Skip to main content

Primary Is First

Primary means "1. first or highest in rank or importance; chief; principal; 2. first in order in any series, sequence, etc; 3. first in time; earliest; primitive." When we think of the Church Primary program, we think it so named because of definitions 2 and 3. But I believe the first definition is most accurate of the Primary program.

Primary children, including those in Nursery, are building the foundation of their testimonies now. The experiences they have at church while young will affect their attitude toward church when they are older. The Nursery manual states,
The purpose of the nursery class is to help children learn the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. The nursery class should help the children increase their understanding of and love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, have positive experiences in a Church setting, and grow in feelings of self-worth.
This statement applies to all ages of Primary. The other Primary manuals also share the goals and purpose for their age groups (preparing for baptism for CTR classes and keeping covenants and preparing for Young Men/Women for Valiant classes). Each stage of Primary is a step leading toward the ultimate goal: the temple.

We Primary leaders and teachers must recognize the absolute importance of our callings. We are teaching the future leaders of the Church. We are guiding future priesthood holders, missionaries, teachers, mothers, and fathers. We have so much influence over these children's growth in the gospel and their testimonies. Let us treat our callings as such, especially Nursery leaders. Nursery is not a daycare, but an optional Sunday school to prepare children for Primary. Once we truly understand the purpose of Primary, we will be able to magnify our callings.

Challenge: Be a better Primary teacher or leader by loving and praying for your children. If you are a parent, support and appreciate the people involved with your children. If you are not associated with Primary in any way, do not belittle those who are.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Mom and I are both grateful for the primary service we just were released from- we went to 3 baptisms in the last two Saturdays for kids of our class. -DAD
February 13, 2012 at 12:42 AM
Anonymous said…
I substituted in our former class on Sunday. I still miss the children and primary.
Mom
March 26, 2012 at 11:39 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pray Always

Last week I shared powerful scriptures to remember when faced with temptation. However, the devil is very powerful as well. We need a lot more tools than just a scripture to defeat him. The most powerful tool available to us is prayer. Brigham Young said, “Prayer keeps a man from sin. Sin keeps a man from prayer.” Prayer keeps a man from sin The Lord admonishes throughout the scriptures to pray always to avoid sin: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38) “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5) “Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation” (D&C 20:33) “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation and lose your reward” (D&C 31:12) “Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in lif...
3 comments
Read more

Music and Heaven

The Sunbeam lesson I taught today was "Music Makes Me Happy." Whether it be instrumental or voice, music can calm fear, brighten sorrow, and dispel anger, and it serves as a way to praise and pray to Heavenly Father. "There is no music in hell," said Brigham Young, "for all good music belongs to heaven." He also said, "If we could hear the music there is in heaven, it would overwhelm us mortals." We may not yet be able to hear heaven's music, but "never, indeed, do we feel so near heaven as when listening to the performance of some grand anthem, in which the angels themselves might fitly take their parts" (John Taylor). Good music and grand anthems take form in Church-related and classical music. "If you do not have a taste for it [classical music], listen to it thoughtfully," counseled President Hinckley. "If you do not like it the first time, listen to it again and keep listening. It will be something like going to ...
2 comments
Read more

Preach by the Spirit

ldsclipart.com I'm a writer, editor, and linguist. The words I choose and how I organize them are very important to me. That is why I prefer expressing myself through writing over any other method. I also enjoy public speaking because sharing my insights is exciting. I prepare my speeches, talks, and lessons in advance so I know exactly what I'm going to say. Church talks I always write out word for word to ensure I don't forget anything and so it's coherent and cohesive. As a teen, I would practice my talks until I practically had them memorized. Due to the increased focus on making the Sabbath a delight and sacrament meeting more spiritually fulfilling, our branch president told us he wanted us to have only an outline for our talks and to lean on the Spirit for guidance. Only once have I ever used just an outline. It was September 2006 in my college ward for a talk about how to prepare for general conference, a topic easy to expound with just notes. Two week...
3 comments
Read more