Lesson 38 - "In Mine Own Way"

The reading assignment for this week is 38:30; 42:30-31, 42; 58:26-28; 104:13-18.

These are many of the same scriptures used to learn about the Law of Consecration. If you remember when we talked about consecration here, as the Lord established the Law of Consecration it was to take care of everyone--physically and spiritually. The Lord kept reminding the Saints, "thou wilt remember the poor" (42:30).

Section 58 encourages us to be "wise" and "anxiously engaged," not to "be slothful servants" (58:26-28). If we are agents unto ourselves, we act. We do good of our accord, we don't always have to be commanded. As my dad reminded me as I left on my mission, "anxiously engaged"--not just anxious. Perhaps remember what the Lord does with the lukewarm? (Revelation 3:16)

The welfare program of the church is an example of grassroots efforts that brought about change for the whole of the church.
In December 1930, Harold B. Lee was called as stake president to the Pioneer Stake in Salt Lake City. He and his two counselors, Charles Hyde and Paul Child, began their tenure in the midst of the destruction of the Great Depression and saw great deprivation in their stake. They immediately went to work to meet the needs of their stake. They asked the presiding bishopric if they could change the regular path of tithing and fast offerings from their stake. Rather than sending the moneys to the general church fund, they asked to keep the funds within the stake to create a resource for bishops to help those in need. They created employment services, gave work to those without, better utilized farmer's excess crops, and in the process created a patters for what would eventually become the church wide welfare program. (Out of laziness, this was me quoting myself. For the source and an opportunity to look at the other historical examples of LDS grassroots efforts read this.)
Read Paul Child's first-person account of the "Physical Beginnings of the Church Welfare Program" here. Read Leonard Arrington and Wayne Hinton's history of the "Origin of the Welfare Plan" article here.

Even though this is last, don't miss Steve Harper's important explanation of the allusion from 104:18 here.