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Morris Thurston wrote a post on By Common Consent that published today entitled simply, “Tetimony”. It is wonderful, and I recommend it highly to everyone here: http://bycommonconsent.com/2011/11/02/testimony/ Just three quick excerpts:
Quote:Sometimes it helps to know others are struggling like us and don’t have all the answers.
Quote:I believe our Church has been and is led by prophets—men inspired by God. I believe these men have our interests at heart and are doing their best to lead us in the right direction. I also believe they are mortal—not perfect, not infallible, but inspired human beings. We know they have made mistakes in the past. We presume that mistakes will continue so long as our leaders are human. But, fortunately, God has given us the right to seek personal revelation to guide our own actions. I believe it is our duty to exercise that right.
Quote:There are things about the Church that my testimony does not encompass. I think women are just as capable of receiving revelation as men and should be given a greater leadership voice. I think we should love and support our gay brothers and sisters who desire to enter into a committed relationship. I’m not sure that polygamy is really an eternal principal. I think the Brethren should be allowed to wear colored dress shirts.
But I’m comforted that an apostle has said, during my lifetime: “The Church is not so much concerned with whether the thoughts of its members are orthodox or heterodox as it is that they shall have thoughts.”
Please read it and comment there and/or here.Quote:Sometimes it helps to know others are struggling like us and don’t have all the answers.
I have felt that bit of peace or relief, but I’ve always wondered why that is? It must be that I expect I should be faithful, that the stories at church that try to inspire us are examples of stalwart, non-doubting, heroic people with great faith. There aren’t very many stories of people that question or don’t know for sure, and so I put an incorrect assumption on myself that I must be doing something less valiant than the rest. Perhaps we all do that, as we know all our thoughts and failures, and we just see others outward actions…hardly a fair comparison.
Perhaps this relief is just allowing ourselves to be less than perfect, and that feels good, because that is closer to truth.
Several years ago when I was back East, our ward was challenged by the Stake President to read as families the entire Book of Mormon that year…the whole stake was challenged to do so. I tried to lead my family through it…but we failed miserably, and only read about half the book. I remember having some wonderful and spiritual discussions as a family…but we missed our goal.
One Fast and Testimony meeting in December, person after person got up, and shared how their family finished reading and the blessings it brought into their lives. Some even said they finished it and started over and finished it a second time. Then I stood and bore my testimony, that my family did not finish reading it…but it was such a good blessing in our life as we tried, even though we failed.
I had multiple people after the meeting get up and thank me. The RS Pres told me, “I’m so glad someone else didn’t finish reading the book…I thought it was just our family and I was thinking we were such losers! I am grateful for your honest testimony, it made me feel the spirit. The others made me just feel guilty and embarrassed.”
Perhaps we are more respected by others when we can show our warts and imperfections. Joseph Smith seemed to do that a lot, and people felt more respect for him because of it.
Those are my thoughts.
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