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Also, in that same lesson someone pointed out that the good ground produced fruit at different levels – but it all counted as good. He then said we need to stop judging others who seem to “produce” less than others – that the key was enduring and producing whatever that person could contribute, even if that was only attending meetings once a month, just as an example. He said that still is good fruit. Old-Timer wrote:In Sunday School, we were talking about the parable of the sower and the different types of ground on which the seeds fall.
One woman (totally active and the wife of someone with a visible calling) said:
Quote:Sometimes, the ground shifts beneath you.
She wouldn’t have shared it, but her husband asked her to share with everyone what she had whispered to him.
We really don’t have any idea who is struggling with what. I simply know that we are not alone in doing the best we can to make sense of it all OR in having the ground shift beneath us in some way.
Ah, that “sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty.”
In stake conference two speakers in their end of talk testimonies said (words similar to) “I know the gospelis true” without mentioning the church. I realize few people probably noticed or didn’t recognize the difference – but I did. One of those speakers was a counselor in the SP. Relief Society was fantastic, we discussed with lots of great comments, Elder Hollands talk “Are we not all Beggars.” I felt like singing some Hallelujah chorus after it. I hope this won’t be considered a thread jack, but the experience has lingered with me; it’s “good things that happened a couple of weeks ago at an Episcopal church.” We were traveling. We got all dressed Sunday morning and went to the address lds.org gave us, but no church. So we slipped into this one. My husband had just been talking about how the Episcopal church is imploding, splintering, etc., but here’s what I experienced: More scriptures and references to Christ than in a typical month of sacrament meetings, more than twice the music, communion (not for me), passing the plate, greeting each other, reciting scriptures together and a group reading of the names on their prayer roll. There was coffee (not for me) and refreshments afterwards. I still missed “my” sacrament meeting, but it was a beautiful service. They were organized, loving and caring. Some things are universal, though. The announcements took up way too much time.
:yawn: I reeeealy hope this won’t be considered a thread jack but I’ve had similar experiences when visiting other churches. I think that’s because when I walk through the doors of some other church for the first time we’re still in our honeymoon phase. The LDS church and I are an old married couple. I know all of her faults and she knows all of mine, we push each other’s buttons, and the kids are screaming right when what we really need is a little silence. 
I hope this isn’t a threadjack, but . . . 
I like visiting other religions and experiencing their services. It’s good to be a visitor and have no obligations and responsibilities and expectations – to see most of the good and (usually) none of the bad.
Just saying . . .
nibbler wrote:and the kids are screaming right when what we really need is a little silence.
It helps if the church you are visiting has a good childcare/ children’s program going on during the worship service. Even better when you go to pick the kids up and the very organized and capable looking childcare staff tell you that your kids were wonderful – even though you suspect that they probably were not.
:angel: Ann – My husband is attending UU services. I take turns attending both. There are definite pluses and minuses, but I am glad you had a good experience. I really wish there was an LDS leadership drop box, if we could make Sacrament Meeting more Christ centered I think it would do a world of healing good for many people. That is one thing I love about my present ward, mom3 – and I think it is true of many wards. We tend to hear about more wards that aren’t because, let’s face it, most people in wards that are like you want aren’t online trying to find help in dealing with their wards being too Christ-centered.
😆 I dug the thread up because I have something to share. We recently had a young couple (20s, just out of BYU) move into our ward. This is unusual because our ward is not very appealing to young couples. There are no other young couples and we’ve aged considerably over the past 20 years. When I was ordained a HP 20 years ago I was the youngest guy in the group. I am still the second youngest guy at 55.
Anyway, the couple was asked to speak in SM and it was so refreshing. The brother made two points that really stuck out to me. He said we needn’t be afraid of worldly things like gay marriage – they do not affect us or what we believe, and we should just let the world do what it does while we do what we do. He specifically said that gay marriage does us no harm. The other thing that stuck out was that he said many of the things most of us see as doctrine really aren’t doctrine but are traditions, and he mentioned some specific things but said we needn’t focus on them because the are great things to focus on which are doctrine.
It was very refreshing to me not only because of the new energy these people can bring to us but also because they are RMs and BYU grads and have this wonderful mindset. I don’t think they are atypical of their generation and wish we had more of them to balance our ward.
Thanks for digging this up. Good points about what they shared in your meeting. I bet 10 years ago that would have received gasps…not so much anymore. I also had speakers in sacrament meeting share how they have doubted the gospel and doctrine, that there are many hard things to accept in church history. Very openly and plainly he put that out there. Then proceeded to have a very inspiring talk on how he worked through it and has faith in Christ, despite some issues that exist.
And it was warmly received by the congregation.
I don’t think these things are as uncommon or shocking as they once were. I think that is progress.
I think the most important thing darkjedi is that the focus was on Jesus Christ . I would like to see more members work toward being more Christ centered and get some distance from joseph Smith . Jesus Christ should always be our focus and we should live a life that reflects that !!! I’m glad you found this thread and mentioned it elsewhere, Nibbler. I had thought of some things awhile back that I thought were good for here but couldn’t find it. But I have another! In a stake PEC meeting we were discussing an upcoming stake conference and the SP was passing out assignments for things like setting up chairs and babysitting during adult session. A topic came up and he looked puzzled for a bit and said “How does that get done? I’ve never made an assignment but it always happens and I don’t know who does it.” A counselor knew who did it and chimed in. The SP then asked who asks him to do it to which the reply was no one. Then the SP said it’s minor but important and we should ask him. I drew the assignment, and the guy thanked me for asking. He then went on about other little things that happen in regard to conference that nobody seems to pay any attention to. He said another thing he noticed was that the SP never thanks the music people or ushers or those who set up the chairs and wondered if I’d mention it to him. I did bring it up at the following meeting, and the SP felt a bit embarrassed, thanked me for the input and took a minute of conference time to recognize all the help that goes into making conference happen.
I hadn’t noticed that the SP did this either, because he does thank the high council – in high council meeting. It’s a little thing but I think it went a long way.
Well then – thank you moderators for keeping this site true to the “stay LDS” theme. Thank you to all those that post here and make it a place worth reading and participating.
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