Below is a guest post from ks:

I’m a new writer for the blog “Beginnings New.” As you may have guessed from the name, we write about all things connected with the Young Women program – lesson notes, advice for tricky situations, planning meaningful activities, and issues related to youth in general.

As Feast is currently without a writer for the Young Women lessons, I approached Robert Couch with the idea of cross-posting our lesson notes here at Feast.

Also, I would like to ask for the thoughts of the Feast community on the lesson we’re currently addressing: “Preparing to Become an Eternal Companion.”

This lesson, like several on the same topic in the Young Women manual, is often done in a way that, well, leaves much to be desired…

What suggestions do you have for teaching youth this topic? Note that the Young Women manual doesn’t give too much attention to “eternal” or “companion,” and leaves out any real discussion of a doctrinal base. What scriptures or conference talks/young women broadcasts (during the last 15 years, preferably…) would you suggest a Young Women leader go to?

And, to fuel discussion, this is essentially the lesson manual’s outline (my own opinion of the outline is sure to show through here):

-Girl goes away to college and appreciates all of mom’s homemaking skills
-Teacher asks girls a “guess what the teacher is thinking” obvious question, answer is “wife”
-Look up scriptures to just get the words out that “marriage is ordained of God” – but no discussion on scripture is encouraged
-Spencer W. Kimball quotation, with some good stuff, and I actually usually like Pres. Kimball’s messages, but in this one there are some lines that could really be misused: girls should make themselves “attractive physically in dress” and “knowledgeable on many subjects” and emotionally “genuine.” Yikes. (Young Women are either going to see that quotation read without comment, or a whole lot of comments…)
-The “get out the paper, make a list” request
-The reason to study scripture and pray is to get ready for “challenges of marriage“
-Example of why to be spiritually prepared: when you fight, which you will, you can pray at the end (not of course, teaching children the gospel or working in callings…)
-People like good cooking
-Homemaking requires skill/patience
-So, prepare yourself
-And, the conclusion: “Each of the young women will marry at a different time. However, if they will prepare themselves in the areas discussed in this lesson, they will increase their chances of having successful and happy marriages.”

“Increase their chances”?? I would much prefer the youth understand the foundation of eternal marriage than simply “increasing” their chances of surviving it. The lesson manuals for Young Women all include introductions that encourage the teachers to go to the scriptures and use material from the Ensign/New Era if they want something beyond the lesson plan.

So, what scriptures and conference talks would you study as you prepared to teach a lesson like this to the youth?

I am now teaching the priests in the Aaronic Priesthood in our ward.  I was just looking through our next lesson on Scripture Study and made my (often token effort) perusal of the manual.  The “attention getter” story is as follows:

“Ask the young men to imagine themselves in the following situation. You and your family have gone to spend a few days in the mountains. The area is new to you, and you decide to go for a hike before dinner. As you are walking, you spot a squirrel and begin to follow it. You haven’t paid attention to which direction you are going and suddenly realize that you are lost. The sun has dropped behind the mountains, and it is quickly becoming cold and dark.

• • What might help you in such a situation? (A map or a compass.)” Read the rest of this entry »

I am now teaching Aaronic Priesthood lessons, kind of.  For the time being I teach the deacons, but we haven’t had any deacons present for a few weeks.  I was looking at this lesson and wasn’t sure how I would teach it, and then I wasn’t sure I understood the doctrine very well.  Here’s some questions that hopefully someone has some thoughts on.

Read the rest of this entry »