Sunday school: The lesson was on faith from the Gospel Principles Manual.
Non-member asked: why faith ingests? Why not God?
My thought: that's a good question, a really good question,
What I wish I heard: quoting Jesus, love God
What I said: he turns our attention to God. In all his teachings he said: follow me and the way to follow my example is to love God.
What i'm glad I heard: Another woman in the class referenced the 1st article of faith "we believe in God" with emphasis on we believe in God first before Christ.
What I heard: how to increase faith in God, study scriptures, go to church, act
What was missing: prayer was missing and that was a glaring omission
What I said: that prayer needs to be included because its an essential part to having faith in God is to develop a personal relationship through prayer. I later thought how prayer needs to be coupled with seeking revealed truth from sources already given. One without the other is not effective but both need to work together. Answers to prayers aren't given if its already written now and accessible to a person but that person refuses to seek it out and rather prayers for it through inspiration.
What I heard in Relief Society
Hymn: 273 truth reflects upon our senses, Eliza r snow
What I wish I heard: the last two verses sung, insight into the imperfect view we have of others, judge not
What I am so glad i heard in a lesson on honesty: an attack on white lies, not defense of them
What I heard: a story of a white lie told. Woman told how her son lied to someone when he said he loved plays, but it was not true. Then the person who was told the lie spoke up and said that she was the one lied to. Hilarious!
What I'm glad I heard: taking more than what we need takes from other is a form of theft and dishonestly, specifically mentioning over-consumption
What I wish I heard: More about the injustice present in the world when so many have more than enough and even more do not have enough. Would have loved to hear The Life You Can Save mentioned.
What I heard: gospel principles definition of cheating- workforce issues, injustice against employees
What I said: we have a role in standing up against that injustice and there are many opportunities to add our voice in opposition, consumer advocacy groups, workers rights. The internet provides some really effective, quick and easy ways of contacting legislators through organizations like Change.org, MomsRising, etc. What I wish I heard: recognition that women aren't likely to be in the role of the dishonest and oppressive employers because 1) Mormon women are discouraged from being in the work force and generally when they are in the work force are in low-paying, jobs required little skill and training and are not likely to be in leadership/corporate roles.
What I heard: people focusing fear of damnation for slight actions
What I wish I heard: people stating a balance of faith in repentance, desire to do the right thing, recognize the damage done to ourselves rather than focus on external punishments. Do some Mormons really believe that hell is an external punishment rather than the manifestations of our own conscience holding us accountable?
What I heard: hymn Oh Say What is Truth, last verse, loved it.
What I wish I heard: a talk on the transcendence of truth, maybe a blog post? Anyone know of a good article on this topic?
2 comments:
It looks like these "What I wish I heard" posts are making you speak up more. Are they? :)
I was actually thinking of writing a post on this. Yes, I am finding that I can speak up more. By categorizing what I wish I heard, I am able to sort through what I can feel comfortable saying and realize that I am able to say more than I thought. It helps that I'm in a new ward so I don't have to feel stuck in any persona. At this point, I'm creating how my ward members can see me: and that means wearing pants, speaking about advocacy and community involvement, bringing up women and the priesthood, then great! In my old ward, I felt stifled in my growth. Though I learned a great deal while I was in that ward, any of those things would have caused big red flags since they seem like drastic changes. In my new ward, they can think that I've always been like this. :-)
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