Supporting Statements
Boyd K. Packer
#1:
Thoughts are like water. If you want water to stay in its course, you have to make a place for it to go.” These words demonstrate the technique of teaching something intangible by relating it to something about which everyone knows. It is the approach so often used by the ideal teacher—the Master. Who does not recall the Savior’s unforgettable lessons—the kingdom of heaven is “likened unto ten virgins” (Matthew 25:1), or faith is likened to a “grain of mustard seed” (Luke 17:6). I readily admit to a desire to teach as the Master taught. Though that may be far beyond my capabilities, He is nevertheless the ideal.
Many years ago, the deep desire to emulate the Master intensified, I read and pondered the scripture:
Deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; . . . .
For … to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom;
And to another, that he may teach the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
And all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will. (Moroni 10:8-10, 17.)
I determined that among all the gifts that might make one useful to the Lord the gift to teach by the Spirit would be supreme. I came to feel that if one desired it, asked for it, prayed for it, studied, pondered, and earned it, and believed with sufficient faith that he could possess it, the gift would not be withheld from him.
Accordingly I turned to the New Testament to “associate” with and learn from the Lord, who as a teacher is the ideal. When it came time to submit a subject for a master’s thesis, I presented to my committee the proposal that I study the teaching techniques used by Jesus. With some considerable reluctance, they approved the subject. It was a most enlightening experience to “walk” with Jesus and “observe” Him teach. Thereafter, I began with all diligence to pattern my teaching efforts after Him. Through this association I came to know Him—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father—and that He lives. I stand in reverence before Him, with deep regard for what He taught and deep regard for how He taught. It is this knowledge and reverence that can give to us penetrating power. I have tried to develop the gift so deeply desired—the gift to teach by the Spirit.1
#2:
From my youth I have been acutely interested in and tried to be observant of everything around us—birds, animals, and plant life—their species, forms, colors, characteristics, and habits. I found that we can, as the Savior did, draw lessons from everyday occurrences. We can note the behavior of people in all their individuality and sameness. I developed the desire, as a teacher, to share the things I had observed. I found that by diligent, consistent observation, notetaking, and filing, one can store up a vast reservoir of knowledge, examples, lessons, feelings, experiences, and stories. One can come to know the verity of the scripture “treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” (D & C 84:85.) That supply is there whenever one needs to draw from it for teaching or speaking assignments. Whatever else we are in life, we are teachers—as parents, in church service, in all else that we do.
In my effort to study the way the Master taught I noticed that He was always concerned about “the one.” I have tried to follow that example in teaching our children, in teaching or supervising in the seminaries of the Church and as a General Authority. I find that I do not do well if I try to speak to an “audience.” It is much easier, and I feel much more effective, if I speak to an individual soul in the audience.2
#3:
The five talks that make up this section I hope are examples of edification by instruction. They demonstrate some of the teaching techniques of the Master, and the content perhaps will be useful to individual Latter-day Saints.
(1) When we study how Jesus taught, we note that He employed one principle of instruction more than any other—that of apperception. If we understand and employ it, it will help us as teachers of religion more than any other thing we could learn of His teaching techniques. Apperception is defined as “the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience.” This means that if we have something difficult to teach, such as honesty, reverence, or love, we should begin with the experience of the listener and talk about the things he already knows. Then when we make a transfer or comparison with what we want him to know, he will perceive the meaning. “Prayers and Answers” is an effort to use experience and observation to make clear how one may develop spiritual sensitivity to the still small voice and thus receive daily guidance.
(2) In “Behold Your Little Ones” I was speaking to little children—to each little child, really. I had prayerfully prepared the talk over a very long period of time. Can you imagine how I felt when we entered the Tabernacle that morning to find that 350 Primary children were to sing to us? I was deeply moved to realize that after determining to talk to little children, they would be present to give me additional inspiration. It came as something of a confirmation of the inspiration to choose the subject in the first place. I used a glove, with which all children are familiar, in an effort to teach with total simplicity the concepts of birth, death, and the relationship of body and spirit. This illustration has been very helpful to me in explaining to little children, for instance in a funeral, the death of a family member.
(3) The General Authorities are very seldom given an assigned subject for general conference talks. One of a few times I have been assigned by the First Presidency to talk on a specific subject was in a general priesthood meeting. I was invited to speak to the boys about the Aaronic priesthood. The focus of this talk was to teach each boy his privilege, responsibility, and the power which comes when the Aaronic Priesthood is bestowed by one having authority. An experience of one of our sons with his horse was used to teach the young brethren that the power comes through obedience and worthiness.
(4) “Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts” centers on an analogy designed to teach a lesson in thought control applicable to every individual regardless of age. It answers a specific need at a time when the minds of all people are fair game for every form of evil persuasion.
(5) “Seek Learning Even by Study and Also by Faith” was given to the teachers of religion at Brigham Young University at a time when there had been a change in leadership of the College of Religious Instruction. The thoughts contained in it are useful, perhaps, to other teachers—parents, primary and Sunday School teachers, etc. The address was given at a dinner, in a room not suited for use of a projector. Because an overhead projector would have been useful, I determined to speak as though one were there and ask the audience to visualize what might have been projected.3
#4:
There are many ways in which individuals are edified. They are instructed, encouraged, comforted, enlightened, warned, exhorted, and have witness borne to them, or in some cases, borne against them. Whatever the mode or tone, edification is always an upward-reaching process. It is always for the purpose of building up the individual.
The building materials in this “construction work” are words, but words charged with power and authority and given by the Lord to His servants. It is through words that the work of the ministry is done. It is an exacting work in which Church members all have a vital charge.
The Apostle Paul told the Saints in his time “to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And esteem them very highly in love for the work’s sake.” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13.) He pled with the members to “pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1.) He also indicated the manner in which the Apostles labored. They “exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11.)
It is with fatherly love that the Lord’s servants come and go as they labor among the people in this day. It is in this spirit and with a desire to edify the Saints that this collection of talks and sermons has been prepared. They were assembled in answer to many requests that have come for them. They are arranged for their use as material for building in the edification process, and each is likened to some part of a building.
The foundation of the edifice is instruction. Walls of encouragement are lifted up. Comfort spreads a shelter against despair. Windows of enlightenment let in the light of faith. A closed door symbolizes a warning, for there are some places that we must not enter if we are to be protected against danger. An exhortation is a buttress to correct error and strengthen the structure. Pure witness becomes the steeple, the capstone, the pinnacle. It is set at the highest place on the structure, pointing always upward. The humble testimony of the Latter-day Saint becomes the crowning contribution in the building of lives. For he that gives and he that receives are edified together. It is not a new thing to liken virtues to the architectural features of a building, of an edifice. Paul did so when he said:
“Now therefore, ye are . . . of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:19-21.)4
