Questions and Discussion Ideas for "Giving Our Spirits Control over Our Bodies" by President M. Russell Ballard
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One of my favorite parts in "Giving Our Spirits Control over Our Bodies" by President M. Russell Ballard was the reminder that when we put our physical selves first we are going against our true nature. Get more questions to ponder and discussion ideas for your class or personal study below.
Questions to Ponder
Thanks so much to Laura for providing these questions for us. Sign up to help with questions next General Conference!
In what ways are you thankful for your mother?
How can we express our love for our family members with a full heart?
Give an example of when you were reunited with a friend or family member you had not seen in some time. How did you feel, what did you experience? How does this relate to the Plan of Salvation?
How can we more readily accept the mortal imminent death of God’s plan for us and our loved ones who have passed?
How can we overcome the battle of the natural man that Satan relies on to tempt us?
When has the priesthood helped you, or someone else, overcome Satan’s desires?
How do we keep ourselves spiritually minded daily?
What decisions have you made to keep Satan’s evil temptations out of your life?
What does it mean to “root” ourselves in the gospel?
How do we lose spiritual sight of God’s plan and how can we recover that sight?
Are you cherishing repentance?
You can use this battle coloring page to show the war between our two selves. How can we make our spiritual selves stronger than our carnal selves?
Discussion Ideas
Invite everyone to write down some things from their past week on a piece of paper. When you think over your past week, what comes to your mind? Is it the tasks you accomplished or the moments you spent with your loved ones? If it’s the tasks, how can we focus more on the joyful moments? How do we live with gratitude for each other each day? You can take a few moments to let people go back through their week again and write down the memories of time spent with family.
If you are looking for the talk he mentions by his grandfather, you can find “Struggle for the Soul” here.
Make a quiz (our earthly existence is a test) with multiple choice questions. One answer would appeal to the carnal side while the other would be our spiritual. You can keep it simple and still illustrate how it’s easy to want to give into our physical sides. It sounds really easy and sometimes like no big deal to do the carnal thing, however, many of consequences to those things can be long lasting. For example, unhealthy treats lead to weight gain and health problems. Looking at some inappropriate images once can lead to an addiction. Giving in to physical urges outside the bonds of marriage can lead to emotional distress and pregnancy. Letting Netflix automatically play the next episode can lead to a four hour period on the couch which leads to health problems or ignoring responsibilities. How can we study for this test and have the resolve to make the more spiritually minded choice?
Draw some graves on the board then quote Romans 8:6: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” What things die as we choose the carnal? Invite your class to give a specific example of a carnal choice then see what ends up dying because of that choice. How can we “resurrect” these things back into our lives?
Watch and discuss President Russell M. Nelson’s thoughts about our physical and spiritual selves in God’s Greatest Creation (about 3 minutes).
Get your class discussing family reunions. What do they like about them? What things do they do? How often do they have one? How big are they? Then ask them if you could invite anyone in your family past or present to your reunion, who would it be? If there is someone in our pasts that we hope to see, how can we live so that we can be with them again?
Bring a bridle or something else that helps us control an animal or something else. How does that object help control this? What would happen if you didn’t have it? What helps us bridle our passions or control our carnal desires? You can use this diagram of a bridle from the New Era if you need one.
