Lesson 2-11 "Appreciating the Bishop"

This lesson lends itself well to local adaptation. That's a shorthand way of saying, know your girls and know your bishop, and that will tell you how to teach an entire lesson on bishop appreciation. If they're Beehives, you may want to focus on the idea of yearly interviews (of course, assuming your bishop holds them) and on temple baptism interviews. If they're Laurels, you may want to hone in on his role in the repentance process, and on how a bishop's recommendation is necessary for applications to a church college. Either way, it would seem a good week to do something maybe light-hearted, like notes of appreciation, a trivia quiz about your bishop, or a visit from/to the bishop with your class.

Reading over this lesson made me want to also bring up the presence of bishops and their counselors in YW lessons. In our ward, the priests quorum meets in the bishop's office (I assume that's standard) and YM become very familiar with that setting, and with the person who occupies it, as he's part of the young men's leadership in addition to ward leadership. But YW may be less familiar with, or comfortable in, the bishop's office - it may seem mysterious, or it may feel like being sent to the principal's office to have to go there. They may feel they know the bishop less than their male peers get to, because they won't see him as often at their activities, in their Sunday classes, and only on "ceremonial" occasions like New Beginnings or at girls camp Bishop's Night. Besides, he's a guy, and sometimes an intimidating one, at that.

In our ward, the bishop makes a point occasionally to sit in on YW lessons. And not just to keep an eye on what I'm teaching, either! He genuinely wants to have a presence in the YW program also to show his support of our program, our youth and our leaders. He wants the young women, as well as the young men, to feel that he cares about them. I always appreciate it, actually, when he or one of his counselors slips in and sits in on the lessons with us. (They often make a point to say something nice afterwards, too, usually by way of comparing our super-prepared YW teachers to the sometimes lackluster teaching in YM lessons. I've never sat in on a YM lesson, but I hear from my boys that it's not always stellar quality - maybe that's another post). Anyway, my point is that it's easier to appreciate someone who demonstrably appreciates you back, which is definitely the case in my situation.