Kathy K. Clayton in her book ‘Teaching to Build Faith’ taught:
Psychological research demonstrates that people are more likely to behave their way into thinking than they are to think their way into behaving. Put it simply, if we smile, we will actually be happier; if we whistle a happy tune, we will be less afraid; and if we count our blessings, we will feel greater gratitude. Or, as the Lectures on Faith state, “Faith is [a] . . . principle of action.”2 We receive a testimony of truth and grow in faith as we live the gospel. Learning and becoming happen best by doing because “if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 17:7). I sang “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” and I sang those lyrics, their truthfulness became my personal testimony. The message became my own as I did something with it. The doctrine afforded the Spirit the occasion to seal it upon my heart and promote my knowing and remembering.
Heavenly Teaching Is Blessedly Interactive
Parents and teachers of all varieties, both in homes and in formal classrooms, can learn from the compelling example of the best teacher, Our Father in Heaven.We will benefit from the giant participatory visual aid He designed as the perfect classroom for mortal life: the earth. Since the testimony of the Savior is the most the most critical acquisition of our mortal life, He has carefully crafted a mortal experience to surround and engage us with compelling interactive evidence of Him. Elizabeth Barrett Browning has aptly written, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, ? And every common bush afire with God; / But he who sees, takes off his shoes; / The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.”3 There is nothing casual or accidental about our surroundings or experience on earth. “All things are . . . made to bear record of me, both things which are spiritual; things which are in the heaven above, and things which are on earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me (Moses 6:63). As we eat, breathe, observe, and thoroughly and inevitably engage in mortality we are actively participating in experience that testifies of Jesus Christ and invites us to broadly and profoundly know Him. Our goal should be to create homes and classrooms that serve as similar hands-on learning laboratories of faith.
The temple and the sacrament serve as interactive teaching models as well. Deliberately, our temple worship involves special clothing, an instructive environment, movement, and participation. Our weekly sacrament service likewise invites us to sing, pray, ponder, and literally eat, promoting an engaged worship experience as opposed to a passive, non-participatory one. ~ Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness, (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2012) 2-4 (continued)
