Relief Society · Elders Quorum · 25 minutes
Elder Ciro Schmeil · Of the Seventy · Sunday Morning Session
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Using the Lord's words to Haggai, "Consider your ways," this class looks honestly at what you are giving your best effort to and how keeping covenants, especially the weekly sacrament, lets the Lord magnify that effort.
Skip the Ether 12:27 discussion on humility and the Preach My Gospel Sabbath quote, and mention King Benjamin (Mosiah 2:41) only briefly at the close.
Before Sunday
Sunday: "Consider your ways"
This Sunday we will discuss Elder Ciro Schmeil's October 2026 talk, "Consider Your Ways, and from This Day Will the Lord Bless You." If you have five minutes, read Haggai 1:5–9 and the part of the talk about the Israelites who were working hard but putting their wages "into a bag with holes." Ponder this: where in your life are you doing a lot but seeing little come of it?
Pick one opening
Think of a season when you were busy every day, working hard and running from one thing to the next, but at the end of it you felt you had very little to show for it. What did that feel like? Today we will look at a time the Lord told a whole people who felt that way to stop and "consider your ways."
Think of a season when you were busy every day, working hard and running from one thing to the next, but at the end of it you felt you had very little to show for it. What did that feel like? Today we will look at a time the Lord told a whole people who felt that way to stop and "consider your ways."
Elder Schmeil retold the account of Haggai. The Israelites had come home and been commanded to rebuild the temple, but each family went to work on its own house first. They planted a lot and harvested little. The Lord said their wages went "into a bag with holes." Twice He told them, "Consider your ways." They listened and started building, and the Lord said, "From this day will I bless you."
Picture putting your paycheck into a bag with holes in the bottom. The Lord used that picture in Haggai 1:6 to describe His people. What are some ways our time, energy, or effort can slip away like that, even when we are working hard?
Teach this first
In Haggai's day the people did a great deal but accomplished little, because their efforts were not aligned with God's will and His house was not their priority. Elder Schmeil taught that the Lord is not asking us to build a temple with our hands. He is asking us to build a strong relationship with Him and with Jesus Christ through our covenants. When we consider our ways and make adjustments, He magnifies our efforts, as He did when He told Israel, "From this day will I bless you."
Elder Schmeil taught that the Lord "will magnify our efforts as we consider our ways and make the proper adjustments to make and keep covenants with Him."
Ask the class
If time remains
Elder Schmeil taught that covenants yoke us to the Savior so our burdens become lighter (Matthew 11:28–30). Each week the sacrament renews those covenants. We do not need to be perfect to take it, only willing to take His name, remember Him, and keep His commandments, and He promises that His Spirit will be with us.
Ask the class
Counsel together
Last 3–5 minutes
Before the sacrament next Sunday, take a few quiet minutes to consider your ways. Choose one adjustment that would put your covenants with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ first, and bring it to the Lord as you take the sacrament.
Elder Schmeil taught that as we consider our ways and adjust to make and keep covenants, the Lord will magnify our efforts, and that as we take the sacrament worthily we have the promise to always have His Spirit with us.
Your witness: Think of a time you changed your priorities to put the Lord or your covenants first and then saw Him magnify your effort, or a Sunday when the sacrament gave you strength you needed. Share it briefly in your own words.