Your Thoughts Please.

[Anonymous]

DarkJedi wrote:

I’m with AP. Graciously accept the gift as “thoughtful.” If you wanted to go a little farther, you could say something like “I really enjoyed Elder/Sister Soandso’s talk when I heard it. It’s nice to have it in print. I want you to know that I do listen to General Conference and I use the online tools which allow me to make notes and highlight, and that is then available across all my devices.” (This is all true and they may not realize what a great “blessing” it is to be able to do so because they’re stuck in Gutenberg’s world. )

I really like these ideas…this is probably what I would do. If you ignore it and do nothing, they may step up their efforts or draw their own conclusions of more worry about you being upset at them for it …blah blah blah.

I would give them reassurance you are a loving, appreciative, happy, spiritual, daughter-wife-mother trying to do good in this world, as they raised you to do.

Help direct the conversations with them to a safe place you can talk to them about it. Like DJ said…find a part of the Ensign you DO like, and shoot that back to them.

I might also see online if another magazine has a good article. Like this one in the current New Era….”Others had forgiven me. Why couldn’t I do the same?”. Show them you get access to stuff online, so they don’t need to waste the time and money to ship paper copies…this is a new age…and technology is great.

I would avoid talking about your husband’s situation, except to reiterate to them what an amazing guy he is, what he does for your children, his career…whatever stuff shows he is not “lost and wandering in the mists of sin”. He’s fine. And happy. And all is good.

Give them nothing to worry about or talk to your siblings about.

Lastly, I would try to find a controversial point to raise with them…so they see you have some valid points. SSM and the church’s position…if there is an angle you take to give them some thought so they see the church isn’t a bed of roses…in the real world…there are real issues…and those give you serious pause and that you are smart and you think through things…but while doing so, you can reassure them you’re responsible.

I do that with my mom and she responds to being open to talk about controversial topics…after I’ve calmed her fears that I’m not apostate…then we can have good adult conversations that challenge thought and still affirm love and happiness and faith and all that good stuff.

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