Lesson 2: Self-reliance

Objective

Each participant will commit to become more self-reliant.

Materials for This Lesson

A copy of the self-reliance exercise for each participant. Use the link provided to download a copy.

Statement from the Church Handbook of Instructions

Invite a participant to read the following statement:

“The Savior has commanded the Church and its members to be self-reliant and independent. . . .

“To become self-reliant, a person must work. Work is physical, mental, or spiritual effort. It is a basic source of happiness, self-worth, and prosperity. Through work, people accomplish many good things in their lives. . . .

“As people become self-reliant, they are better prepared to endure adversities [and are] better able to care for others in need” (Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2: Priesthood and Auxiliary Leaders [1998], 257).

Ask participants: What does self-reliance mean? (Self-reliance means using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems.)

Ask participants: How does becoming self- reliant make us better individuals, better family members, better friends, better Church members, better citizens, and better disciples of Christ?

Scripture

Invite a participant to read the following scripture:

“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).

Ask participants: Why do you think Paul says that a person who does not provide for his own has denied the faith?

Key Points

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

1. Agency is fundamental to the plan of our Creator (see D&C 58:26–28; 2 Nephi 2:27).

Ask participants: What is the relationship between agency and self-reliance?

2. Self-reliance is essential to caring for our families and ourselves. “Heavenly Father has given all of His children everything they have—their talents, abilities, and material goods—and has made them stewards over these blessings (see D&C 104:11–13). To fulfill this stewardship honorably, Church members should become self-reliant, using these blessings to take care of themselves and their families” (Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, 257).

3. Self-reliance is essential to caring for others. President Marion G. Romney taught: “Without self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1982, 135; or Ensign, Nov. 1982, 93). Even so, we do not have to wait until we are fully self-reliant to serve others.

Ask participants: How is self-reliance different than materialism or the pursuit of wealth? (See Jacob 2:18–19.)

4. The Church encourages its members to become self-reliant in these six areas: education and literacy; physical health; employment; home storage; resource management; and spiritual, emotional, and social strength (see Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, 257–58).

The Story of the Castañeda Family

Read (or ask a participant to read) the story that accompanies this lesson. Discuss with participants how living the gospel helped this family become self-reliant.

Discuss how this example relates to the participants’ own circumstances.

Additional Teachings from Church Leaders

Discuss the following statements as desired:

“We all should be looking to greater self-sufficiency, a greater spirit of self-reliance, a greater desire to take care of ourselves and our own” (Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Oct. 1982, 111; or Ensign, Nov. 1982, 76).

“The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature” (Ezra Taft Benson, in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 5; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6).

“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” (Spencer W. Kimball, in Conference Report, Oct. 1977, 124; or Ensign, Nov. 1977, 77–78).

“We have succeeded fairly well in establishing in the minds of Latter-day Saints that they should take care of their own material needs and then contribute to the welfare of those who cannot provide the necessities of life. If a member is unable to sustain himself, then he is to call upon his own family, and then upon the Church, in that order” (Boyd K. Packer, “Self- Reliance,” Ensign, Aug. 1975, 85).

Practice

Give participants a copy of the self-reliance exercise that accompanies this lesson, and ask them to complete it. Encourage the participants to commit to becoming more self-reliant by making specific plans to implement the ideas they wrote during the exercise.

Bear testimony of the benefits of becoming self-reliant.

The Story of the Castañeda Family

Let me tell you a story that I heard recently in Mexico. In Torreón I was driven about in the fine automobile that belonged to the man of whom I speak. His name is David Castañeda.

Thirty years ago he, his wife, Tomasa, and their children lived on a dry little run-down ranch near Torreón. They owned 30 chickens, 2 pigs, and 1 thin horse. The chickens provided a few eggs to sustain them and the means whereby to earn an occasional peso. They walked in poverty. Then the missionaries called on them. Sister Castañeda said, “The elders took the blinders from our eyes and brought light into our lives. We knew nothing of Jesus Christ. We knew nothing of God until they came.”

She had two years of schooling, her husband none. The elders taught them, and they were eventually baptized. They moved into the little town of Bermejillo. They were fortuitously led into the junk business, buying wrecked automobiles. This led to association with insurance companies and others. They gradually built a prosperous business in which the father and his five sons worked. With simple faith they paid their tithing. They put their trust in the Lord. They lived the gospel. They served wherever called to do so. Four of their sons and three of their daughters filled missions. The youngest son is presently serving in Oaxaca. They have now built a very substantial business and have been prospered therein. They have been taunted by their critics. Their answer is a testimony of the power of the Lord in their lives.

Some 200 of their family and friends have joined the Church due to their influence. Over 30 sons and daughters of family and friends have served missions. They donated the land on which a chapel now stands.

The children, now grown to maturity, and the parents take turns going to Mexico City each month, there to work in the temple. They stand as a living testimony of the great power of this work of the Lord to lift and change people. They are typical of thousands upon thousands throughout the world who experience the miracle of Mormonism as a testimony of the divinity of the work comes into their lives. [Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Apr. 1998, 91–92; or Ensign, May 1998, 70]