When I taught sixth grade, our principal expected each teacher to submit rough lesson plans for the week every single Monday morning.
It wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but I did it.
As I did it, I actually started to enjoy having my week completely planned out in advance. I could still totally change things around if I needed, but at least starting with structure was really helpful.
About halfway through the year, I was talking to one of my good coworkers about submitting my lessons plans.
She said, “Oh, I’ve never done that since the first week of school! And Mr. ___ has never said a single thing to me! So there’s no way that I’m doing that extra work.”
I learned that our principal was not “compelling” us to complete his request for lesson plans.
(I’m not necessarily suggesting this as a common leadership tactic, by the way haha.)
But what I learned was that I was staying more organized as a teacher because I was choosing to follow through on his request.
Even after learning there were virtually no consequences for not following through on the assignment to submit lesson plans, I continued to do so because I now saw the value in it.
And I think that’s part of the message in Ch 42 that Alma was teaching Corianton about how God will not compel us to choose righteousness.
We’ve been given commandments and scriptures.
But if we don’t follow through on these requests from our Father, He doesn’t immediately strike us down or call us to the principal’s office.
There doesn’t seem to really be a consequence, because we are not being compelled to do anything.
But really, the consequences are just a lot more natural and nuanced than we might expect.
My coworker wasn’t prepared for the week ahead of time, inviting more chaos into her week.
It didn’t look like there was a consequence, but there was.
And if we don’t do what God has asked, we just naturally don’t get to learn more about our loving Savior and Heavenly Parents.
Which means, in the next life, we won’t be with Them as much, either.
It doesn’t look like there are consequences for not keeping the commandments, but there are.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
2 Responses
Your insights are delightful. I have also been a teacher, so I get lesson plans- yes I turned them in too. Sometimes I was more diligent and faithful at keeping them… and sometimes not.
I’ve always said that having commandments are my favorite thing because then, I know exactly what I need to do. It’s my choice. Just like following the lesson plans. It makes things get done so much more efficiently and gives me purpose in all my actions.
Great insights! Thanks for all the time and energy you put in to sharing your insights!
Perfectly put! It helps give us that framework to live our lives by. Thank you for reading along!