Another calling in the Relief Society is as a teacher. A teacher is responsible for giving the lessons on Sunday. One nice thing about Relief Society is that you generally are just assigned one week a month to teach. This allows a teacher ample time to prepare her lesson. The lessons for the second and third week are assigned from The Teachings of the Living Prophets manual (currently Spencer W Kimball) and the fourth week’s lessons are from past General Conference talks.
While I have never actually served as a teacher in Relief Society, I have had the opportunity to substitute a few times. As I read the message to teachers in the manual, I realized that the lessons are supposed to generate class discussion, as well as cover the material. The lessons from the manual have discussion questions at the end of each chapter. It is difficult to cover all the material, so it is important to carefully read the entire lesson and then pray to know which points to cover.
The lessons from General Conference talks can be hard to plan as well. The teacher is generally given two or three talks that are on related subjects. The teacher then needs to draw from all of the talks to share the theme of the lesson. It really helps the teachers if you have read the talks beforehand so that you can comment during the lesson.
A teacher in Relief Society generally spends quite a bit of time preparing for the class. Prayer and careful study of the material are involved. It can be difficult to generate discussion on topics. It is important that you participate in the discussion. This is one way that you can support the teacher in her calling. Another is to thank her when a lesson touches you. It is important that we show support by reading our lessons prior to Sunday, so that we are prepared to listen and to comment.
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For insights to each week’s lessons, visit the RS/EQ Lesson topic.