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SilentDawning wrote:
That’s for another thread, and I think I mentioned it before about the difficulty I have reconciling what my heart is telling me (that’ it’s not as true as everyone says Mormonism is), and the spiritual experiences I had, particularly as a missionary.
It might be for another thread and if this starts to derail too much we can do that. I think however this is related to the conversation.
So here is a perspective on those spiritual experiences or feelings many of us have had as missionaries or in leadership or teaching positions. I believe God or the Holy Spirit or whatever can witness of truth or help us to recognize truth. I won’t deny that I have had such experiences, and some of my very limited LDS testimony is related to such experiences. Maybe God witnesses to us even when there is a partial truth being taught/discussed/pondered? As an example, what if God is witnessing that Joseph Smith had a very powerful spiritual experience, but not necessarily that he saw God and/or Jesus (because reading the multiple accounts, its’ really not clear what or who he saw)? Or what if God is witnessing that there is truth in the Book of Mormon, but not that every word is actually gospel or the word of God? I suppose there could be myriad examples. For what it’s worth, I think this is a plausible theory, but don’t necessarily completely buy into – primarily because of other factors like confirmation bias. But it could be so.
One of the things I have thought about is that humans have an assumption that “true = always true” for statements and that those statements don’t always hold true as different pieces of reality shift. EXAMPLES:
My teenager is going into 10th grade in a few weeks. They will 100% be a 10th grader for as long as they are enrolled and/or the school year lasts – June 2026 according to our school district calendar. The fact that at different time-anchoring points, they weren’t a 10th grader or won’t be a 10th grader anymore doesn’t invalidate that for the time period August 2025 through May 2026, they are a 10th grader.
My baby is going to 9 years of age later on this month. In our state, they “graduated” away from a mandatory car seat/booster seat because they hit specific age, weight, and height requirements to sit in the back seat safely about 6 months ago. It was “true” that my child needed a car seat as a baby and in other phases of their lives. It is questionable that they wouldn’t be safer in a big kid booster seat still, but my child and the state agree that the “truth of the matter” is that my child can be safe enough in the back seat of my car without one.
CONCLUSION:
I choose to see previous testimonies and “truths” as what younger me understood and valued while recognizing that older me has had different experiences and has come to different “truthful” conclusions. I think that all humans are like that.
AmyJ wrote:
I choose to see previous testimonies and “truths” as what younger me understood and valued while recognizing that older me has had different experiences and has come to different “truthful” conclusions. I think that all humans are like that.
Agreed! 100%
AmyJ wrote:
One of the things I have thought about is that humans have an assumption that “true = always true” for statements and that those statements don’t always hold true as different pieces of reality shift.
The example I use for this is wearing a coat. In the winter wearing a coat is appropriate, necessary even. In the summer wearing a coat can be deadly.
Just because wearing a coat is the correct or helpful thing to do in the winter doesn’t mean it’s the correct or helpful thing to do for every circumstance.
Relating that back to church; church can be very helpful for people in a certain demographic, people in a specific phase of life, or people at a specific stage in their faith development. That doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing for absolutely everyone. There may be times where you put on the church, like a coat, and take it off in warmer weather, or even put it on and take it off multiple times per day as you transition from indoors to outdoors.
Adding onto Nibbler’s example: My daughter goes through phases where she needs something on the top of her head to go through life in a more normal, care-free way. Last summer, it was a hideous, matted multi-color monstrosity of a cheap wig that we had bought the previous fall. I tried to get it off of her head, tried to find a replacement (this was before we bought a cheap pink baseball cap that probably would have worked), and nothing would get her out the door to her doctor’s appointment except for that headgear. My daughter was the star of the show that day as the office staff complimented her and smiled or laughed at her wig and the doctor joined in her headgear enthusiasm.
I personally wouldn’t have ever been caught dead in wearing a wig – especially that wig. But the cost of my parenting skills being condemned (“She let her daughter wear
thatto the appointment” in a disdainful tone)rather then approved (“It’s cool that her mom supported her and let her change things up”) was a risk I was willing to take to make the transition out into the world to the doctor’s office a little easier on the both of us. This year, we have the more socially expected pink baseball hat and my daughter actually doesn’t need anything on top of her head as much. And I sometimes miss the hideous wig…
If we have a Heavenly Father, I want there to be a Heavenly Mother. If we can become like them there will be Heavenly Mothers.
I don’t care if that is what he meant. It is a way I agree 100% with both things he said.
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