The Corollary to the Parable of the Bicycle - ATONEMENT

 BYU Education Professor Brad Wilcox told a BYU Education Week audience about his follow up to the Parable of the Bicycle.  When he served as a student ward bishop one of his members, Gary (not his real name) scheduled an appointment to confess his sins.  Bishop Wilcox encouraged him to be as complete as he could and he did.  The Bishop forgave him, used the Parable of the Bicycle to illustrate how the Atonement could work in his life if he continued living sin-free and encouraged him to continue attending church.  He did for several weeks--and suddenly disappeared.  

Bishop Wilcox sought him out at his apartment when the young man confessed that he had, “fallen off the bicycle”-- in fact he’d crashed the bicycle beyond repair.  Bishop Wilcox put his arm around him and calling him by name, taught him about forgiveness--the corollary to the Parable of the Bicycle.  “Gary, Heavenly Father loves you so much.  He knows that sometimes you fall off that bike, maybe even crash it--but the good news is he has warehouses full of bicycles he’s anxious to keep on giving you when you honestly repent.” 

Another of Brad's  excellent talks online video: http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=3882

2 Nephi 25:23 “...it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

TMB

The Parable of the Bicycle - ATONEMENT

In his book Believing Christ, BYU Religion Professor Stephen Robinson tells how he discovered a parable of the atonement.  As a struggling young divinity graduate student in the Boston area, young father he sent his six year old daughter to do chores and save her pennies in a fruit jar when she begged for a new bike.  After several weeks he had come into some money, so he took his daughter to the bike store with her chore change bottle.  She found the bike of her dreams--a pink and white mini bike with colorful streamers.  

Then she read the price tag.  Her face fell when she counted out her chore change.  She only had 61 cents.  With all the love of a tender parent he knelt down and with his arm around her said, “I’ll tell you what. You give me everything you’ve got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours.” He had to drive home very slowly because she would not get off the new bike.  That’s how the atonement works--We do all we can and he makes up the difference. 

2 Nephi 25:23 “...it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7054

JRH

SCRIPTURE STUDY cuts the Static

Immerse yourself in the SCRIPTURES

Scripture Study Drives Away the Junk

To show how studying scripture cuts through the static in life, fill a medium white bowl 3/4 full with water.  Explain to your listeners as you sprinkle pepper on top of the water that little things (Static, Junk etc.) that happen to you; that get in the way of studying the scriptures.  (Before you begin put a few drops of dish detergent on the tip of your finger)  Now, to show you how the scriptures cuts through the distractions of life, my finger represents immersion in the scriptures.  Put your finger into the water.  The surface tension will be broken and the pepper will go to the edge of the bowl. 

Original Idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCw6lAddkhE &feature=related

TMB

Salt & Pepper REPENTANCE & THE ATONEMENT

Salt & Pepper Symbols

To demonstrate how repentance and the atonement works, spread a cup or two of table salt over a colored dinner plate explain that this represents your body and spirit when you are born--pure and clean. Then drop a pinch of pepper in the middle of the salt. Explain to your listeners that the pepper represents sin.  Imagine how long and tedious it would be to remove the pepper like sin from your life by yourself grain by grain.  Take a  plastic spoon like the kind you get from a fast food restaurant and rub it back and forth in your hair or a strip of fur to generate static electricity.   Pass the spoon over the pepper--and most of it will jump up and stick to the spoon. Ask,  “See how quickly the spoon lifted the pepper? This represents the atonement and how the Savior helps us remove sin and it’s influence from our lives, if we obey his commandments and ask him.”

Original idea from Jenny Smith LDS Object Lesson 2:
Atonement / Repentance / Forgiveness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJJHFRzIgU0&feature=related

TMB

Multiple Piercing Earrings: Quick to OBSERVE

On May 10, 2005, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke at  a BYU Devotional about learning to cultivate the spirit of discernment by being quick to observe  (Two great quotes from President Cannon and Richards in detail on the TMB Website with Elder Bednar’s telling of the girl with multiple earrings)  This is the single most requested BYU Devotional on line.  He tells about a young man who was interested in a young woman.  When the prophet invited women of the church to remove multiple pierced earrings and the young man watched.  When she didn’t remove them, but kept them in, the young man lost interest because she was not quick to observe.

Elder Bednar:   "Sister Bednar and I are acquainted with a returned missionary who had dated a special young woman for a period of time. This young man cared for the young woman very much, and he was desirous of making his relationship with her more serious. He was considering and hoping for engagement and marriage. Now this relationship was developing during the time that President Hinckley counseled the Relief Society sisters and young women of the Church to wear only one earring in each ear.

