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I had an experience last week where I attended a youth activity with one of my children, and at the end of a break-out session someone asked me to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon. My daughter was with me, so this was an awkward moment. Thanks to the thinking afforded at this site, I was able to get over the awkwardness immediately. I simply focused on Joseph Smith’s statement that “you can get closer to God through the BoM than by any other book”. I then shared passages that helped me feel close to God throughout my life. So, the testimony focused on the goodness of the book, and its impact on my spirituality and not on necesasrily attaching it to absolute truth. I sat down afterwards and felt no sense of hypocrisy or anything — everything I said, was true.
So, if you have family that you don’t want to harm through your trial of faith, I think it’s wise to have things to say which are authentic to you, acceptable in meetings, and not faith-detracting. I actually felt enriched by the experience afterwards too. So, sharing life principles helped me feel good about being part of the meetings, and part of the community, even though I’d felt estranged recently.
A good experience over all. Although I’d never put anyone on the spot about bearing their testimony about a specific principle, in this case, I’m glad the woman conducting the meeting actually did so.
Thanks for sharing this experience. It illustrates a very important, profound principle, imo – about FAR more than just church. That’s cool SD, thanks for sharing the experience. That hasn’t really happened to me in a long while. I am pretty sure I could do something like you did comfortably. I’ve had a lot of practice talking about the positive aspects of my “testimony” on sites like this while being honest and authentic to my views.
I really is a good idea to perhaps think through a form of testimony we could share publicly, for those of us in a position where we might get a surprise request like this. Great idea!
I think I will be soon. I think you did right SD. In the words of the song, “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative”.
Personally I’m sick of cliche testimonies (you know!), so it’s good to hear ones that are a bit different. They are often the most sincere and moving.
For some reason after reading this thread I was reminded of this testimony on Mormon Scholars Testify. Not your typical LDS testimony, that’s for sure. Actually, yes, I’ve been put on the spot twice recently. It’s tough because I really dislike testimony bearing in general, not just doing it, but also testimony meeting. It seems with our kids, we are often asked to do so in different settings, but it always seems to be me as the mother getting asked to do so. It always makes me feel “on the spot” as you say. I dislike emotional displays, but being called on to do that impromptu always makes me nervous, uncomfortable and emotional. This is a practice that needs to stop. I sometimes hope I might be able to pull off a simple refusal without causing too big of a stink. So far, I haven’t had to attempt it. I will probably chicken out, though. observant wrote:For some reason after reading this thread I was reminded of this testimony on Mormon Scholars Testify. Not your typical LDS testimony, that’s for sure.
http://mormonscholarstestify.org/1629/dan-wotherspoon I read his article. Although this moves our discussion on to a different path, he made a comment that I think might mirror a lot of our experiences — definitely my own experiences as I’ve gotten more serious about questioning our roots as a religion:
Quote:I loved being in school and exploring all the questions I’d been fascinated by my entire life, but as I allowed the power of the various theories I was studying to sink in, the certainties that I brought with me into my schooling fell—painfully—by the wayside. Since most of these certainties were deeply entwined with my Mormonism and the spiritual experiences I’d had within LDS contexts, as I began to deconstruct everything I’d ever felt sure about within the gospel I seriously wondered whether I would ever be able to stay within Mormonism’s fold. During my struggles to reorient myself in this new world in which everything I’d held “sacred” now felt human-made, I felt alienated from other members of my church, and the supportive community I’d found there now seemed like a distant memory. Did anyone else think about these things? Who can I talk to?
He seems to have weathered the storm…but he doesn’t comment on how we got himself out of Stage 4 and into State 5. He does comment on how he think the big picture of life is soul-building, and our Church is a good place for it, but I would have liked to have heard how he dealt with his doubts.
But a good read’ he’s quite a fluent writer.
The next best one or maybe even my favorite one is Trent Stephens. These testimonies actually surprise me because they are not cookie cutter ones liked you’d expect on such a site. I think Daniel Peterson has done a good job of mixing it up to avoid the cookie cutterish testimonies. It also gives hope to the fact that there is much diversity in this regard. Therefore, I feel I can give my testimony without using the standard jargon and say what it is in my heart.
My mom used to threaten my sister and I as little girls (7-10 years) old to bear our testimonies. She would pinch us hard and tell us she would not give us lunch money for school. She was mentally ill and I have long forgiven her, but to this day I think it is horrible to push people to bear their testimonies. This is why it greatly disturbed me when BKP said to bear your testimony even if you don’t have one. That a testimony comes in the bearing of one. A Testimony is a very precious thing and I know God wants us to give it out of love for Him without pressure. Spirituality is such a personal thing that I find it pretty unconscionable to force anyone to into sharing or doing things that they’d prefer not to. It’s private and personal and to be shared only as we feel it is appropriate. I’ve never made my children bear their testimony but I do remember on one occasion my mother made me: the Sunday I was confirmed. But other than that I’ve never really felt pressured to do or be anything other than who I am.
This is also the reason I loathe “Bishop’s night” at girl’s camp. When I went we got to say what we wanted within the sanctity of the group. Now the bishops and whoever stay to the girl’s testimony meeting. Yuck! There is nothing I’d want less as a YW woman than to have to share my feelings/testimony to a bunch of men who have no clue! This year when I was so “lucky” to attend my own daughter felt she could take a pass unlike another girl, whose parents were both there, said she had choice but to bear her testimony. So, so sad.
I just keep finding gems on MST today. Check out
Russell Arbon Fox. I won’t make anymore links but I feel like I just have to share these unconventional testimonies. I love Russell. He wrote an incredible post on Times & Seasons a while ago that is one of my all-time favorites. I’ll try to find it sometime and link it in a new post.
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