Covenants

Our topic this month in Sunday School is covenants. Today we got into the discussion by first reading Mosiah 18:

 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are^adesirous to come into the ^bfold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
 9 Yea, and are ^awilling to mourn with those that ^bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the ^dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—
 10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being ^abaptised in the ^bname of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a ^ccovenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

We talked about our experiences in High River. I told them how what they were doing when they volunteer there is simply keeping the covenants they made when they were baptised.

"Whoa!"

They really got it. My heart was just burning when we were talking about this. I told them so too. It was a beautiful spirit filled moment.

Then we read the Bible Dictionary.

Sometimes denotes an agreement between persons (1 Sam. 23:18) or nations (1 Sam. 11:1); more often between God and man; but in this latter case it is important to notice that the two parties to the agreement do not stand in the relation of independent and equal contractors. God in His good pleasure fixes the terms, which man accepts. The same word is sometimes rendered “testament.”

We discussed pretty much each sentence (What does latter mean? What are some agreements people make together? What kinds of things do nations agree on?) It got interesting when we got to the last sentence. We tried to figure out how covenants is the same as testament. Finally, Tanner came up with something beautiful. He said, "When you testify you are exclaiming something you believe...and when you make a covenant it's like you're acting on or exclaiming about something you believe."

Another: "Whoa!"

I love teaching these kids. They're brilliant!