Loosening the tongues...

In Third Nephi 26 we learn an important principle of teaching; I'll call it the principle of loosening the tongues. Christ had been teaching the people and breaking bread with them, and then we get verse 14: And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter.

On this page (457 in the Book of Mormon) I have written from sometime in my seminary teaching training "I will seek to be like the Savior by loosening the tongues of the students/people I teach."

In class a few days ago I was briefly introducing some of the scripture mastery references for the New Testament and trying to help the students get an understanding of what those passages mean. We were discussing Matthew 25:40 and how when we've done service for someone, it's as if we'd done it for the Savior. Then, we turned to the flipside and started talking about what if we do something bad to someone... It's hard to think that our unkind words, or unkind actions that we commit against others are really being committed against the Savior. I tried to explain how everyone is a child of God and if we hurt someone we're hurting God, because that's his child. A young lady with dark brown, super curly hair looked up and said, "Yeah, because Christ suffered for all of our pains and sorrows and afflictions, so when we cause pain to others we really are doing it to Christ."

I was blown away. What she had revealed was much greater than what I had revealed or could have revealed. I had never seen that scripture so literally before.

I am so grateful for what I learned that day and for the Spirit enlightening the mind of a student and loosening her tongue to speak of such wonderful things.