The Emma Lesson

Amazing--I was literally in the middle of typing this post when Adam walked in from church and told me a member of the bishopric wanted to meet with me about a calling. As it turned out, that calling was Gospel Doctrine teacher. CRAZY!

"Every four years, I have a deep inner struggle each week in Gospel Doctrine as I sit through a discussion of the Doctrine and Covenants. Church history is one of the few interests in my life of which I am very passionate about and a subject which I feel I actually know a little something about. It is my dream to teach Church History and I know that one of my only chances at actually making that dream come true, is to teach Gospel Doctrine every four years. A person can not teach institute without a master's degree in education and, even then, it's very difficult to obtain a teaching job. My one chance comes around every four years. I didn't get that chance this year, although the year is not over. Mind you, I don't think I'm a master teacher or the leading authority on church history; I just really, really love to talk about it, the little known facts, how it has effected the modern church, why it's interesting and important. I love it and my passion translates into my teaching, or so I think.
Today's lesson was on section 25, Emma's revelation."

Then Adam interrupted me.

As much as I love preparing and teaching this subject, I find that it's also a source of discouragement for me. After every time I teach, I go home and rethink everything that I said in class, nitpicking at all of my comments and feeling like I failed. I should have said this, I shouldn't have said that, the way I phrased this was wrong, people seemed bored, were they bored? I want to be a good teacher but not because I want people to think that I'm amazing but because I want to be an instrument through which the Spirit can do His thing, without me causing a distraction. I love teaching because it is always a constant challenge. It's never easy but maybe I feel that way because I'm doing something right. I hope. 

To Alaska and Beyond

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