- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Sunday I attended all three hours at church for the first time in months. The elders quorum president was out of town on an anniversary getaway, and he asked me to attend Ward Council. I haven’t been to sacrament meeting in months, and I’ve really felt the need to participate in the sacrament. Since the president was gone, I also stayed to conduct elders quorum in his absence. I really felt something in sacrament meeting. It was the spirit. It felt distinctly different from emotions. It was a very peaceful feeling. I felt very grateful for the experience, and felt spiritually nourished.
After the sacrament ordinance, there was supposed to be a youth speaker, but he didn’t show up. As the next. Something in the talk caused me to think about Fowler stages of faith, and how I am feeling that I am slowly developing a stage 5 approach to my spirituality. During her talk, a deacon approached the pew I was sitting on and handed me a note. It was written by the Bishop. He asked if I would come up to the stand and bear my testimony in order to fill up some of the time that would have been taken by the youth speaker. For a moment I thought to myself, “What can I possibly testify of right now?” Instead of the usual testimony, I looked for some Scriptures that fit in with the theme of the meeting, which was becoming like a little child. Stage 5 can be characterized as a “second naïveté”. I testified of the truths in the primary song “I’m Trying to Be like Jesus”. I also talked about charity, and my favorite chapter in the book of Mormon (Moroni chapter 7). It felt… genuine. I love doing this kind of extemporaneous speaking. I’d be happy to teach every week and give talks every week. (Well, maybe not every week.)
I ended up talking with the first counselor in the bishopric about my current health trials. (My hands and arms are cramping so much that I am unable to play musical instruments or type. I’m dictating this post using dictation software). I spent the rest of Sunday school talking with the second counselor in the elders quorum presidency about what we needed to do in our meeting. We are currently redrawing all of the home teaching districts and assigning new companionships and lists. We’re going to be rolling these out in December at a home teaching conference which will be held during church, at which we’re even going to have food. This is done on a regular basis by the relief Society. I think this will be good. It will be a hard reset of the home teaching in the Ward.
In elders quorum, we ended up hashing out the Lorenzo Snow Kirtland banking scandal lesson. After having read Rough Stone Rolling, this lesson was anything but simple for me. It really illustrated just how misleading the church’s current manuals can be with regard to the history of the church, especially when a call for faithful attitudes is based on possibly spurious historical analysis. Eek!
So, even though it was a mixed bag, I felt pretty good about my day at church. It goes by quickly when you’re in charge of something. And, you know, I did feel the spirit. And I know it wasn’t my emotions. How confusing!
Sounds like a really good day – and I like that your Bishop asked you to bear your testimony, knowing what you’re going through and expecting something non-traditional. He’s a good man. Thanks for sharing this with us.
That is why I keep going back. I have those little spiritual uplifts and I know it. I love those but then I have the elders quorum stuff that makes me not want to go anymore. So, for now, I am holding onto those spiritual prompts and just enjoying those for a couple of days when they happen. Thanks for sharing your day.
Thanks for sharing. I hope my first trips back are as nice. turinturambar wrote:Stage 5 can be characterized as a “second naïveté”.
. . . . .
In elders quorum, we ended up hashing out the Lorenzo Snow Kirtland banking scandal lesson. After having read Rough Stone Rolling, this lesson was anything but simple for me. It really illustrated just how misleading the church’s current manuals can be with regard to the history of the church,
especially when a call for faithful attitudes is based on possibly spurious historical analysis.Eek! So, even though it was a mixed bag, I felt pretty good about my day at church. It goes by quickly when you’re in charge of something. And, you know, I did feel the spirit. And I know it wasn’t my emotions. How confusing!
Is your Stage 5 “quote” from somewhere? If you have a reference, I’d appreciate it.
I hope you feel better soon. Very sobering to read that the post was written with dictation software. Thanks for doing it.
I am happy for you for the day you had. It is nice when we are given something like that but I am sorry you are suffering from some health issues.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.