{
  "lessonDate": "2026-09-02",
  "lessonNumber": 193,
  "lessonTitle": "Taking Responsibility for Your Learning",
  "semester": "fall-2026-ot",
  "source": "Seminary manual, Lesson 193 — Succeed in School (Life Preparation)",
  "scriptureBlock": "1 Samuel 17:24–40; Matthew 25:14–30; Luke 2:52; Isaiah 41:10",
  "bookName": "SUCCEED IN SCHOOL",
  "deckType": "lifeprep",

  "lessonObjective": "Help students name an excuse they actually use about school, trade it for a Christlike attribute and a specific action, and start that action this week.",

  "doctrinePrinciple": "Taking personal responsibility for our learning helps us realize our full potential as daughters and sons of God.",

  "personalScriptureStudy": {
    "chapters": "1 Samuel 17:32–40 and Matthew 25:14–30",
    "questions": "Israel's army had every reason to do nothing, and so did the man with one talent. What did David and the first two servants do instead — and what attribute did it take to do it?"
  },

  "teacherNote": "SUPPLIES: a board and markers, with room to write all around a drawing. Optional: the manual's handout \"Taking Responsibility\" (David and the parable of the talents). Run the activity first, talk second — the trade step on Card 0 is where it lands, not the excuse-piling step. Make sure students keep their own excuse from step 4; they use it again on Card 1. Second quote for the board if you want it: \"the opportunity to assume personal responsibility is a God-given gift without which we cannot realize our full potential as daughters and sons of God\" (D. Todd Christofferson, \"Free Forever, to Act for Themselves,\" Liahona, Nov. 2014, 18). Second of four Succeed in School lessons (192-195); 194 is tomorrow, and 195 (procrastination) is still open for a later Life Preparation day.",

  "cards": [
    {
      "card": 0,
      "layout": "lifeprep-activity",
      "sectionName": "THE ACTIVITY",
      "tagline": "Name it. Then trade it.",
      "title": "SUCCEED IN SCHOOL — THE EXCUSE BOARD",
      "subtitle": "Every Excuse Sounds Reasonable From The Inside.",
      "challengeHead": "THE CHALLENGE",
      "challengeText": "One stick figure on the board. One bad school decision. Every excuse the class can invent written around him — then traded, one at a time, for something the Savior would actually do.",
      "activityHead": "THE ACTIVITY",
      "steps": [
        { "title": "NAME HIM", "text": "Draw a stick figure. Give him a name and one bad school decision." },
        { "title": "PILE ON EXCUSES", "text": "Write every excuse he could make around him. Do not hold back." },
        { "title": "TRADE THEM", "text": "Replace each excuse with a Christlike attribute and one real action." },
        { "title": "NAME YOURS", "text": "Write down one excuse you actually use. Keep it — you need it next." }
      ],
      "bandHeading": "TALK ABOUT IT",
      "bandQuestions": [
        "Why do excuses feel reasonable?",
        "Which excuse is most common here?",
        "What is an excuse protecting?",
        "What did Israel's army say?",
        "Whose job is your education?"
      ],
      "scrollQuote": {
        "text": "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature.",
        "attribution": "Luke 2:52"
      },
      "artPrompt": "A natural photograph of three teenagers at a classroom whiteboard covered in handwriting around a simple stick figure drawing, morning light through the windows."
    },

    {
      "card": 1,
      "layout": "lifeprep-apply",
      "sectionName": "MAKE IT REAL",
      "tagline": "No one gains it for you.",
      "title": "SUCCEED IN SCHOOL — TAKING RESPONSIBILITY",
      "subtitle": "Excuses Out. Actions In.",
      "scripturesHead": "WHAT THE SCRIPTURES SHOW",
      "scriptureList": [
        "1 Samuel 17:24–25  —  the excuses Israel made",
        "1 Samuel 17:32, 37  —  David went anyway",
        "Matthew 25:24–28  —  the man who buried his talent",
        "Matthew 25:20–23  —  the two who used theirs",
        "Isaiah 41:10  —  you are not doing it alone"
      ],
      "planHead": "MAKE YOUR PLAN",
      "planQuestion": "Which excuse are you dropping?",
      "plan": [
        "What will you do instead — specifically?",
        "Which attribute of the Savior does that take?",
        "When this week does it start?"
      ],
      "ideasHead": "IDEAS: HOW COULD I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY?",
      "ideas": [
        "Set your own alarm.",
        "Ask before you are lost.",
        "Write assignments down.",
        "Start it the first night.",
        "Sit near the front.",
        "Reread what you missed."
      ],
      "challengeHead": "CHALLENGE THIS WEEK",
      "challengeText": "Take the excuse you wrote down, and do the opposite of it once this week — without being reminded by anyone.",
      "rememberHead": "REMEMBER",
      "rememberText": "\"Education is yours to obtain. No one else can gain it for you. … For us as Latter-day Saints, gaining an education is not just a privilege, it is a religious responsibility\" (Russell M. Nelson, \"Will You Choose to Increase in Learning?,\" New Era, Sept. 2014, 2).",
      "scrollQuote": {
        "text": "Fear thou not; for I am with thee.",
        "attribution": "Isaiah 41:10"
      },
      "artPrompt": "A natural photograph of a teenager alone at a kitchen table early in the morning, homework spread out and a lamp on, starting before anyone else is awake."
    }
  ],

  "journalPrompt": "Write down the excuse you actually use about school — the real one, in your own words. Then write what you will do instead, which attribute of the Savior it will take, and the exact day this week you will start. Finish with what you will ask Heavenly Father to help you with."
}