Duty to God or Why my wife is awesome.

[Anonymous]

Let’s begin with a little background.

My son turned 12 about 6 months ago and we were given the whole ‘Duty to God’ sales pitch. I mean we (my son and I) were handed the booklet and told to do it and that the YM presidency would check in every few months to see how it’s going. My son looked it over quickly and gave me a look of “you have got to be kidding, you want me to do this”. I said we’d work on it together and then proceeded to not give it a single thought.

Then in August the Bishop annouces that we were going to start having priesthood opening exercises weekly, as we had only ever had them on HC Sundays in our ward. As part of this he announced that once a month a father and son would be talking about how they are working on DtG and the blessings they are recieving as a result. I glance at my son and he has the same expression on his face as I do, ‘Oh great’ :problem: I ask my son after church how he feels about the DtG thing and he responds that he just thinks it is a make work project, which I don’t totally disagree with.

Then yesterday we get a call from his Deacon’s quorum pres saying that at the request of the Bishop he has to ask my son some questions about his DtG goals. I politely tell him that I will talk to my son about DtG and that my son will call him back later. I then proceed to the church website and to find out exactely what the DtG entails for my son and for me.

My wife can immediately tell that I am annoyed with something and comes over and sits down beside me to see what I’m doing. She takes my laptop and starts reviewing the DtG info and starts the video that explains the program. We watch it and I sit and fume. She says that it doesn’t look to bad and she tries to explain it to me in her own words to help me understand things better, she doesn’t try to convince me that it is good, just explains things differently. She knows that the language the church uses (phrases, key words, etc.) bothers me and I often miss the bigger point as I get caught up in little problems. I then reach my frustration maximum and say “I know what it’s trying to do and all but WHY does it irritate me so much!” 😡

She looks at me and simply says “Because it’s a program and you simple don’t do programs because they are programs.” That’s all. She wasn’t mad, wasn’t frustrated, wasn’t annoyed. She didn’t try and convince me that we had to do the DtG program at all costs. She didn’t make me feel bad because I was having issues. She just said it and let me ponder. My problem with programs is that often the policies and procedures become more important than the people they were meant to serve. I come to the realization that it doesn’t have to be this way with DtG as the control comes from my son.

I take a minute and go back to the website and look over things again. I figure how I’m going to approach this DtG thing with my son. I call my son into the room and we sit down and figure out what steps we are going to take in the coming months.

All I needed was to know why I was annoyed and then I could figure out how to work through it. My wife may not be perfect, but she is perfect for me.

[Anonymous]

Quote:

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one’s deepest as well as one’s most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. — Dinah Craik

[Anonymous]

doug wrote:

Quote:

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one’s deepest as well as one’s most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. — Dinah Craik

+1

[Anonymous]

She sounds very wise, your wife.

[Anonymous]

You’re a lucky man. Make sure she knows you know that.

[Anonymous]

:clap:

[Anonymous]

Canucknuckle wrote:

My problem with programs is that often the policies and procedures become more important than the people they were meant to serve.

Amen! :clap:

[Author]

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