Come Follow Me

Today members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started the new Sunday schedule of worship and a new curriculum of study. The three-hour block that began in 1980 was shortened to two hours; one hour for sacrament meeting and fifty minutes for Sunday School and other priesthood and auxiliary lessons. The new curriculum titled “Come Follow Me” will be used for all Sunday School, Primary, Young Men and Women classes, as well as priesthood and relief society instruction.

Elder Cook in his October General Conference address that explained the changes were more than shortening the Sunday meeting times, but included four purposes for the changes:

1.     Deepening conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthening faith in Them.

2.     Strengthening individuals and families through home-centered, Church-supported curriculum that contributes to joyful gospel living.

3.     Honoring the Sabbath day, with a focus on the ordinance of the sacrament.

4.     Helping all of Heavenly Father’s children on both sides of the veil through missionary work and receiving ordinances and covenants and blessings of the temple.

As member of The Church we can come closer to the Savior Jesus Christ by improving our individual and family gospel study program and improving our Sabbath worship. The Church’s role in the salvation of its members is more of a supportive role and places the major responsibility on families and individuals.

This week my wife and I continued to have scripture study together by reading the Book of Mormon. For our individual scripture study program, we are now reading the “Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families” lessons. Today when we came home from our Sunday meetings, we discussed what we had learned from our individual study. It was a fun experience to be able to discuss the scriptures we read during the week on our own and the impressions we had received, and I know if we continue to do this each week our testimony and understanding of the scriptures will deepen and our love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will increase.

When the rich young man came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to have eternal life, Jesus to him that he should keep the commandments and then the young man said he had done that all his life. The young man then asked, “what lack I yet?” Jesus told him to sell all he had and then “come, follow me” (Luke 8:22). We have all been given the same invitation to come follow Jesus Christ. We may not have to sell all we have, but we each have something that we consider as precious as the young man’s wealth that we must be willing to “sell”. Are we willing to sell whatever it is that is keeping us from coming closer to the Savior or will we go a way sorrowing because we are not willing to sacrifice our ‘wealth”?

My wife and I are excited about these changes and the opportunity to accept the invitation to come follow our Savior. As we increase our personal and family gospel study it will bring us closer to the Savior and at the same time, we will grow closer as a couple.

Your comments and questions are welcome.