Micro-Training # 10
Love those you teach
Pray for your students regularly
Theme
How to learn to better love the people we teach.
Illustrate
One of the most helpful things you can do to develop genuine love for your students is to seek the gift of charity through sincere prayer.
“I have prayed for thee,” the Savior said to Peter, “that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32). Think about what happens inside you when you pray for someone—how does your prayer affect the way you feel about that person? Following the Savior’s example, pray by name for the people you teach who have the greatest needs. Pray to know and understand their specific needs and ask Heavenly Father to “prepare their hearts” (Alma 16:16) to learn the things that will help meet those needs.
You can ask the Lord for the gift of discernment to better understand each student, for help to reach individual students who are struggling, and for the gift of charity to love those students who may be more difficult to love (see Moroni 7:48).
Here are two inspirational quotes from our leaders:
“Praying for others with all of the energy of our souls increases our capacity to hear and to heed the voice of the Lord.”
(Elder David A. Bednar, “Pray Always,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 43)
“When was the last time you knelt in prayer and asked the Lord to help you not just with your lesson but also to help you know and to meet the needs of each student in your class? No class is so large that we cannot pray for inspiration regarding how to reach each student.”
(Brother David M. McConkie, “Gospel Learning and Teaching,”, Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 15)
Invitation to act
This week, I invite you to pray by name for EACH of your students, especially as you prepare your lesson and just before you meet with them.
Share your thoughts, experiences or questions with other teachers on your stake teacher's WhatsApp group.
If you would like to spend more time on this topic, I invite you to do the proposed exercise by clicking on this button.
