My Priesthood lesson: Taylor Swift and our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

Note: I like Taylor Swift, so I used her for my lesson. You can replace her with literately any artist you like, the concept will stay the same.

Having only four Sundays left in my current YSA Ward, my Elder's Quorum President decided to take advantage of Fast Sunday, normally reserved for himself to teach the quorum, and asked me to teach instead. So while the lesson I taught, what was said and where I went with it is still fresh in my head, I will transcribe my lesson below.

I started out by informing the quorum that I was going to embarrass myself to introduce the lesson. I mentioned how those who were in attendance to our ward's talent variety show a few weeks ago might remember my performance of signing to the song "Shake it Off" by Taylor Swift.

Well, with that shell opened I am more willing to talk about my celebrity crush. Now, for some strange reason my parents have never seemed to like giving me music from Taylor Swift or posters or anything. They would give me Kelly Clarkson music, and Lindsey Stirling music, even Linkin Park and Greenday, but no Taylor Swift.
(Thank you parents, I love you! Just using this silly coincidence for my example :) )

So after serving a Mission, I got myself an Amazon account and I bought a Taylor swift dvd/cd! It was her Speak Now World Tour Live performance captured in both audio and video. How awesome to see my celebrity crush perform in a live concert! How I wish I were there in person, to see her perform in front of my eyes would be amazing. Yet... as I think about it, if I were realistically there, chances are I'd be near the back or middle, but not up front as that would be so expensive likely that I would be broke afterward. So here I am at her concert, it's awesome! But... I can barley see her! She's so tiny up there on the stage, and I'm filled everywhere with tons of people. No way I'm getting any closer.

So with this random story setup, let's see how this relates to the gospel (and I promise it does!). I had four people open up Preach My Gospel and read out the following (highlighted) from their respected locations:

Lesson 1: The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

God Is Our Loving Heavenly Father

God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. He has a body of flesh and bone that is glorified and perfected. He loves us. He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoices when we do what is right. He wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer.

Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation

Pre-Earth Life: God’s Purpose and Plan for Us

Many people wonder, “Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?” The plan of salvation gives us the answers to these questions.

God is the Father of our spirits. We are literally His children, and He loves us. We lived as spirit children of our Father in Heaven before we were born on this earth. We were not, however, like our Heavenly Father, nor could we ever become like Him and enjoy all the blessings that He enjoys without the experience of living in mortality with a physical body.

Lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Through Christ We Can Be Cleansed from Sin

God sent His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, into the world so that all of God’s children would have the possibility of returning to live in His presence after they die. Only through the Savior’s grace and mercy can we become clean from sin so that we can live in our Heavenly Father’s presence. Becoming clean from sin is being healed spiritually (see 3 Nephi 9:13; 18:32).

Chapter 6: How Do I Develop Christlike Attributes?

Faith in Jesus Christ

When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father in the Flesh. You accept Him as your Savior and Redeemer and follow His teachings. You believe that your sins can be forgiven through His Atonement. Faith in Him means that you trust Him and are confident that He loves you.

I had each brethern re-read portions of their quotes.

• God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children.
• God is the Father of our spirits. We are literally His children, and He loves us.
• Only through the Savior’s grace and mercy can we become clean from sin so that we can live in our Heavenly Father’s presence.
• Faith in Him means that you trust Him and are confident that He loves you.

Then I asked what connections were made with these statements. Comments were made about God being our Father, Christ being our Brother and the love they both have for us. I then had someone read Moses 7:28-29. The background is that Enoch the Prophet was being shown a vision of everyone God has ever made, including His children. Enoch had just literately seen everything, when this occurred:

28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?

 29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?

I then asked, how can Heavenly Father, creator of all things and perfect, look at us and... cry? Why?

Conversation then went about the quorum how God respects our free agency, punishes us but doesn't like it, and how we need to utilize the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Very good comments were made and unfortunately there's no way I can remember all of them in great detail.

But after a few more comments, I concluded the lesson with one final scripture and comparison. I had someone look up 3rd Nephi 11:15 and then I went back to my Taylor Swift analogy. Imagine that concert, every time you see her come closer (if you get lucky and have a spot near the stage) you reach your hand out, hoping for her to touch your hand even for a second. Just any kind of physical contact. Anything. It just seems... hopeless.

But in 3rd Nephi 11, Christ is resurrected and has just made His introductory appearance to the Americas. Everyone is shocked and then this happens:

 15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.

The keyword is "one by one" and "all gone forth". Not just the lucky few near Him. Not those who paid tons of money to get a gimps. Every. Single. Person. There. He wanted us to see Him, to touch His side, hands and feet and know of His love for us. Now look at us here today. We weren't there back then. But we are here now, and God and Jesus Christ both live. They are real people who want to communicate with us, they have their hands stretched out right now, waiting patiently and lovingly. We just need to put forth our effort and grab on. If we have a grip, hold on tight. If not yet, repent, talk to the Bishop if you need to. It isn't worth being damned to hell when you can be saved by Jesus Christ and live with God again.

I shared my testimony of the truths of these things. Then my lesson closed.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and perhaps got something from it. Maybe the Taylor Swift example was pushing it, but it was how I could relate and I got a lot of chuckles and laughs from the quorum members. I think they got the message and I hope that they and anyone who reads this, can learn something from the spirit.