"The young man waited patiently over a period of time for the young woman to remove her extra earrings, but she did not take them out. This was a valuable piece of information for this young man, and he felt unsettled about her nonresponsiveness to a prophet’s pleading. For this and other reasons, he ultimately stopped dating the young woman, because he was looking for an eternal companion who had the courage to promptly and quietly obey the counsel of the prophet in all things and at all times. The young man was quick to observe that the young woman was not quick to observe. 

"Now before I continue, I presume that some of you might have difficulty with my last example. In fact, this particular illustration of the young man being quick to observe may even fan the flames of controversy on campus, resulting in letters of disagreement to the Daily Universe! You may believe the young man was too judgmental or that basing an eternally important decision, even in part, upon such a supposedly minor issue is silly or fanatical. Perhaps you are bothered because the example focuses upon a young woman who failed to respond to prophetic counsel instead of upon a young man. I simply invite you to consider and ponder the power of being quick to observe and what was actually observed in the case I just described. The issue was not earrings!

Why the Spiritual Gift of Being Quick to Observe Is So Vital Today

"Let me now address the question of why the spiritual gift of being quick to observe is so vital for us in the world in which we do now and will yet live. Simply stated, being quick to observe is an antecedent to and is linked with the spiritual gift of discernment. And for you and for me, discernment is a light of protection and direction in a world that grows increasingly dark.

"Much like faith precedes the miracle, much like baptism by water comes before the baptism by fire, much like gospel milk should be digested before gospel meat, much like clean hands can lead to a pure heart, and much like the ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood are necessary before a person can receive the higher ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood, so being quick to observe is a prerequisite to and a preparation for the gift of discernment. We can only hope to obtain that supernal gift of discernment and its light of protection and direction if we are quick to observe—if we both look and obey.

"President George Q. Cannon, who served as a counselor to four presidents of the Church, taught powerfully about the gift of discernment:


One of the gifts of the Gospel which the Lord has promised to those who enter into covenant with Him is the gift of discerning of spirits—a gift which is not much thought of by many and probably seldom prayed for; yet it is a gift that is of exceeding value and one that should be enjoyed by every Latter-day Saint. . . .
 
Now, the gift of discerning of spirits not only gives men and women who have it the power to discern the spirit with which others may be possessed or influenced, but it gives them the power to discern the spirit which influences themselves. They are able to detect a false spirit and also to know when the Spirit of God reigns within them. In private life this gift is of great importance to the Latter-day Saints. Possessing and exercising this gift they will not allow any evil influence to enter into their hearts or to prompt them in their thoughts, their words or their acts. They will repel it; and if perchance such a spirit should get possession of them, as soon as they witness its effects they will expel it or, in other words, refuse to be led or prompted by it. [Gospel Truth: Discourses and Writings of President George Q. Cannon, comp. Jerreld L. Newquist (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1974), 1:198–99]


"Can we recognize how crucial this spiritual gift is in our lives today and how being quick to observe is a powerful invitation for the blessings of discernment?

"President Stephen L Richards, who served as a counselor to President David O. McKay, has provided additional instruction about the nature and blessings of discernment:


First, I mention the gift of discernment, embodying the power to discriminate . . . between right and wrong. I believe that this gift when highly developed arises largely out of an acute sensitivity to impressions—spiritual impressions, if you will—to read under the surface as it were, to detect hidden evil, and more importantly to find the good that may be concealed. The highest type of discernment is that which perceives in others and uncovers for them their better natures, the good inherent within them. . . .
 
. . . Every member in the restored Church of Christ could have this gift if he willed to do so. He could not be deceived with the sophistries of the world. He could not be led astray by pseudo-prophets and subversive cults. Even the inexperienced would recognize false teachings, in a measure at least. . . . We ought to be grateful every day of our lives for this sense which keeps alive a conscience which constantly alerts us to the dangers inherent in wrongdoers and sin. [CR, April 1950, 162–63; emphasis added]


"As we integrate the teachings of Presidents Cannon and Richards, we learn that the gift of discernment operates basically in four major ways.

"First, as we “read under the surface,” discernment helps us detect hidden error and evil in others.

"Second, and more important, it helps us detect hidden errors and evil in ourselves. Thus the spiritual gift of discernment is not exclusively about discerning other people and situations, but, as President Cannon taught, it is also about discerning things as they really are within us.

"Third, it helps us find and bring forth the good that may be concealed in others.

"And fourth, it helps us find and bring forth the good that may be concealed in us. Oh, what a blessing and a source of protection and direction is the spiritual gift of discernment!

 http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=8883

TMB