Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86: Lesson 106

Doctrinal Mastery Practice 7

Memorizing Key Phrases and Applying Principles of Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge

Doctrinal mastery can help students build the foundation for their lives upon 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: Invite students to review the list of Old Testament Doctrinal Mastery passages and key scripture phrases available in Gospel Library. Students could pick one passage and key scripture phrase from the list. Invite students to spend a few minutes memorizing their selected passage and key scripture phrase. They could use the doctrinal mastery mobile app as a tool to help them memorize.

Possible Learning Activities

Doctrinal mastery review: Memorize

To help students memorize doctrinal mastery passages and key scripture phrases from the Old Testament, you could place them in groups of four. Give each student four small pieces of paper stapled together. Explain that students will rotate their stack of papers within their group. As part of this activity, students will draw images. Remind them to not represent deity in their drawings.

You could display the following instructions one at a time as students complete each activity. (For steps 1 and 3, give students one minute to complete. For steps 2 and 4, give them 30 seconds to complete.)

1. Without sharing it with your group, select a key scripture phrase from a doctrinal mastery reference. On your first piece of paper, draw a simple image that illustrates the key scripture phrase.

2. Rotate papers clockwise within groups. Look at the picture on the first page. On the second page, write the doctrinal mastery reference you think connects with the picture.

3. Rotate papers clockwise. Without looking at the drawing on the first page, read the doctrinal mastery reference on the second page. On the third piece of paper, draw a simple image that illustrates the key scripture phrase.

4. Rotate papers clockwise. Without looking at the reference on the second page, look at the picture on the third page. On the fourth page, write the doctrinal mastery reference you think connects with the picture.

Instruct students to return the papers to the original person. Invite each person to share the drawings and guesses on their papers with their groups. Each student could share the original key scripture phrase they selected.

With their group, invite students to recite aloud the doctrinal mastery passages and key phrases used in this activity. They could repeat them a couple of times.

If time permits, consider repeating the drawing activity with different key scripture phrases. Ensure that students have sufficient time (25–30 minutes) to do the activities in the “Learn and apply principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge” section below.

Learn and apply principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge

Help students review the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. Suggested review activities are included in the section of the appendix titled “Doctrinal Mastery Review Activities.” This review does not need to take a lot of time, but students need regular reviews of these principles to be able to use them in their own lives. Descriptions of the principles are found in paragraphs 5–12 of the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023). After the review, have students practice using these principles with the following scenario.

After a recent Sunday school lesson about the importance of going to the temple, Paul realizes he hasn’t been to the temple for a long time. Because of some mistakes he has made, he doesn’t feel worthy to enter the Lord’s house. Paul thinks to himself, “God wouldn’t want me in His temple because of what I have done.”

• How do you think the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge could help someone who feels the way Paul does?

Encourage students to demonstrate how each of the principles could help Paul. The remainder of this lesson content focuses on helping students examine questions from an eternal perspective. If you feel students could use more practice on the other principles, adapt this content to better meet your students’ needs.

One way we can examine questions from an eternal perspective is to reframe questions (or see them differently) based on what the Lord has taught (see paragraphs 8–9 of the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document [2023]).

In addition to pointing students to the Core Document, you could also point students to “God’s plan of salvation provides perspective,” found in the section “Center Your Life on Jesus Christ” in “Seek Answers to Your Questions” in Topics and Questions in Gospel Library. To model what students could do with Paul’s question, you could show “Examining Questions with an Eternal Perspective” (2:56), available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Consider drawing an image of a frame on the board. Write Paul’s concern in the middle of the frame. Students could list answers to the following questions around the frame.

• What assumptions might Paul be making about Heavenly Father, His plan, and how He treats His children? What assumptions might Paul be making about himself?

  Possible answers students may find include “God doesn’t love me,” “the temple is only for those who are perfect,” and “my mistakes define who I am.”

• How could these assumptions impact Paul’s relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

Erase the assumptions and draw a new frame on the board. Students could then practice reframing Paul’s concern. Invite students to write truths and doctrinal mastery passage references on the board around the new frame.

• What truths about Heavenly Father’s plan or from the Savior’s teachings could help Paul reframe his concern or see it from God’s perspective?

• What doctrinal mastery scripture passages might you share with Paul? Why?

Possible student answers include:

• We need to be worthy to enter the temple (see Psalm 24:3–4).

• The Lord can cleanse us of our sins and make us worthy (see Isaiah 1:18; 53:3–5).

• We are defined by our identity as children of God (see Genesis 1:26–27), not by our sins and mistakes.

Consider sharing the statement from Elder Quentin L. Cook in Additional Resources.

To help students reflect on what they have learned, invite them to do the following.

Using what you have learned and felt today, write a response to Paul that would help him view his question through the eternal perspective of Heavenly Father’s plan and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Invite willing students to share their response with the class. As students hear from others, invite them to imagine how Paul might feel as he hears these responses.

If an experience comes to mind, you might want to share how the principle of examining concepts and questions with an eternal perspective has helped you resolve questions or concerns.

Additional Resources

How can I become worthy of a temple recommend?

Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared:

It is our great desire that members of the Church will live to be worthy of a temple recommend. Please don’t see the temple as some distant and perhaps unachievable goal. Working with their bishop, most members can achieve all righteous requirements in a relatively short period of time if they have a determination to qualify and fully repent of transgressions. This includes being willing to forgive ourselves and not focus on our imperfections or sins as disqualifying us from ever entering a sacred temple. (“See Yourself in the Temple,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2016, 98)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternate scenario

Help students practice with a scenario that relates to temple worthiness or the importance of making the temple a part of our lives. The following scenario is another way you could do this. Create details for the scenario that you feel are applicable to your students’ situation.

Anna’s Young Women class will be attending the House of the Lord this week. Anna is very busy and hasn’t made attending the temple a priority. When she hears the day and time her class is meeting, she thinks, “If I go to this temple activity, I won’t have time to do all the things I need to get done.”

You could provide this scenario, and the one in the lesson, to students and invite them to choose one to respond to.