The analogy that blew my mind ...

In the LDS church, I teach (correction: change this to past tense as I was released from that job on Sunday) gospel doctrine. This is the adult class in the middle hour of church.

I guess I should be scared since I don't have my dad's profound knowledge of the scriptures, but really, I was just excited at the prospect.

{Tangent}
If I'm brutally honest with myself, I think the excitement stems from suddenly having an opportunity to hold a group of adults captive in a room so they can listen to my stories and jokes.
{End Tangent}

A few weeks ago, I taught a lesson on the importance of the sacrament. In the LDS church, the sacrament is a renewal of the covenants we make at baptism. While preparing the lesson, a story from my sister's mission popped into my head.

While she was on a mission, she got invited to an elderly woman's home for dinner. This was extremely rare in that area, so she and the woman with whom she served were ecstatic. They had a delightful time with the lady and offered to help her with the dishes. Upon entering the kitchen, my sister was horrified to find that the sink was filled with dark brown water, peppered liberally with dead cockroaches floating on the surface. In an effort to save money, the woman said she fills the sink once a week and washes all her dishes in the water.

I relayed this story to the class and then explained that all of us are sinks of water, filled once a week. We are filled when we take the sacrament and renew these covenants. During the week, we inevitably sin, and our water gets dirtier and dirtier. The way we become clean once again is to repent and take the sacrament each week, which fills our sinks once again with clean water.

I was so happy with how perfectly this analogy fit into the lesson, and when I told my dad, he asked, "Did the class like the analogy?"

This was followed by a long pause as I realized I never gave them a chance to provide feedback. Instead, during the class I simply finished the story and blurted out, "Isn't that a great analogy?!?"

Totally smooth, and not manipulative AT ALL.