1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26; 2 Samuel 5–7: Lesson 76

Doctrinal Mastery Practice 5

Memorizing Passages and Applying Principles of Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge

Doctrinal mastery helps students build their lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ and His gospel. This lesson can help students memorize the key scripture phrases in doctrinal mastery passages and apply the divine principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge.

Student preparation: Consider inviting students to choose and start memorizing a doctrinal mastery scripture passage. The Doctrinal Mastery app could be a helpful resource. A list of the passages can be found in the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023).

Possible Learning Activities

Doctrinal mastery review: Memorize

You could begin class by helping students see the value of memorizing doctrinal mastery references and key scripture phrases. One way to do this could be by asking the following questions.

• What is the first thing you remember having memorized? Do you still know it?

• Have you ever memorized a scripture? What benefit was there to having it memorized?

• Can you think of times when the Savior recalled scriptures from memory?

If needed, remind students that Jesus Christ quoted scriptures in several circumstances, such as when He was tempted by Satan (see Matthew 4:4, 7, 12), when He was asked difficult questions (see Matthew 9:13; 15:4, 7–9; Mark 10:7–8), and when He taught the Nephites (see 3 Nephi 22; 24–25).

To help students memorize doctrinal mastery references and key scripture phrases, consider doing the following. Or select another memorization activity from “Doctrinal Mastery Review Activities” in the appendix.

Display a list of the doctrinal mastery passages students have studied so far. Invite students to choose a passage that they would like to memorize. Then, invite students to complete the following.

Write the doctrinal mastery reference and key phrase in your journal (preferably in pencil). Then read them out loud to yourself. After reading, erase or cross out one or two words or numbers. Read it out loud again. Repeat this process until you have erased all of the words and numbers. Then see if you can write the reference and key phrase from memory.

If there is enough time, students might repeat the process with another passage.

Learn and apply principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge

It can be helpful for students to have many opportunities to review the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. Reviewing will help students internalize the principles so that they can use them in times of need. Consider reviewing the principles by using one of the suggested review activities under “Doctrinal Mastery Review Activities” in the appendix. Descriptions of the principles are found in paragraphs 5–12 of the “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge” section of the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023).

Provide students with a scenario that helps them address questions about the value of each person as a child of God and the importance of seeing and treating others the way the Savior does. Students have recently learned truths about our divine identity (see Genesis 1:26–27), how the Lord sees us (see 1 Samuel 16:7), and how the Lord’s people should be unified (see Moses 7:18).

You could share the following scenario as it is, or you could adapt it to better meet the needs of your students. Another option is to use the video “Bullying—Stop It (10:22),” found on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Show the video from time code 0:00 to 6:50. Then pause the video and proceed with the lesson activities.

Consider the following scenario:

Joe belongs to a group of friends who are frequently unkind to others at school and on social media. They think what they are doing is just funny and entertaining. One day, Joe happens to see his younger sister being picked on. He can see how hurt his sister is. He worries how the bullying might affect her. Seeing his sister being bullied causes Joe to recognize something he hasn’t seen before. He recognizes how he and his friends make others feel. He feels discouraged and wonders what he should do now.

• What difficult decisions about how he should treat others might Joe consider making? Why might it be hard to make these changes?

To help students apply the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge to the scenario, you could invite them to do the following.

Choose one of the three principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge that you think could be useful to Joe. Complete the activity below that corresponds to the principle you chose.

Examine concepts and questions with an eternal perspective

Make a list of everything you think Heavenly Father would want Joe to know. Think about teachings of scriptures such as Genesis 1:26–27 and 1 Samuel 16:7 that could help him see himself and others more accurately.

Seek further understanding through divinely appointed sources

Make a list of scriptures or general conference talks Joe could study to help him choose to repent and change.

You could go to the General Conference tab in the Gospel Library. Go to “Topics,” and choose a topic that relates to Joe’s situation, such as charity, compassion, example, or repentance. Look through a talk and find a statement that could strengthen or instruct Joe.

If you need help finding a scripture, you could review the doctrinal mastery scripture passages.

Act in faith

To show what Joe could do, create a comic strip with three to six images that illustrates how he could act with faith in Jesus Christ. As part of your comic strip, consider how Joe might use his knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Consider inviting students to share what they studied. Ask students to share the thoughts they have as they listen to their peers.

If you showed the video, you might wish to show the remainder of the video from time code 6:51 to 10:23. You could ask students to look for how the young man benefited from or applied the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge.

If you used the scenario, you could invite students to create the rest of the story in small groups. Invite groups to come up with the following two parts of the story:

• Joe’s response to people he was unkind to

• Joe’s response to his friends

Give students sufficient time to complete the scenario. Then you might invite students to do something today to apply one or more of the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge to a situation that they are facing or will face.

Conclude by sharing your testimony of how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will help the students with personal challenges as they look to Them for direction.

Supplemental Learning Activity

Alternative scenarios

As an alternative to the scenarios in the lesson, you could use a story told by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In the story, a young boy chose to be kind after seeing the hurt his actions had caused a classmate. You could watch the first segment (from 5:21 to 6:05), then have students work through the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. You could then show the second segment (6:05 to 6:56), having students look for how the boy used and benefited from applying any of those principles.

Segment 1

Segment 2

Another option is to use the following scenario. Students could add details using the accompanying questions.

(Insert name) wonders if (he or she) should serve a full-time mission or just focus on sharing the gospel in general.

• Why might this person want to serve a full-time mission?

• Why might they be worried about serving a full-time mission?

Students could use principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge to respond to the individual’s dilemma. The following doctrinal mastery passages could be helpful: Moses 1:39; Abraham 2:9–11; Joshua 24:15.