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Oh my gosh, the tampon question is so wrong! Ugh! :sick: :thumbdown: As a youth, I wouldn’t have had any idea what to do with a question like that.Youth interviews are a very big concern of mine, for when my kids get to that stage. I still have a couple of years before my oldest turns 12, but it is already causing me a lot of anxiety.
I do my best to look at it like Ray and Roy, that it is just an outdated cultural thing that will hopefully someday be changed, but it is still very hard to hear and deal with. I was so excited when I heard that new temple films were coming out, and I was just sure that this issue would be addressed in them. It was such a huge disappointment to find that the script was the same. I guess because of these new films, I don’t have hope that this will change in the foreseeable future, and that is hard for me. At least with the old films, I had the hopes that when they were updated that there could be a change. My oldest DD still has a couple years left in primary, so preparing her for the endowment is not something I will be doing in the immediate future, but I don’t have the expectation that there will be any significant change to the temple ordinances before then. I think one of my biggest difficulties with the temple is having realistic expectations. Before going to the temple, I really thought that I’d learn more about Heavenly Mother there – it just made sense. As I just mentioned, I was sure that with the new temple films, the wording would be tweaked to better reflect the doctrine of men and women being equal partners before God. When I saw people posting on Facebook about a new policy from the church that would put families first regarding the temple, I had a moment of excitement because I thought it would be about eliminating the one year penalty for having a civil marriage ceremony. I will do my best to prepare my kids to have realistic expectations about the temple, but hopefully without sounding cynical or jaded. I do think there are wonderful aspects and beauty in the temple, and that going in with a basic idea of what to expect and how things work can help those going through for the first time so they don’t feel completely lost/weirded out, or blindsided. I do appreciate hearing what others have done in this regard. It is hard to find “middle-way” information about the temple. It seems that everything out there is either “we can’t say anything about the temple ceremony, but it is the most wonderful, amazing thing in the universe” or a view that is just completely negative.
I saw this article as well, and was uncomfortable by its implication that questions are fine, but doubts are bad. It seemed to create an alternate definition of “doubt”. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this board to help It retain its unique mission. I really appreciate your perspectives on things. Thank you so much for welcoming me. I am looking forward to participating more here. The stick analogy does work well – in both the positive and negative application!
Today seems to have been a bit of a media explosion for the Church, having news stories of the plural marriage essays making front page news in many major news outlets. The Church seems to have responded by this article in the newsroom of LDS.org. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-provides-context-gospel-topics-pages ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-provides-context-gospel-topics-pages I guess I was a little surprised that those outside of Utah or areas with higher LDS membership would care enough to make it a national news story, but I suppose many find polygamy fascinating (usually in a train-wreck kind of a way), so these essays would make for good attention-grabbing headlines.
My husband hadn’t heard about the two latest essays before today, and only found out about them when he saw the story about them on CNN (which I was rather shocked by – he was aware of the other essays right when they came out, and I figured he just didn’t say anything about them to me because he knows it is a sensitive issue for me).
Anyway, I was just wondering what people thought about these news stories, and what it means for the Church. Will it just get people riled up for a few minutes, but not have much impact overall, or will it have a more lasting negative impact on people’s perception of the Church? Will these news stories create more conversations with those who are not members, asking the missionaries and members about these issues? I am also concerned for the missionaries – I hope that they have been informed about these essays, and given some guidance about how to deal with any questions regarding them. I can only imagine how awful it could be for a missionary who was not aware of these nitty-gritty details, to be questioned about them, and then realize that the church had released an official essay without telling the missionaries about it. Does anyone know any missionaries personally, and how the missions are dealing with these essays (the polygamy ones in particular, but really any of the essays)? I am also wondering if the average member is aware of these essays and their contents? I live in “Mormonville” and it seems really hit or miss when I ask people about it if they are aware – sorry, I know this last part has been discussed here before, but maybe with more national recognition, this has or will change?
I realize that I may just be blowing this out of proportion, because polygamy is an extremely hard issue for me. This essay felt like a punch in the gut because it reaffirmed that the Church’s official position is that plural marriage was good and commanded by God, and that the angel with the flaming sword was legit in the eyes of the Church, and that my views on the subject are very obviously outside of the Church’s view. I do not accept that plural marriage was of God in any way, and feel it was probably instituted by Joseph Smith in his zeal for the “restoration of all things”, and his desire for the human race to be sealed together as a family, and an incomplete understanding of exactly how to do this, while coming from a very male-centric perspective. I try not to come from the perspective that it was just a power-trip, sex-drive thing (but realistically, those probably played into it in some way, even if subconsciously, I just don’t want to believe that was the main or only motivation) . I definitely recognize that these essays were a HUGE step for the Church in historical transparency, and willingness to be upfront about an difficult subject with uncomfortable details, and that is truly amazing, but I’m still having a hard time with them.
I am so sorry that you are going through all of this right now. Have you been on the Prozac for very long? Sometimes while people are adjusting to antidepressants at first, the risk of suicidal thoughts can sometimes increase. It may also just not be the right medication for you, or the dosage may need to be adjusted, or sometimes a combination of meds may work better for some people. In my personal experience, it took some trial and error to find the right medication and dosage, but once we found out what worked for me, it really helped me feel like I was able to get my head above the water and breathe again. Please talk to your doctor ASAP and he can help you figure it out.
If you feel you are at risk of harming yourself before you can talk to your psychologist, please get help now. You can go to the ER or call the suicide prevention hotline 1-800-273-8255. There are people that care about you and things can get better. Hang in there.
