Friday, December 16, 2011

Attributes and Characteristics of Mary & Joseph

I'm giving our xmas lesson in YW on Sunday. Our lesson is about the characteristics/attributes of those involved in the story; begining with Elisabeth and Zacharias. I've done some reading and come across some really interesting talks and articles. The point of the lesson is to help the girls understand the importance of becoming as the Savior. Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, etc. were all undoubtedly prepared to be instruments in God's hand. The YW should be too. We'll also be tying it into a personal progress project the girls have been working on for a few weeks (Divine Nature).

Anyone have any interesting tidbits, thoughts, etc that perhaps I haven't thought of? This was one of the interesting reads I came across this morning:

http://lds.org/ensign/1974/12/mary-and-joseph?lang=eng&query=characteristics+mary+joseph

1 comment:

Mike and Adrianne said...

I was just thinking of all the things Mary had to go through in her life. The other night I was having a bad moment. I told Mike I must have been a very lowly spirit in the pre-existence to have to go through this trial to grow. But then I thought of Mary and I realized how stupid that thought was. Mary obviously was not a lowly spirit or the Lord would not have sent Jesus to her. I thought of the following.
1. Joseph isn't mentioned after the first few chapters and when Jesus dies he tells Peter to take care of Mary. So, I think Joseph was probably dead. Mary had to endure the death of her husband.

2. My New Testament professor at BYU told me that Jesus' brothers were not originally believers. They did not accept him as the Savior until after his death. Mary had to watch her sons not believe Jesus.

3. She must have been shunned for being pregnant out of wedlock--which is probably why she went to Elizabeth's house.

4. I don't know if carpenters were well thought of in their culture. In not, then she probably dealt with the trial of being poor.

5. She had to watch the death of her son.

I don't know the answers to all of these things but I imagine she had a hard, hard life having to watch her son go through what he did.

So, not really what you are looking for but it helped me remember that just because I have to suffer now doesn't mean I'm not loved by God and Mary is an example to me of that.