March 5, 2008

Today we discussed the book of Nehemiah.
The students started out in groups, making lists of everything a wall could be used for. After making their lists, we then discussed the importance of walls in regards to the protection of a city (such as Jerusalem). We talked about the entrances and what some of their purposes may have been.

I then gave 2 groups of students some instructions, and some wooden blocks. One group of student's objective was to build and protect a wall for their city out of blocks. The other student groups' objective was to hinder the construction of the other groups' wall. It didn't take very long to see pandemonium break out in the classroom. The destroyers were able to quickly gather up the blocks and hoard them so that the builders weren't able to get to them. I then gave the students swords (hangers) so that they might protect themselves. Unfortunately, there wasn't much hope. It seemed that no one could get much work done either way.

As we re-grouped, we talked about Nehemiah and some of the worst jobs ever (he was the king's cup bearer - in charge of making sure there was no poison in the kings' food). Nehemiah had a desire to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple and the walls. The Samaritans were still angry about their rejection and once again tried to impede their progress by destroying the walls which they were building.

We talked about who the students thought would win this building of the wall battle. If demonstrated from our little re-enactment, the Samaritans definitely would have won. However, we read in chapter 4, how Nehemiah called the people together. He gives a great couple of verses which sound exactly like Captain Moroni calling the people to support the title of liberty. We discussed this, and then discovered what the Jews did to finally finish building. They built with one hand, and kept their sword in the other. They were constantly vigilant and defensive as they were building.

We took some time to discuss our own spiritual walls. Each day and moment we are building our spirituality. As we read through chapter 6, we saw the tactics used to destroy Nehemiah and his work. Men sent unto him to meet with them, not just once but 5 different times. Nehemiah always answered the same - why should I leave this important work? Finally, when they knew they couldn't get that angle, they tried another, by hiring someone to warn him that someone planned to murder him.
Nehemiah's reaction was interesting - it says that "He perceived" that this wasn't the truth. We talked about what would have made him able to 'perceive' this. The Holy Ghost is our guide and our companion. DC 46 talks about the gifts of the spirit, one of which is discernment. When we listen to the Holy Ghost, we can also be blessed with some of these gifts - as the situation warrants - but we have to be worthy to receive and willing to listen and do what we are directed to do.

We finished class by talking about some of the tactics Satan uses to destroy our spiritual walls. A big one is distraction. Just like they tried to distract Nehemiah, Satan tries to distract us with media, fashion, friends, fun, pornography etc - basically anything that he can use he will.

The students suggested some of the things they can do to withstand these distractions - such as saying their prayers, scriptures, being obedient, paying tithing etc.
One of the student commented that these were primary answers. We took the time to ask how many students had taken the time to read their scriptures today, or to say their prayers this morning. We saw that even though these may be simple primary answers, we all struggle with them, and obviously haven't gotten it right. We have the repetition over and over again because we still need to work on it, and we need the protection which we get from these each and every day - it runs out.

Tomorrow we will go over the book of Esther.