- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
AmyJ wrote:
mom3 wrote:
Nibbler – this may seem trite, it is meant with sincerity, I am sending hugs.Like Heber said, I am glad you found some bright spot in life. That love exists somewhere.
I am coming to the conclusion that life is perception. The hardest part is not having someone to share your perception with.
I think part of the not having someone to share your perception with is mourning the loss of the unrealistic expectation that the perceptions were supposed to be the same, supposed to be equal. I find that in my relationship with my husband at unexpected junctions in life.
I do think we learn a lot when we evaluate expectations vs reality.
I only mention the block thing because I was trying to come up with why church has been so unsatisfying for me lately. I like where many of the doctrines point, not all but many. I don’t really have an issue with history, nothing is going to change the past. But the 3 hour block feels alienating. Interacting with others outside of the formalities associated with the block makes for a better experience. Is there a way to drop some of those formalities to make the block more enjoyable? Minyan Man wrote:
With PH being combined, EQ & HP there seems to be less discussion.
This may be a function of the quantity of people, the more people there are the less discussion there is. I think there would be more participation and real discussion if the class sizes were smaller. Of course then the challenge is that you’d need that many more discussion leaders.
nibbler wrote:
Is there a way to drop some of those formalities to make the block more enjoyable?
I think it would be awesome if they rearranged the 3 hour block like this:
-1st hour: Sacrament Meeting
2nd hour: Lunch. Have a potluck, social gathering to build comradery. Maybe tie in some Sunday service, like packaging welfare bags for third world countries.
– Sunday school. Have different classes geared towards different gospel principles/virtues. Need to work on gratitude? There’s a class for that. Need more charity? There’s a class for that too. An “Addiction Recovery” class would also be AWESOME, if the stigma was removed, and the membership recognize we all have addictions.
Get rid of “Gospel Doctrine”, “Gospel Essentials” (shouldn’t it all be “essential”?), Priesthood, and Relief Society. If family is so important, keep them together as much as possible.
dande48 wrote:
nibbler wrote:
Is there a way to drop some of those formalities to make the block more enjoyable?
I think it would be awesome if they rearranged the 3 hour block like this:
-1st hour: Sacrament Meeting
2nd hour: Lunch. Have a potluck, social gathering to build comradery. Maybe tie in some Sunday service, like packaging welfare bags for third world countries.
– Sunday school. Have different classes geared towards different gospel principles/virtues. Need to work on gratitude? There’s a class for that. Need more charity? There’s a class for that too. An “Addiction Recovery” class would also be AWESOME, if the stigma was removed, and the membership recognize we all have addictions.
Get rid of “Gospel Doctrine”, “Gospel Essentials” (shouldn’t it all be “essential”?), Priesthood, and Relief Society. If family is so important, keep them together as much as possible.
I LOVE THIS!
I would add the following:
2nd Hour:Childless families rotate sitting with and getting to know families with children for at least 20 minutes a Sunday. This will help build ties between families, and assist the families in corralling the kids. It also assists in dissolving the cliques among the 50+ age group. 3rd Hour Primary: NOTE: This would require an entire restructuring of the program. There are 3 groupings that can be either Sharing Time/Singing Time, Sharing time/Group Lesson, or a Group Lesson. Nursery includes the 3 year old group and has 2 teachers. An additional teacher is called for every 5 chlidren.
A)
Group 1 [4-6 years](probably Sharing Time with 1 song). 
Group 2 [6-8, optionally including up to age 12 singers ](Sharing Time/Singing Time (for those kids who want to sing)) C)
Group 3 [8-12 years]– Group Lesson Each group has 1 Primary Presidency Member and 1 called teacher. Parents of children in that age group rotate in weekly to assist – 1 additional parent for every 10 children. For children with additional needs (and their parents), as needed assessments would be scheduled in for meeting those needs.
NOTE: Children age 11 and 12 can opt for the “Sunday School” class of choice provided that they attend with their parent. The Primary’s responsibility is discharged if there is a) a written form stating this is the new way of doing things for the child, b) the Primary Board Member gets verbal confirmation from a parent directly.
We have about 25 children in our branch primary. Under this setup, the requirements would be 8 people for 1 hour. This manages burnout more easily, provides legal protection (the 2 adult rule), and breaks it down so that the children are where they want to be subject-wise (mostly). The Primary Board Member and the main teacher could switch off teaching the actual lesson while being supported by parents available to sit keep an eye on the children.
Yesterday was the nine year anniversary of our daughters stillbirth. Our ward Relief Society President came over unprompted with a bouquet of flowers and a meal. She does this every year. I have a very different worldview than many of the people at church. Sometimes they frustrate me. Then I witness these acts of service that remind me that there is goodness happening here – much of the time quietly and unsung – just part of the tapestry.
In Elders Quorum today, the assistant who led the discussion said he had been thinking a lot about how to balance the spiritual and the secular in our pursuit of understanding truth and that he wanted to get input from everyone about that question. It was a wonderful discussion that was focused on things like studying from secular experts, not believing and passing on divisive, critical memes on social media, not arguing with people who know more about a topic than you do (“Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.”), talking with people who are different to understand what it is like to be different (Mormon, African-American, gay, immigrant, etc.), erring on the side of empathy and charity rather than judgmentalism, not pitting religion against science, realizing previous church leaders and members had mistaken beliefs about science (the example of Joseph Fielding Smith saying humans would never walk on the moon), being able to say “I don’t know,” etc. I know how hard it is to be in a unit where this sort of discussion doesn’t happen, but it is important to realize these types of discussions do happen more than we realize.
I did a teacher’s council today and it went well. 7 people attended, and I did it as lecture/discussion. Everyone seemed to really get a lot out the lesson. I decided just to be myself and told them I was going to speak like an Academic. After running through the basics of operant conditioning techniques, including our terminology, I then showed how they could be adapted to handling disruptions in class. They laughed a lot at my jokes, which was very rewarding. It was because I had a personal relationship with most of them, and a good one too borne out of various times I served them. It went very well, and I was very happy overall with my day.
Afterwards a member of the Bpric came over and talked to my son, extended a new calling to my wife, which she accepted. He left me alone. I’ll keep doing the bare minimum with the teacher’s council to stay off the radar.
Overall, a very good church day. Two hour church is absolutely wonderful isn’t it!
It’s time to bump this up again. My wife is a Primary teacher. She loves the calling & her students seem to like her. They are 4 & 5 yr olds.
Recently a little girl came up to my DW & they had a little discussion before sacrament meeting.
As they were talking the LD (little darling) looked at me & said to my wife,
Quote:Is this your Daddy?
My wife explainedQuote:No, this is my husband.
They continued their conversation but the LD keep looking
at me. It was obvious to me that this explanation did not compute.
I said to my wife after,
Quote:I have to start taking better care of myself.
And we laughed.
Or every once in a while I’ll ask
Quote:Who’s your Daddy?
The innocence of a little child is wonderful way to start a sacrament meeting.
I hope it happens again very soon.
My 11 yr old son was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood as a deacon. I appreciate that he is able to be included in the sacrament service. My 13 yr old daughter was called and set apart as YW class president. We are not the most active family and this calling could have gone to the daughters of bishopric members. I wonder if the leaders might have suggested my daughter as a way to get her more involved and included. I am all for it. DD can grow her leadership qualities and help plan activities that she may be interested in.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.