#38 "In Mine Own Way"

D&C 38:30; 42:30-31; 42; 58:26-28; 104:13-18; Our Heritage p 109-114

*Hand out a piece of paper and pencil on one half of a paper at the top write physical survival skills on the top of the other side write spiritual survival skills. Have class members think of either a job loss situation or a catastrophe such as an earthquake. If one of these happened in your life what survival skills do you have that might get you through those times. I wrote : fishing, hunting, some plant knowledge, cook with dutch ovens, gather wood & start a fire, hard worker, willing to do most anything, could work with kids, could work in a hospital, etc.
One the other side, write some of the survival skills you’ve acquired through a spiritual crisis, whether you were once rebellious in nature against the church, or you just felt distant from the Lord and learned for yourself how to feel the spirit. I put: testimony of the plan of Salvation, prayer, learning to recognize the spirit, faith in Lord’s plan for me, finding humor in life, learning how to figure out the Lord’s will. Etc.

Look at of all these skills acquired, when did you acquire them? When life was going good? Not so good?
Having these skills represent a celestial principle do you know what it is? It is called SELF-RELIANCE. We acquire survival skills as we experience good and not so great times.

Not long after the depression the prophet realized that people were overwhelmed with sorrow and depression because they had lost their jobs, their security, and their spirits. They realized that the people had based their happiness on worldly aspects rather than on the things they gained from working.

In the church handbook (book 2: priesthood auxiliary leaders (1998), 257) it states, “To become self-reliant, a person must work. Work is physical, mental, or spiritual effort. It is a basic source of happiness, self-worth, and prosperity. Through work, people accomplish many good things in their lives”.

With the idea that the people needed to get back to the basics; working being a spiritual aspect as well as a physical one, they started the welfare program.

President Grant was the one to head this up. As always the Lord’s prophets are called exactly when they are supposed to be. In Our Heritage p. 108 it describes Pres. Grant as being: “a wise and successful businessman whose skills helped him lead the church through a worldwide financial depression and the personal problems that resulted from it. He firmly believed in being self-reliant and in depending on the Lord and his own hard work, not on the government. He blessed many needy people with the money he earned.”

To continue on p. 109 “President Grant established the welfare program of the church to assist those in need and help all members become self-reliant. The First Presidency said of this program: “our primary purpose was to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system, under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our church membership.”

How does the welfare system help us reestablish those things? (Independence, industry, thrift and self respect)
D&C 58:27-28 gives us the basic principle behind this idea. If we are anxiously engaged in a good cause (supporting our family, building the kingdom of God and becoming self-reliant) and do many things of their own free will and bring righteousness to pass. We then become agents unto ourselves, doing good.
I looked up agents in the TG it says see also Initiative. If we are to be agents we must take initiative.

So let’s discuss the Welfare program for a minute.
The welfare program helps who?
All people worldwide-we have heard and seen how when there is a physical catastrophe that food, water, clothing, medical supplies are all sent.
Of all the giving and receiving who benefits and why? Both the giver and receiver benefit. The receiver, because their physical needs are taken care of and at the same time as they are spiritually reminded that the Lord is mindful of them.
The giver because they are humbled, they are being reminded of the Lord’s goodness and the abundance they have been blessed with, and they are spiritually connected to fellow men and can feel connected to a bigger cause than themselves and their own situation.

There was an article in the ensign that I related with and felt that the way she voiced things made me really think about my own life. Learning from her experience can help us answer more questions on welfare.

Oct. 2009 P66-68 this lady told of her and her husband’s experience: being out of a job. Of course her original feelings were: “No we don’t need help, we will get by” “Before we had always been on the giving end, paying fast offerings and serving n the bishop’s storehouse when asked. But we cannot always expect life to be as we want it. HER NEW ATTITUDE-We found ourselves on the receiving end, blessed by the sacrifices and offerings of others. Now we are back on our feet and self-reliant again, but with a difference. We recognize more than ever before how dependent we are on the Lord and on one another. We have a greater appreciation for the Lord’s welfare system. And My heart was full of gratitude.”

I think we can all relate with this lady one way or another but it is how she got to this point that got me reflecting on my own attitude.

When her husband 1st lost his job they worked hard to take care of their problems themselves, which is just how it should be up to a point, we should ask for the Lord’s help 1st instead of struggling through ourselves. 2nd-go to work, doing all they could then going to the church. They were eventually out of work for so long they were forced to go to the church for help. They fought it with everything they had-this is called? Pride
As with pride it tends to bring us to our downfall-just as satan likes it. As with most good people who choose righteousness, this lady went to the temple seeking comfort, what she received was a weird thought, one she wasn’t seeking. While she was there “considering the weight of her concerns” she felt the impression that she would be the next primary president. Here was the thought that came because of the pride she was experiencing. “My husband is out of work and we have no money. How can I be Primary President?” “The truth is, I felt that because we needed assistance, we had somehow become of less value in the kingdom. Have you ever thought that before? That because we struggle with worldly things we can’t function spiritually, man satan knows how to work us doesn’t he? She claims that her heart softened and she became teachable.
She became teachable because she fought that pride and conquered it; she gave into the spirit and truly listened!
Her next thought is what really got me thinking. She learned “My husband’s lack of work did not define us. Our service in the kingdom of God was of value. I needed to go forward in faith. I looked at my strengths and weaknesses and made a resolve to improve.” It got me thinking because I’ve fallen into that type pity party myself before.

Look again at your physical and spiritual strengths. Where can you improve? What can you do to conquer satan’s influence in your life today.

What is the object behind the welfare program? We take care of some physical needs so that we can work on getting our spiritual lives in order. The Lord is trying to teach us that losing jobs and experiencing destruction through earthquakes are the tactics satan uses to distract us from the important things: spiritual growth. Yes, the Lord uses earthquakes to bring us to Him too, but what we do in those situations is what strengthens or weakens us He lets us be agents and take our own initiative one way or the other.

The Lord’s welfare program is not just for people on the receiving end! The welfare encompasses the giver and the receiver, it teaches both to be self-reliant, being self-reliant doesn’t mean just taking care of yourself, it means giving to others as well, bringing yourselves to the point where you can give to others as you are blessed, which takes care of the spiritual aspect of self-reliance.

This brings us to stewardship: D&C 72:3-5 we will be giving an accounting to the Lord of the way we used our agency and the welfare system here on earth (time and in eternity) are we becoming self-reliant? Are we using the welfare system to improve our physical as well as our spiritual survival skills? When we stand before the Lord and he asks us how we used the welfare system to build up our physical and spiritual skills; and we say, “Well I bought a 120” plasma screen TV on credit when I was doing great financially and then asked the bishop to give my family food when I wasn’t.” I wonder how ashamed we will be. On the other hand what if we can say well I did buy a 52” plasma screen TV. with cash while I was doing well, and I donated the same amount to my fast offerings, and I also built up my savings just in case I had a rough time; I think we would feel much better about our accounting don’t you?

Now in my own life I have been on both the receiving and the giving end of the welfare program, I too like the giving more than I like the receiving, but I have come to know that it was through the receiving end that I was humbled enough to come to the Lord. It was through the receiving end that I gained many of my spiritual survival skills. Perhaps for you it was the opposite, and that is good too. The one thing I got out of this lesson, that I have a greater testimony of is that the welfare program is for all of us on both ends of the spectrum whether you find yourself the giver or the receiver you should be recognizing and developing all your survival skills. This I know will bring us closer to the Lord in every aspect in the name of Jesus Christ amen.