How Can I Be in the World But Not of the World? Come Follow Me Lesson

The talks and scriptures for this lesson were amazing!  There was so much good stuff, that it makes it really hard to choose what to focus on for our discussion.

I really liked the example that Elder Hales used of Nehemiah.  The account is found in Nehemiah 6. Nehemiah is doing this great work of building a wall to protect the city of Jerusalem.  Of this Elder Hales says, "Some wanted him to come down and compromise his position, but Nehemiah refused.  He was not intolerant of others; he simply explained,  "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease ...?"

I love that Elder Hales says that Nehemiah was not being intolerant.  I feel that often in today's world when we stand up for our beliefs and the standards we have set for ourselves as Latter-day Saints, we are labeled intolerant and self-righteous.  There is nothing wrong with standing by and up for your beliefs!  I don't demand that others change their beliefs to match mine, but I do request that they be respectful of what I believe and the way I choose to live.

In our lesson on Sunday, I hope to bring up discussion questions that cover these points:

1. We are here on earth for a purpose.  We are here to get a body, to be tested, to gain knowledge and develop talents, and to serve God's children.  These are the reasons that we must be "in the world".
2. Discuss ideas on how we can be in the world but not of the world.  What do we need to do?  I hope to use a chunk of scriptures from the lesson outline for this discussion. (1 Nephi 15:23–25; Alma 34:39; Helaman 5:12; D&C 10:5;27:15–18; 87:8 ). I also would like to use a couple of paragraphs from Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talk, Remember Who You Are. It is the third and fourth paragraphs -- beginning with "This is a magnificent time to be on earth..."  
3. Also, hoping to cover questions like:

• Why set a city on a hill?  Why does it matter if the city is hidden or not?
• Why does the world sometimes mock and despise the followers of Christ?
• Why does one who has tasted of the fruit of the tree of life (God's love), sometimes become ashamed by the mocking of those in the "great and spacious building"?  How can we protect ourselves from the scoffing and mocking?  I also want to point out here that it's not just mocking that we need to be aware of.  It is also cunning deception by Satan.

I made an insert for our study journals for this lesson. 

You can print it out by clicking on the link below.  If a full page is too large for your study journal, go into "properties" and adjust the printing size to 80-90% of the normal size.

***UPDATE**  I have had several people say that the links below are blurry when printed.  You can either email me at ydnewc1[at]gmail[dot]com or try downloading the .pdf from my google docs link here:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzE4C6jQLVXKdVRQTml0NXdQMXc&usp=sharing

Download from Google Docs at this link.

How Can I Be in the World but Not of the World by Wendy H