Bored in Sunday School

Spencer W. Kimball reproved those who get bored in Church:

"We do not go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual responsibility, and regardless of what is said from the pulpit, if one wishes to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, he may do so by attending his meetings, partaking of the sacrament, and contemplating the beauties of the gospel. If the service is a failure to you, you have failed. No one can worship for you; you must do your own waiting upon the Lord." (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, chapter 16.)

Featured today at LDS.org

An article written by Tad R. Callister, Sunday School general president, is being featured today on the front page of LDS.org. In this article, Callister quotes Bruce R. McConkie's 1980 BYU speech, "The Seven Deadly Heresies." The passage quoted and referred to by Callister is as follows:

"We come into these congregations, and sometimes a speaker brings a jug of living water that has in it many gallons. And when he pours it out on the congregation, all the members have brought is a single cup and so that’s all they take away. Or maybe they have their hands over the cups, and they don’t get anything to speak of.

"On other occasions we have meetings where the speaker comes and all he brings is a little cup of eternal truth, and the members of the congregation come with a large jug, and all they get in their jugs is the little dribble that came from a man who should have known better and who should have prepared himself and talked from the revelations and spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are obligated in the Church to speak by the power of the Spirit. We are commanded to treasure up the words of light and truth and then give forth the portion that is appropriate and needful on every occasion." (Click here.)

In the above passage, McConkie describes one aspect of the relationship that should exist between teacher and learner. However, as Spencer W. Kimball points out, we must do our own waiting upon the Lord, and that is possible even when the teacher brings an empty jug.