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I just want to share something that happened today. I was attending a ward in our stake, and felt the strong impression to share a brief testimony of the fact that God loves ALL his children – even those who struggle to remain active and faithful in the Church because they feel like they don’t fit in. As part of that testimony, I mentioned that I am a regular blogger and also an admin on a site that is dedicated to helping people who are struggling with their testimonies stay LDS – and how much I have learned about why people struggle through my blogging.
The minute the meeting ended, a woman in that ward came up to me and, with tears in her eyes, asked me for the name of the forum I had mentioned in my testimony. She said, “I know at least 5-6 people who I’d love to send there.” I saw her a few minutes later on her cell phone in the church kitchen talking with her son and giving him the information she had gotten from me, then we spent about 10 minutes talking about how it’s ok to be different. For example, I mentioned that it’s ok to be politically liberal, and she said, “and a Democrat!”
What struck me the hardest is that she said to me, “Is it ok to say that you are struggling from the pulpit in Sacrament Meeting?” This is a wonderful woman whose husband has taught Gospel Doctrine, and I told her that talking of her struggles from the pulpit is FINE, as long as she does so in a way that is sharing not dumping or venting – as long as it’s couched in “faithful terms” as part of her effort to endure to the end.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you privately, since she, her son and others might be showing up over the next few days. I didn’t want to make it a public post that might embarrass her in some way.
Interesting follow-up: I was in my own ward this afternoon, and one of the women bore her testimony of the message she has heard recently from the leaders of the Church that, “There are lots of different people with lots of different views in the Church.” She said, “I’ve never been comfortable not being a ‘cookie cutter Mormon’ – always feeling like I didn’t fit in fully. I’m grateful that our leaders are saying more and more that it’s OK not to be a ‘cookie cutter Mormon’.”
That is really great Ray. It really is. There are people out there struggling, and sometimes all they need to hear is a reassuring “it’s ok” from someone. It’s hard to spot them, and hard for them sometimes to bring it up. Old-Timer wrote:Interesting follow-up:
I was in my own ward this afternoon, and one of the women bore her testimony of the message she has heard recently from the leaders of the Church that, “There are lots of different people with lots of different views in the Church.” She said, “I’ve never been comfortable not being a ‘cookie cutter Mormon’ – always feeling like I didn’t fit in fully. I’m grateful that our leaders are saying more and more that it’s OK not to be a ‘cookie cutter Mormon’.”
This is great Ray, thanks!
Do you know what leader/talk the sister from the above quote was referring? I would like to have that reference in my library.
This is great to hear after sitting through a SS lesson emphasising absolutism and mentioning if something is going wrong in your life take a look at your worthiness.
Orson, I talked with the woman in my ward for a couple of minutes after Sacrament Meeting, and she didn’t mention any specific talks, but she brightened immediately when I mentioned Elder Wirthlin’s orchestra and piccolos analogy. She loves that talk. The interesting thing is that everyone in the ward chuckled and nodded during her testimony when she used the phrase “cookie cutter Mormon”.
Follow-up from today: I saw the sister I mentioned in the original post again today and asked her about her son. She said he had come to this site and found John’s Mormon Stories podcasts – and that he had called her ecstatic about how wonderful it was to read them. She said he sounded more positive about the Church than he had been in a very long time.
Just thought you would like to know.
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