Lesson 10: Helping Others Become More Self-reliant

Objective

Welfare committee members and welfare specialists will be better able to help others to become more self-reliant.

Materials for This Lesson

A copy of the Needs and Resources Analysis: Self-Reliance Plan (Form 32290) for each paticipant. Use the link provided to download a copy.

Statement from the Church Handbook of Instructions

Invite a participant to read the following statement:

“When Church members are doing all they can to provide for themselves but still cannot meet their basic needs, they should first turn to their [extended] families for help. When this is not sufficient, the Church stands ready to help” (Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2: Priesthood and Auxiliary Leaders [1998], 256).

Scripture

Invite a participant to read the following scripture, and discuss how self-reliance brings joy:

“But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:4–5).

Key Points

Help participants understand the following points, and discuss them as needed:

1. Members have the primary responsibility for their own spiritual, material, and social well-being. President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “No true Latter-day Saint, while physically or emotionally able will voluntarily shift the burden of his own or his family’s well-being to someone else. So long as he can, under the inspiration of the Lord and with his own labors, he will supply himself and his family with the spiritual and temporal necessities of life” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1977, 124; or Ensign, Nov. 1977, 77–78).

2. When helping members in need, we should not remove the responsibility they have to solve their own problems. Elder Marvin J. Ashton gave this counsel to those who would help others: “One who really understands and practices empathy doesn’t solve another’s problems, doesn’t argue, doesn’t top his story, make accusations, or take away [his] agency. He merely helps the person build his self-reliance and self-image so he can try to find his own solutions” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1981, 128–29; or Ensign, Nov. 1981, 91).

3. Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught: “The [individual] growth required by the gospel plan occurs only in a culture of individual effort and responsibility. It cannot occur in a culture of dependency. Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or resources we could provide for ourselves weakens us spiritually and retards our growth toward what the gospel plan intends us to be” (in Conference Report, Oct. 2003, 42; or Ensign, Nov. 2003, 40).

4. “The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be reenthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership” (First Presidency, in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, 3).

5. The bishop or stake president can call a variety of welfare specialists to the ward or stake welfare committee in helping members achieve self-reliance (see Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, 259–260).

Ask participants how they or the welfare specialists in their ward or stake have helped members achieve self-reliance. (Remind them not to disclose confidential information.)

6. The bishop can use the Needs and Resources Analysis: Self-Reliance Plan form to help needy members begin making plans that lead to self-reliance. Distribute copies of the form and briefly review and explain it with the group.

7. Self-reliance is a process that includes these steps:

• Identify current circumstances.

• Choose a goal.

• Make a plan to reach it.

• Identify available resources.

• Follow the plan.

When someone is not self-reliant, it is important to help them identify their present circumstances and reasons that exist before they set a goal, otherwise they may not set the most appropriate goal.

Ask participants: How can leaders help needy members make plans for self-reliance? How can they help members carry out their plans?

Case Study

Distribute copies of the Needs and Resources Analysis – Self Reliance Plan form, and read the following case study:

You are a ward welfare specialist. The bishop has asked you to assist a member of the ward who has come to him in need. You are to help her become more self-reliant.

She is single, in her early 40s, with no children. She has a degree in education and a teaching certificate. However, she has not been employed full-time for many years because of persistent health problems. She has asthma, and the resulting lack of activity has put her in poor health. She now receives disability payments through the government, but they are too little for her to live on. She has asked the bishop to provide additional financial assistance. When you ask her what her plans for the future are, she tells you that she is already doing all she can.

Ask participants to use the Needs and Resources Analysis: Self-Reliance Plan form to help this person make plans that will lead to self-reliance. Then invite them to discuss how they would approach the task of helping this person become self-reliant. (If necessary, remind them of the steps of the self-reliance process listed above.) If the group is large, divide participants into smaller discussion groups; then invite participants to report on the ideas generated in their discussions.

Practice

Ask participants to divide into groups of two or more and discuss ways they could help others become self-reliant. Invite them to note what they will try to do as a result of this lesson.

Bear testimony of the blessings that come when individuals live the principles of self-reliance.