Teach Your Children About Jesus and Teach Council Meetings

 

Preserving the Voice of the Covenant People in the Rising Generation

By Brother Jan E. Newman

Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency

To build our lives on the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we need to dig deep. We remove anything that is sandy or superfluous in our lives. We keep digging until we find Him. And we teach our children to bind themselves to Him through sacred ordinances and covenants so that when the oppositional storms and floods come, as they surely will, they will have little effect upon them “because of the rock upon which [they] are built.”⁶

This kind of strength doesn’t just happen. It is not passed on to the next generation like a spiritual inheritance. Each person must dig deep to find the rock....

For the rising generation, it’s not enough for faith in Jesus Christ to be “the tradition of their fathers.” They need to own faith in Christ for themselves. As the covenant people of God, how can we instill within the hearts of our children a desire to make and keep covenants with Him?...

We can ensure that the voice of the covenant people is not silent in the ears of the rising generation and that Jesus is not a Sunday-only topic.¹¹

The voice of the covenant people is found in our own words of testimony. It is found in the words of living prophets. And it is preserved powerfully in the scriptures. It is there that our children will come to know Jesus and find answers to their questions. It is there they will learn for themselves the doctrine of Christ. It is there they will find hope. This will prepare them for a lifetime of seeking truth and living on the covenant path....

Daily immersion in the word of God is crucial for spiritual survival, especially in these days of increasing upheaval. As we feast on the words of Christ daily, the words of Christ will tell us how to respond to difficulties we never thought we would face.”...

ward councils are authorized to organize teacher council meetings for parents....

Bishops, if your ward is not currently holding teacher council meetings for parents, work with your Sunday School president and ward council to organize yourselves.