Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi meggle, I can’t refrain from responding since you are referring to me as a “wise one”
😆 Seriously though, I look at it the way SunbeltRed does, but I will admit that is something I won’t say in a Sunday School lesson. The God I have come to know doesn’t hang around the classroom holding a wooden ruler pacing and looking for somebody to whack on the hand.
It helps me to have been a parent of three now grown daughters and to put that experience into the context of the LDS belief (though not overly taught, by any means) that God was once like us. If that is the case, then he probably had similar experiences that I have had raising my girls and I simply won’t stop loving them, even if they make a mistake, do something I disagree with, or stumble as they strive to reach their potential. I won’t want to eliminate them from my life either — EVER.
An experience comes to mind that we fondly laugh about together now that my oldest daughter is a married adult. In her middle and high school years, I would help her with her math and we would get into knock down, drag out fights as I tried teaching her some of the concepts. Looking back, it was pretty funny, though stressful at the time. Needless to say, she did not grow up to be an engineer, but she has a job she loves working with kids that attend a Boys and Girls in the community she lives in. It’s wonderful to me that she has a job where she is helping people.
Her younger sister just started college this fall and got a third piercing in her ear. Seriously, did I really care about that when I saw her singing children’s songs to her older sister who has a disability this last weekend when she came for a visit?
I think God loves us a lot more than we realize and he’s not the disciplinarian that some preach in Mormonism. At least those are the feelings I get when I pray and try to reach out to him. I seriously think his plan is a lot bigger than our little church.
How about that choir from the Tooele Valley in the second session? Didn’t Brother NewLight really add to it?! Seriously though, being in the choir was a great experience – to me the sermons of Christ taught through music are VERY powerful and oftentimes a welcome break from a difficult talk. Thankfully, I remembered the words to “Redeemer of Israel” in order as that could have been embarrassing if I didn’t. Thumbs up on Elder Holland’s talk about helping the poor. By the end of it, I was seriously asking myself what more I could do to help out. Thumbs down on the Joseph Smith talk, for the same reason many of you shared. The irony of mentioning the Internet’s lack of a “truth filter” (referring to our critics) while the Church struggles to disclose the truth behind its decades long sparkling clean correlated history (much of it at lds.org) can be amusing.
Hi Outofstep, Sounds like the nice young woman teaching Relief Society was describing me
😮 Even when I was in the bishopric, I was never a big temple attender – for some reason, that experience much of the time for me is not tremendously uplifting. I tend to go for stake temple day and on special occasions. To be honest, I was a bit in “awe” of it when I went before my mission 30+ years ago.Going back to your question though, yes, I find a lot more value in holding my calling and serving, attending on Sundays (even if I cringe at some of the things that are said), having an opportunity to take the sacrament, and helping others. To me, being part of the tribe is a big thing and the concept of the ward family is a powerful concept.
It is unfortunate that we are often taught that “it’s all or nothing” – it definitely is not in my book. And my most meaningful uplifting spiritual experiences (outside of being married, of course) have happened outside the temple. The primarily involve doing and seeing others do Christlike activities.
Hi Kinglamoni, If the topic was presented to you as “talk about revelation”, it sounds like you’ve got quite a bit of breadth on how to address it, so that’s a good thing. Seems like so far, those who have commented have shied away from personal revelation, but if it were me I, think I could give a talk about it and still be able to pull it off. I will preface my comments that I have had some spiritual experiences where I felt that the Spirit was virtually taking me by the hand and guiding me. But that has happened only a handful of times in the 50+ years I have been alive.
I am one who believes that the bulk of the answers we get from God are “it doesn’t really matter, but just make the best decision you can”. And to make those decisions in life, you have to look at all the information you have available to you – much of it based on common sense and logic which may be unrelated to church beliefs/ideals.
My dad was never the “churchy” type, but he told me a joke when I was young that rings true to me to this day. It goes something like this:
A man was caught at his home as flood waters were rising. Seeing his desperate situation, he prayed for help. Pretty soon, there was a knock a the door. When he answered it, he saw a fireman telling him the area was flooding and he needed to get out. The man replied that he was all right and that God would answer his prayer to be saved. Unable to change the man’s mind, the fireman left to warn others.
The flood waters continued to rise and the man had to go to the second story to avoid them. There, he prayed for help once again. After a while longer, he saw some people on a rowboat trying to get out of the flood danger. They beckoned him to join them, but the man declined and explained that he was praying to God for help. The people on the rowboat had no choice but to continue onward to safety.
The flood waters were now reaching a critical level and the man had to climb out the window and get on his roof to avoid them. Not long after, he found himself surrounded by water at the highest part of the roof. He prayed in earnest for help. Soon, a helicopter came, the noise of the motor was too loud to hear any dialogue, but the helicopter let down a rope and hovered there. The man would not take the rope and continued to pray. The flood waters continued to rise and the man was drowned.
He stood at the pearly gates, confused, when God approached him. At this point, the man asked why his prayers to be saved from the flood were unanswered. God was a bit perplexed and answered, “ but I sent you a fireman, a boat, and a helicopter, and you never went with them”.
The whole point that my dad tried to make from this story is that much of the time, we are “guided” through practical means and not necessarily spiritual fanfare. It’s up to us to recognize that.
Hi SBR, I don’t have a lot I can add here other than just my encouragement. I have seen many of your posts since you joined and appreciate much of what you say – you have some great insights into gospel topics and some alternative views that I think can resonate with many members like me.
While I did not not feel I could add to your scripture study thread since we as a family just basically read from the Book of Mormon when the kids were in high school, I loved your commentary on the Jonah story to your six year old. Very refreshing and true!
I will mention one short story about the “farewell” of my home teaching companion’s missionary son this summer because I was touched by his sincerity. At the part where it came for him to share his testimony at the end of his talk, he started out by saying something like “I want you all to know that I know that the…” and then he stopped himself and changed it to “I believe that the church is true”. I don’t know how the rest of the congregation felt about this and I only mentioned my observation to my wife (who also loved it). It was great to see such honesty and commitment to fulfill a mission although he apparently had his doubts.
He has been in Kentucky now for some months and his father reports that his is doing well. I figured he would be – good kid.
I mentioned them in a HP lesson over the summer and virtually nobody in the group had even heard about them 
I, too, wish the church would just allow a frank discussion about them, but that just won’t happen – now. I think the leaders fear what the resulting shake up would be and are choosing to go slowly. I believe that as the power of the information age continues wielding itself, there will be more openness. Let’s not forget that the release of these essays in the first place would have been simply unthinkable only a few years ago.
Good for you for saying yes. I have now doubt it will be uncomfortable for you from what you have said, but it is a great way to show others you care. You don’t have to broadcast to the world that you went either. I appreciate all you guys trying to help me through this – these are all good ideas and it helps to know the strategies that others have used. I guess that toughest thing about the history with me is not so much that it hasn’t been fairly presented by my church, but that real people who had qualities of nobility IMO are presented in a negative light. It just isn’t fair, but it is reality and I got to deal with it. The first time I read about the Zina Huntington and Henry Jacobs story, I did cry (thankfully, I was alone). I felt so badly about the situation they were in and I projected myself into the story along with my wife and thought about what I would do if the prophet said she belonged to him. I would have looked for another church
:clap: I suppose this will get better/easier with time. I’ve really only been going through this for just over the last year or so.
I appreciate your comments, Mom3, as well as everyone’s here. Your insights have been very insightful to me as I have been going through this transition over the last year or so. I really like that this forum is respectful and doesn’t just rip on everything. I think the people here are realistic, but keep positive instead of just tearing things down. The tone is refreshing compared to other things out on the Internet.
