• Opening Prayer For Class Meetings

Opening & Closing Prayers General Prayer Themes Sermons Basic Christianity Bible Studies & eBooks Articles Christian Quotes Monthly Musings Useful Links About If you use this resource and would like to help with the cost of its continuing development, then donations are always welcome! A prayer before class, Lord, help us in our work today give us concentration so that may we listen, understand, learn and have a peaceful mind and may. Opening prayer. Thank you for this beautiful prayer and more prayer to post 🙂 thank you dahil dito ko lg to nahanap 😀 HAHA. TY Sa nag post.

O Giver of life – we are here to celebrate 5 decades of life in the real world. Two score and 10 years ago the class of ’64 left the friendly confines of Wapak High on a journey full of victories and defeats, joys and sorrows, a journey that has taught us how precious each day is. We didn’t learn everything we needed to know in kindergarten, or even from Miss Hunt or Mr. Krebs or Mrs. Miller, or even from Mr. Bigelow or Coach Rose or Cappizello. We are all still students in the school of life, and we thank you for what we have learned and are learning from each other, from children and grandchildren.

Just as our long ago graduation was a commencement and not an end, this rite of passage tonight is another new beginning. It is an opportunity to share memories and laughter, to be inspired by the contributions we are making collectively and as individuals to the betterment of life on this planet. We know it is not up to us to solve the world’s problems, and that’s a very good thing; but it is up to us to be the best citizens, friends, parents, grandparents, spouses and partners we can be. Help us always use what we have learned and are learning to leave a positive legacy behind for those who follow in our footsteps.

So we celebrate the lessons learned so long ago in the classrooms and in the extracurricular activities at WHS, but also the human life skills we learned in friendships, in teamwork, in musical and dramatic presentations. We express our gratitude for the teachers and school staff who put up with us, we give thanks for the classmates and spouses who worked hard to make this weekend possible, and now we ask your blessing on the food we are about to eat and the fellowship we share around these tables.

For all that has been we say thanks, and for all that is yet to be, we say a resounding, Yes!
Amen.

[Written for the Wapakoneta, Ohio High School class of 1964 50th class reunion, September 21, 2014.]

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Contributed By Sister Neill F. Marriott of the Young Women General Presidency

Opening exercises is a prime opportunity for the adult leaders to nurture leadership skills of Young Women class presidencies.

Opening Prayer For Class Meetings

This article is the sixth and final article in a series on Young Women class presidencies.

A friend of mine recently shared the experience of a relative who served as a missionary in an international area several years ago. A faithful auxiliary leader in a young branch approached her with a hopeful expression. “Sister,” she began, “is it OK if we hold our opening exercises outside?”

With a puzzled expression, the missionary asked, “Why?”

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Earnestly the leader replied, “We want to be obedient but we just simply do not have enough room inside for all of us to do our exercises.”

I agree that the term “opening exercises” is unique and perhaps a bit misleading, but are we tapping into the power of this weekly meeting? Are you looking for ways to teach leadership and at the same time improve opening exercises in youth gatherings? We can do better! This meeting is a preparatory time for everyone and an opportunity for leadership training.

Opening exercises is a time to set the tone for the upcoming class. We acknowledge and thank those who have come. We sing together—the hymns “invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord. … We encourage all members, whether musically inclined or not, to join with us in singing the hymns” (Hymns, ix). And most important, through prayer, we invite the Spirit to open hearts and minds for gospel learning.

We are promised, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Is the atmosphere in the room conducive to the Spirit? How is that atmosphere engendered?

Opening exercises is a prime opportunity for the adult leaders to nurture leadership skills of Young Women class presidencies. The class presidency member who will be leading the opening exercises—or should be—can learn organization and spiritual preparation; she can gain confidence in how to lead out in purpose, dignity, love, and with the Spirit.

How can this young woman lead if she doesn’t first have direction and preparation? On LDS.org in the Young Women section, the first box you see below the banner is “Class Presidency Leadership Lessons.” Click there and you will find a treasury of short leadership lessons that every young woman should experience at some point during her time in the Young Women program.

For example, the lesson entitled “Counsel Together, #4: Conducting Meetings” emphasizes the principle of responsible preparation and how to develop a spiritual tone in meetings.

Our best example of how an opening exercise or a meeting should be conducted comes from general conference. We have a pattern of prepared leadership coupled with warm and loving dignity. From the general conference pulpit we see the pattern for how to start and lead a meeting. As you teach this leadership lesson, perhaps you could show a clip of general conference and have a discussion about what the class presidency members see and feel from the one conducting a general conference session. How could the youth follow the example of conducting from our Church leaders? What leadership and conducting qualities do they see at the general conference podium?

Through this lesson the young women will begin to see that there is much more to conducting opening exercises than just reading the announcements from a page that the Young Women president might have handed her as the meeting begins. This lesson will benefit the adult leaders too, as they see their part in preparing class presidencies to become effective leaders.

Consider the following suggestions from the leadership lesson on conducting a meeting effectively:

• Arrive early and make sure everything is ready for the meeting.
• When possible, make assignments ahead of time, including opening and closing prayers.
• Conduct with reverence as guided by the Spirit. Leaders always teach by example.
• Use a written agenda that outlines events to take place in the meeting.
• The person conducting announces who will pray, speak, lead the music, and do other things.
• Choose music that invites the Spirit. See that the music director and accompanist are prepared. Where appropriate, arrange for prelude music to be played before the meeting starts.

In order to live what we are learning, the leader could ask the class presidency to practice conducting a Sunday opening exercise or Mutual activity right there in class presidency meeting. Afterward, discuss what things went well and what could be improved. It would be helpful to identify one specific way the class leader could better prepare and conduct a meeting.

So perhaps the term “exercises” is accurate—we are getting our young women in shape for a lifetime of leading and serving. Even more important, as they learn to lead as the Savior leads, they will set an example in their classes, homes, and communities that will bless generations to come.

This concludes our series on class presidencies (see “Related Links” above for previous articles). Young Women leaders and class presidency members will find additional leadership helps at youngwomen.lds.org.

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