The Lord wants us to accept ministering from others

To start off the discussion, I think I’d open with a story from Jesus’ life, in Luke 7:36-50. This is the story of the woman who came and anoints Christ’s feet while he dined in the Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee tried to interject when this happened that the woman was a sinner, but Christ let her continue. He didn’t necessarily need his feet anointed, but she needed to do it. Christ appreciated her thought and time.

Some thoughts I had:

Accepting others’ service is a demonstration of humility, that you can’t do everything on your own and that we are interdependent with our fellow humans. When we live in a culture of rugged individualism and self-reliance, refusing others’ service can be a thing of pride for us.

Accepting the service of others is part of living a life of gratitude.

The Church’s lesson suggestion for this topic has some questions already, but here are a few more that could generate conversation:

Have you been the recipient of service you intended to turn away but then ended up needing it?

Have you been hesitant to ask for help from others? What are the barriers to asking for assistance? How can those barriers be removed?

What have you done when others’ forms of ministering or serving doesn’t help you? What if it has caused harm?

I like the addition of the scripture about the body of Christ, “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

This lesson was originally published as Relief Society Lesson Plan: The Lord wants us to accept ministering from others on May 12, 2018.