate anger from agency,

making us believe that we are victims of an emotion that we cannot control.

[The phrase] ‘He made me mad’…

is a myth that must be debunked.

Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Quorum of

70, (Ensign, May 1998,

81)

No one makes us mad. Others don’t make us angry. There is no force

involved. Becoming angry is a conscious choice, a decision;

therefore, we can make the choice not to become angry. We choose!

Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Quorum of

70, (Ensign, May 1998,

81)

We can choose not to become angry. And we can make that choice

today, right now: ‘I will never become angry again.’ Ponder this resolution”

Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Quorum of

70, (Ensign, May 1998,

81)

For the Strength of Youth, 5

“You have the ability to choose righteousness and happiness no matter what your circumstances.”

1 Nephi 17:1-3, 20-21

• So great were the blessings of the Lord

• The commandments of God must be fulfilled

• Our women…were strong

• These many years we have suffered.

• It would have been better that [we] had died.

• We might have been happy.

Nephi Laman

Could you be happy living in a concentration camp?

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 98).

President Harold B. Lee

Ensign, Feb. 1974, 78.

“Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you but on what happens inside of you; it is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life.”

Three Steps from Complaining

to Accepting Responsibility 1. Identify the complaint2. Turn the complaint into a statement of

what you want.3. Take responsibility for making it happen.

**For Example**

1. My parents make me so mad!2. I want a good relationship with my

parents.3. Find things that you could do with your

parents, do service for them, etc.

Accepting Responsibility For

1. Our choices.2. The consequences of our choices.3. Our gospel learning. 4. Our emotions.

We Learn By Doing: Invitations

1. Review notes and scriptures.2. Teach what you have learned to

someone.3. Listen to others’ language.4. Get a “responsibility partner.”5. Scripture search—excuse. 6. A week taking notes and praying for the

speaker.7. How long can you go without getting

angry?8. Practice “3-step approach.”9. Pray and ponder on what we have

discussed. What would Heavenly Father have you do because of what you have learned?

“When people understand [responsibility] and make no more

excuses is the day they’re on the top and achieve things they’ve never

done.”

Elder Lynn G. Robbins,

Quorum of 70

No Excuses!

I will never make Another excuse

Again