OPENING STORY:
Thunderous applause filled the concert hall. One of the world’s greatest violinists had just completed his final selection of the evening’s program. Eagerly, a woman made her way to the stage in hopes of expressing her admiration to this great artist. Threading her way through the crowd, she finally reached him. Shaking his hand, she said exuberantly, “Oh, I’d give my life if I could play like that!” He promptly responded, “Madam, I have!”
• What do you think the violinist had to do in order to master the violin?
− Discipline himself to practice
− give up some things that might have been easier or more fun
− have a desire
− set a goal to be a great artist
OBJECT LESSON:
Pass out one vanilla wafer to each girl and tell them if they wanted to, they could eat the cookies, but they would be "rewarded" if they didn't eat them. The choice was theirs.
Explain that much of what we do or do not do in life is determined by our ability to discipline ourselves. This discipline includes doing things that are hard or difficult as well as not doing other things.
• What are some things you have to do from day to day that you find hard to make yourself do?
• How do you stop doing things you know you should not do?
Write on the chalkboard: “Our Spirit Controls Our Body.”
Some things about our bodies are easy to control, and others are more difficult. For example, we have good control over our fingers. If we tell one of our fingers to bend, it bends. If we tell it to unbend, it unbends. If we give our feet an order, they obey immediately.
Some things are a bit more difficult to control like our thoughts. But we still have control over them.. We can choose which thoughts we will entertain, and thus learn to channel our thoughts in positive, constructive directions.
Experiment in self-discipline.
1) Ask each young woman to move her right hand in a circle, then to move her left foot back and forth, then to move her head up and down.
2) Now ask each of them to sit very quietly and concentrate on anything except what you are going to describe to them. Then describe in detail a delicious food or dessert.
• Which was harder, telling your hand or foot what to do, or telling your thoughts and emotions what to do?
Acknowledge that it is hard to control ourselves, but it is something we can learn to do. Our Father in Heaven has told us to keep our thoughts, appetites, and emotions within certain bounds. As our Father, he would not ask us to do something that we are not capable of doing. We are his children. We have the capacity to become like him.
Explain that being morally clean and virtuous requires physical restraint and self-control. Help the young women understand that as we exercise self-discipline, we strengthen our spirit’s control over our body. Our capacity to control ourselves increases every time we make a choice to do it.
ACTIVITY: ETERNAL ROAD TRIP (this idea came from Sugardoodle, Idea by Kathy in California)
(I googled the different road signs and printed them out on paper and cut them and placed them around the room. I also cut out a car and a picture of the temple. The temple went at the end of the journey and the car was used to go from sign to sign to the temple).
Life is like a journey… we are driving through life and have been giving signs or warnings to help us control our actions, thoughts and behavior. As we try to drive through this road of life you will see all kinds of road signs to help us follow the right path.
We will start by driving, when you get to a sign stop and we will talk about each one.
STOP- dressing immodestly. When you are dressed modestly you invite the companionship of the spirit. We should never lower our standards for any occasion!!! (school formals, beach, party with friends, school) Let's list some of the do's and don'ts of modest dress... help us prepare for the temple. Short shorts, skirts, low cut in front or back, don't cover shoulder, Tight clothing, shirts that don't cover stomach
KEEP RIGHT -Keep right thoughts and good language always. What message do you send when you use foul language? Let's get realistic, you guys hear this garbage all the time at school right? So how does self discipline help you so that it does not rub off on you? Foul language harms your spirit, degrades you. Choose friends that don't do this, help others to stop.
WRONG WAY - Doing drugs and alcohol is always the wrong way. Never use tobacco in any way, any form of alcohol is harmful to you body and spirit. What does alcohol do to you? It weakens your judgment and can lead to you breaking the law of chastity.
"Some become enslaved with compulsive habits or yield to appetites and plead that they are helpless before their habit the temptations are stronger than their will to resist. But we can choose. We can break bad addictive habits with sheer determination to do so." -Richard L Evans. How does self discipline play a role here?
U-TURN: You turn and run away from any situation where the spirit can't dwell. You are always free to choose in this life. But with that choice you will also have to suffer the consequences. Joseph of Egypt and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:12) turn and run.
STOP- stop with a simple good night kiss!!! Satan may try and tempt you to rationalize sexual intimacy before marriage. It is all around us isn't it? In fact you are looked upon as weird if you don't. The Lord has given us clear guidelines that will keep us safe from Satan's temptation. -no passionate kissing - stay in safe areas -no lying down -no touching private sacred parts of the body with or without clothing. Don't date before your 16 story from lesson.
YIELD- Yield to the spirit. We need to make sure that we are doing the things that will allow us to have the Lord's spirit to be with us. How does self discipline help here? Prayer, seminary, scripture study, attend our meetings,... It is all hard to do, but the more you do it the easier it gets right? A missionary serving in the eastern United States was confronted by a college student who was less interested in the [gospel] message than in the missionary's strict moral code. The student sneeringly asked the missionary how he controlled his desires when there were so many beautiful girls around, implying that the missionary must not [have normal feelings]. The elder explained: 'It is not that I am abnormal; it is that I know I am responsible and in charge of mind and body. You think you are helpless in the face of your desires. You think you are a victim of them. I have proven to myself that I am the master of those feelings' " (Terrance D. Olson, "Teaching Morality to Your Children," p. 14). As we exercise self discipline we strengthen our spirit's control over our body. Then our ability to control ourselves increases every time we make a choice to do it.
CONSTRUCTION ZONE - What are we trying to become? What are your goals for the future? How do you have to discipline your selves to reach those goals? We are trying to become temple worthy daughters of our Heavenly Father, future missionaries, college students, and mothers.
ONE WAY- There is only one way to the temple and to return to our Heavenly Father and that is to follow the lords plan. Each time we use our self discipline to make good choices we are one step closer to returning to our Heavenly Father. President Brigham Young said, "When you are overtaken in a fault, or commit an overt act unthinkingly; when you are full of evil passion, and wish to yield to it, then stop and let the spirit, which God has put into your tabernacles, take the lead. If you do that, I will promise that you will overcome all evil, and obtain eternal lives" (in Journal of Discourses, 2:256; italics added).
CONCLUSION:
We can choose to give into temptations and our passions and not use self-control in our lives (and have eaten the vanilla wafer because it was there to be eaten and you didn’t want to use your self-control).
Or we can following Heavenly Father’s plan and commandments and use self-control in our lives and have complete control of what we do and in the end we will be rewarded for our restraint and discipline and Heavenly Father will give us greater blessings. Like a pink, yummy frosted cookie. In reality, blessings beyond anything we can imagine (celestial kingdom, exaltation, etc).
TESTIMONY
HANDOUT: I gave the girls a pretty pink frosted cookie with a tag attached that read ""when we exercise self control, we will receive "sweet" rewards".
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