JS #29: Peace & Harmony

Todd Petrocek led our discussion this afternoon on the Joseph Smith lesson about cultivating peace and harmony in our lives. He listed the following "environments" in which we exist and asked where we feel the most peace and where we feel the most conflict:
self --> family (wife, kids) --> work --> ward --> community -->
state/nation --> world

We read the account in the manual of Joseph's calm, peaceful, and friendly response to an angry mob's encounter with him (see p. 341). How can we emulate this example? It was suggested that praying when we're in a situation that can easily spawn conflict is always a good antidote, even if you are at work. One person said we should always remember who we are when we're in a situation that could lead us to do or say something wrong. We are a Christian, a priesthood holder, a father - all the time. It was also mentioned that back-biting, gossip, and fault-finding can be sources of disharmony, especially in the workplace. Rather than "pile on", we should look for ways to distance ourselves from these conversations, offer up something positive, or use humor to diffuse the situation.

Two recent general conference talks have some great material about this subject: "The Tongue of Angels" by Elder Holland and "Our Hearts Knit as One " by Pres. Eyring.

Ward mission plan

Bishop Beecroft and Andrew Poulsen led today's combined lesson with the Relief Society. It was centered on developing a ward mission plan, with the major goal of having each household extend at least one invitation per month to a non-member. The invitation could be to a social event (such as the Yankee Swap or the primary Halloween party), a church service (such as sacrament meeting or a baptism), to a family home evening, or to hear the missionary lessons. Bishop Beecroft said that if every household does this there will be approx. 750 invitations extended to non-members in 2009!
Andrew discussed how each unit of the ward (RS, YW, YM, Primary, EQ, HP, Bishopric) is responsible for creating and planning ways for its members to participate in this ward plan.
Leilani Daines (RS) and Jonathan (EQ) each briefly discussed how their respective groups will be attacking this. Dave Boyce is leading a sub-group in our quorum that will be exploring this in the coming weeks -- more to come!

TFOT Lesson - Simplicity in our lives

Tony Pullen led our lesson on simplicity, taken from Elder Perry's Oct. conference talk entitled Let Him do it with Simplicity. He framed the lesson based on Elder Perry's reference to Henry David Thoreau's theory that all one needs to survive is food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. Tony then drew a chart on the board with these four things on the far left and two columns beside them titled "simple" and "benefits". We explored what it meant to live simply in these four areas and what the benefits of this kind of life are.

FOOD: follow Word of Wisdom, store some away ---> health, peace of mind
CLOTHING: dress modestly ---> less focus on self (humility)
SHELTER: living within means ---> peace of mind, minimal debt
FUEL (spiritual): knowledge, experience, love ---> testimony, blessing to others

It was commented that with clothing and shelter, in particular, these tend to differentiate or divide us as people, rather than unify us. And, further, that while these four areas are eminently tangible, the benefits are mostly intangible.