VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE for July
Demonstrating Our Discipleship
through Love and Service
Prayerfully study this
material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the
questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an
active part of your own life.
Throughout His mortal life, Jesus Christ showed His love for
others by ministering to them. He said,
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another” (John 13:35). He set the example and wants us to “succor
those that stand in need of [our] succor” (Mosiah 4:16). He calls His disciples to work with
Him in His ministry, giving them the opportunity to serve others and become
more like Him.1
Our service as visiting teachers will closely resemble the
ministry of our Savior when we show our love for those we visit teach by doing
the following:2
·
• Remember their names and the names of their family members
and become acquainted with them.
·
• Love them without judging them.
·
• Watch over them and strengthen their faith “one by one,” as
the Savior did (3 Nephi 11:15).
·
• Establish sincere friendships with them and visit them in
their homes and elsewhere.
·
• Care about each sister. Remember birthdays, graduations,
weddings, baptisms, or other times that are meaningful to her.
·
• Reach out to new and less-active members.
·
• Reach out to the lonely or those in need of comfort.
From the
Scriptures
From Our
History
“The New Testament includes accounts of women, named and unnamed,
who exercised faith in Jesus Christ. … These women became exemplary disciples.
… [They] journeyed with Jesus and His Twelve Apostles. They gave of their
substance to assist in His ministry. After His death and Resurrection, [they]
continued to be faithful disciples.”3
Paul wrote of a woman named Phebe, who was “a servant of the
church” (Romans 16:1). He asked the people to “assist her
in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of
many” (Romans 16:2). “The kind of service rendered by
Phebe and other great women of the New Testament continues today with members
of the Relief Society—leaders, visiting teachers, mothers, and others—who act
as succorers, or helpers, of many.”4
For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.
What Can I
Do?
1. How am I
increasing my ability to nurture others?
2. What am I doing
to ensure that the sisters I watch over know that I love them?
Notes
1. See Daughters
in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 105.
2. See Handbook
2: Administering the Church (2010), 3.2.3.
3. Daughters
in My Kingdom, 3.
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