My 12 year old daughter wrote (with very little help from me) and gave her first talk at church this week. I asked her permission to post it her and she was excited for me to do so. I have altered it just a little bit to remove a name, but otherwise it is exactly what she shared.
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Trying to Be Like Jesus
"On Easter Sunday, my uncle and grandparents came over to
visit. I received a phone call while they
were there and was asked if I would give a talk.
I was not thinking what I had gotten myself into. Just in case it is not obvious, I have stage
fright. Anyway, after I was
asked me to speak, I mistakenly shared with my uncle what my talk was
about. I am going to be speaking about
How to Be Like Jesus. My uncle’s
suggestions were to buy a purple robe and a long wig, ride in on a donkey, oh
yea, and be an only child. Coming from a
house of 5 kids, I thought, well, it’s kind of late for that. Plus, I am certain that he was
not looking for ways that we can physically be like Jesus.
When I think of how I can be like Jesus, I think of the Primary
Song, “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus.” I
am going to read you the lyrics to the song, since it basically summarizes my talk
for me. The song starts by saying, “I’m trying to be like Jesus; I’m following
in his ways. I’m trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.” This basically says that we should make sure
that everything we say and all of our actions are things that are not hurtful
to others. The song continues, “At times
I am tempted to make a wrong choice, But I try to listen as the still small
voice whispers,” As we know, even Jesus
was tempted, but he still chose to do the things Heavenly Father wanted him to
do. We have the Holy Spirit to help
guide us when we are tempted. We just
need to make sure that we are listening for it.
The chorus then says, “Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and in
thought. For these are the things Jesus
taught.” This tells us, just like the
scripture in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another,” that we must love everyone in the same way
that Jesus loved us. That means loving
them with no expectations of getting something in return. It also means not judging others. Jesus did not say, “I don’t want to die for
their sins. It is their own fault that
they do not have eternal life.” No,
instead, he hung on the cross and died for all of our sins. The chorus also says to “be gentle and loving
in deed and in thought.” This means that
we need to think good things about others as well. My mom once was struggling with having bad
feelings towards someone. She finally
decided that she was going to do one nice deed for that person every time she
had a bad thought about them. She was
really upset with this person, so she really didn’t want to give any extra
service to them. She ended up putting
together a gift basket for the person with one thing for each negative thought
she’d had. She also threw in a few
extras for the thoughts that would come.
As she was putting together the gift basket, she began to feel love for
this person again and eventually stopped having negative thoughts about them on
a regular basis.
There is another verse to the song, but I am going to leave
that for another time. To be like Jesus,
we need to strive to always do good and think well of others, to serve
everyone, regardless of how we may feel about them, and to do our best to
overcome any temptations we may face. In
the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Although she was nervous, Chloe did a great job writing and delivering her talk and I could not be any prouder of her.
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