Feeling Again vs Just Thinking at Church

[Anonymous]

There was an excellent post from W&T today about “Reining in the Analyst,” how to start feeling at church, not just thinking: http://www.wheatandtares.org/2011/12/07/reigning-in-the-analyst/

I really enjoyed it and related to it.

[Anonymous]

At the end, he asks this question:

Quote:

And so I ask you, dear readers, what about Mormonism makes you feel? I’m not interested in whether or not you think Mormonism is true, I’m interested in what about it makes you feel good.

The good people — when they are in fact good, and stripped of judgmentalism. And the clean living.

Beyond that, not much recently. He lists the temple, service, service, service, and other things, but none of these resonate with me any longer, sadly.

I would add the Book of Mormon, but I’m afraid to read it recently because I don’t know how I will react to it given my new lens.

[Anonymous]

For me, the things I like are:

1. Any sacrament meeting where the primarly children participate.

2. Music, music, music…

3. A Missionary who passionately bares his testimony.

4. Watching young families with small children.

5. Service. (I’m not doing much now. I miss it & plan to in the near future.

6. Our family looks forward to seeing our Home Teacher. That hasn’t always been the case.

All of these things make me feel good.

I hope that my list grows in the future.

Mike from Milton.

[Anonymous]

SD, maybe you and I are “beyond feeling?” 🙂

[Anonymous]

I think so…the experience has had so much bad stuff dragged across it, it’s hard to feel postive about it at times. Hopefully that will change.

[Anonymous]

I’m very grateful for the theology – for what I call “pure Mormonism”. It still blows me away on a quite regular basis, when I sit quietly and think / meditate on the overall picture it paints. If I get too close to the canvas, I can get lost in the individual brush strokes or paint dots – but I really love the cosmic grandeur of what I believe to be the unique heart of Mormon theology.

I love the people, by and large. They are good, sincere people, by and large. I’m an odd duck in their midst, but they accept me. I’m grateful for that, since I know it doesn’t happen with everyone.

I love the community it provides for my kids, and I like the fact that I can rearrange the buondaries privately with them whenever I feel the need.

I love the opportunities it provides (or is supposed to provide) for the youth – the talks they give, the callings in which they serve, the leadership positions they can fill (even though I think we fail way too often in letting them learn to truly lead), etc. I like the same opportunities for the adults, even though their failures hurt more than those of the children and the youth.

There’s more, but that will do for now.

[Author]

Posts