The October 2024 Come, Follow Me Ministering Printable ties together Elder Quentin L. Cook’s April 2024 General Conference talk, “Be One with Christ,” with “Following the teachings of Jesus Christ leads to unity and happiness” in the October “Come, Follow Me” message from 4 Nephi 1:1-18.
Download October 2024 Ministering Printable (4×6)
Artwork was created using Adobe Firefly AI. You can print these printables as 4×6 photo prints. My local drugstore prints them for just pennies. They are also a higher resolution if you want to enlarge them.
October 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering Message
4 Nephi 1 – The essence of truly belonging is to be one with Christ
In elementary school, the girls in my class formed a “We hate [whichever poor girl was picked that week]” club. The club would spend recess and lunch figuring out ways to torment and exclude that week’s victim. They did everything from public shunning to putting up posters.
I was a shy little daydreamer and desperate to fit in. I remember working up the courage to ask if I could join the club, anything to feel like I belonged. But they flatly turned me down. They said I was too nice to qualify. I felt devastated. But over the years that became a defining moment. They were right, I was too nice to be in that club.
The Need to Belong
Even as adults, we all feel the need to belong. In its purest state, it is part of our divine nature. During Christ’s ministry He prayed for this kind of unity, “And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one.” (3 Nephi 19:23)
But Satan always seeks to pervert every good thing. So he tries to sell us on fitting in instead of belonging.
According to Brené Brown, “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be in order to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.” (The Gifts of Imperfection, p. 231–232)
In school, I tried to feel like I belonged by fitting in. But if I had changed myself, I would have never felt like I truly belonged. And I am betting all the girls in that club didn’t feel like they belonged either.
The Lord invites us to His church because we belong there. We are worth so much to Him that He bought us at an unfathomable price. When we are baptized, we are adopted into the family of Christ. We take His name upon us. He is our friend. We are His seed. We belong.
Fitting in vs Belonging
Satan tries to make us feel like we don’t belong by getting us to focus on fitting in. He wants us to believe that we need to be just like those around us.
I have a friend who recently went to Sacrament meeting for the first time. Unaccustomed to “Sunday dress,” he came in jeans. Nobody said anything to him about the way he was dressed. But he felt like he didn’t fit in. He had a hard time focusing and was tempted to leave. But being at church is never about fitting in, it is always about belonging. And he 100 percent belonged there.
For six years, my husband and I struggled with infertility. As we sat through church lessons about eternal families and being good parents, we could have felt like we didn’t fit in. But we didn’t need to because we belonged. Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness was our plan, no matter where we happened to be on that journey.
When we focus too much on fitting in, we lose focus of what the Lord has sacrificed so that we can belong. We send the wrong messages to ourselves and sometimes to others. These feelings are amplified when we believe that those around us are perfect or that they have perfect lives. It is discouraging when we compare our innermost weaknesses against others’ perceived strengths.
When we view church as merely a social group, our focus on fitting in can cloud the blessings of belonging. The answer to whether you belong is always a resounding yes. And when talking to others, your entire outlook will change when you realize that they belong too.
They Were in One, the Children of Christ
If this is something you struggle with, don’t be too hard on yourself. Understanding how to belong has been hard for a lot of people. In the Book of Mormon we only see this kind of unity a few times. One of those times, it required Jesus Christ showing up personally.
After Christ visited the Americas, there was a period of two hundred years where the people had continual peace.
“And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.” (4 Nephi 1:15-17)
The same family that had split so irrevocably they were killing one another was now the happiest group of people God had ever created. Divisions no longer mattered. It wasn’t about fitting in, it was about belonging. And they all belonged.
When we are tempted to separate ourselves from the Church of Christ, or when we think someone doesn’t belong, what kind of “ites” are we using? We need to analyze where “fitting in” may have gotten in the way of belonging. As we choose Christ, we come to realize that He wants us to belong.
Covenant Belonging
Fitting in requires us to change so that others will accept us. But for our Heavenly Father, He needs us to change so that we can know how to belong. These changes are not superficial nor designed to make us all the same. The story of His people spans all the way from the Garden of Eden to the present day. It would be impossible for us all to be the same. Rather the Lord is looking for changes of the heart that will unite us as a people.
According to Elder Quentin L. Cook in his April 2024 General Conference message, “Be One with Christ,” truly belonging is about becoming one with Christ.
“We are united by our love of and faith in Jesus Christ and as children of a loving Heavenly Father. The essence of truly belonging is to be one with Christ. The ordinances of baptism and the sacrament set forth in Doctrine and Covenants 20, together with our temple covenants, unite us in special ways and allow us to be one in every eternally significant way and to live in peace and harmony.”
When we focus on becoming one with Christ, we realize that the need to fit in fades away. We belong to Him and to each other as “heirs to the kingdom of God.”
Note: Thanks to President Michael Payne, whose stake conference talk got me thinking about the difference between fitting in and belonging.
October 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering Handout
I found these cute pumpkins for fall at the Dollar Tree. But I thought these little knit pumpkins on Amazon were awfully cute as well. I am going to fill my pumpkins with glazed walnuts from Winco. They are my favorite and perfect for fall!
Did you like this October 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering message? Find more Relief Society Ministering Printables for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
These ministering printables are a great way to help families incorporate the “Come, Follow Me” lessons into their own study. They are also perfect for Young Women’s, Relief Society, Sunday School, or Family Home Evening. I hope that these ministering printables will be a simple way to reach out to those we minister to.
