Focusing a Personal Story
In a previous article, I explained how to prepare a personal story for telling in talks and lessons. I explained that each detail must lead to the message of your talk, and so an event in your life might be told different ways for different lessons. Following is a real-life example of what I mean.
First, I'll outline an entire event from my first calling. You'll see there are many aspects to this story. Using all of them in a single telling would send the listener's mind in too many directions and leave the message unclear.
The Entire Story:
1. I joined the church at age 17.
2. Within a year, I was called into Primary, which was then held on weekdays. It was my third calling, but my first calling with children.
3. The class had seventeen preschoolers. One was blind and two were deaf. I had to teach the class in sign language while speaking, even though I was fairly new to the language, which increased its complexity.
4. I received a blessing when I was set apart that promised that if I lived the gospel and worked hard at my calling I would become a skilled teacher.
5. Having little experience with blessings and no priesthood in my home, I didn't understand how they work. I thought I'd instantly become a perfect teacher on the very first day if I did those things.
6. I was unable to control my class, and was afraid the reason was that I was not doing what the blessing said to do. Since I was working hard, I thought I must be ignoring a commandment somewhere I didn't know about. I was afraid to ask for help because I thought I might get excommunicated. (I didn't know much about excommunication either.) I also didn't know who to ask or how to get help.
7. Eventually a leader found me crying in my classroom and after hearing my woes, assured me I couldn't be excommunicated for not controlling my class, and gave me an assignment to learn to love and know each student.
8. Although skeptical, I did everything she asked, and as I learned to love them, behavior improved.
9. One day, I lost control of my class. they were running around the room in a big circle, giggling and wouldn't stop. Remembering an inservice the previous week where we were told if our classes were reverent, the Savior Himself could be present, I said aloud, to myself, "Jesus would never come to this room." The children heard me, stopped and asked if Jesus was coming. I said bitterly He couldn't come because we weren't reverent. They silently returned to their seats, except for one child, who added an adult chair to the horseshoe. I asked what it was for and He said it was for Jesus, because when He came, He'd need a chair. It was my first lesson in the faith of children.
10. There is another story, too long to list here, about getting a child to come to my class where she belonged, instead of to her mother's class, involving my reluctance to obey the spirit, and what happened because I decided to obey.
Okay, you can see this is a complex story of my first year of teaching Primary. If I told all of it, you'd have no idea what lesson you were supposed to take home. Each time I tell it, I select only the portions directly related to the topic. On the next pages, we'll read two versions of this story.
Read stories as told by a master storyteller to really learn how it's done:
Memorable Stories and Parables by Boyd K. Packer (Hardcover) by Boyd K. Packer
What do you want to do next?
Continue on to a sample personal story.
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Terrie Lynn Bittner - All Rights Reserved