bluebell

I'll watch it!

Sometimes there’s the idea that if some sacrifice is good then more is better. If and when God asks me to sacrifice then I will do my best. But sacrificing for sacrifice’s sake doesn’t make sense to me.

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

The same happened to my son.

Probably because it’s a sacrifice and they are comfortable with the current sacrifice that is asked of them. I know when I served in the late 90s the elders were always joking and complaining about how unfair it was that they had to serve for two years and we got to serve for 18 months. Speaking personally, I think 18 months is a great enough sacrifice for young women. They will have to sacrifice body, health, and time in the name of becoming mothers that will never be comprehensible to or sharable by men. I’m totally fine with men sacrificing more for missions.

My friend and I were just talking about whether or not the church will extend sister missions to 2 years. Her daughter got home about a year ago and her other daughter will be leaving in about 4 months. Both hated the idea of a two year mission. 😆

I’d heard the age difference was because serving wasn’t a duty for girls like it was for boys. Plus it helped tamp down mission romances. But as far as I know it’s all just rumors and myth. I don’t think the church has ever explained the age difference (at least not that I ever heard). The church is secretive about weird stuff sometimes.

Still 18 months AFAIK.

It’s good that the policies are equal now, and it’ll probably increase the romance rate between sisters and elders in missions some so yay for the mission presidents and their wives! Hopefully it won’t be as traumatic of a change as the last age change, but at least we got weekly phone calls out of that increase in mental health stress.

I know that when I got a gratitude journal that required me to write three things down every day that I was thankful for, life seemed to get better even though nothing else changed. You really do find what you are looking for and if you are looking for reasons to be cynical or to feel picked on or to doubt God's interest in your life, you'll find them. When you become committed to looking for the opposite, the sun starts to come out.

Respectfully asking, are you fundamentalist or evangelical? Because those are typically the denominations that espouse the belief that marriage should be a parent/child relationship between the husband and wife. It’s interesting that you refer to a wife as a partner, but then go on to describe a hierarchical relationship where the wife is actually a subordinate. I don’t mean that in a snarky way, I mean in a confused way.

They did. Then members were vocal about wanting to keep it so it was only gone for a few months I think.

I've always seen it as them acknowledging that God's will is not always our will and that we don't dictate what a blessing will look like from Him. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the 'expecting' blessings though. My patriarchal blessing specifically tells me that I can "expect many blessings throughout your life" because of the phrase that comes before that line, and I believe it. I also had a bishop a few years ago who had cancer when he was 16, back when cancer treatments were not great (in the 80s). He was eventually told he was cancer free but the cancer came back a short time later and when they found it that time he was only given a few days to live. But he lived, served a mission, got married, and had two kids. Unfortunately, the treatments in those days were so dangerous that he developed cancer another time as an adult from the radiation treatment he was given in the past. He also suffered many other side effects from the treatments for his entire life, and eventually died a few years ago in his 50s from them. He worked as a motivational speaker to fortune 500 companies and wrote a book called "Make room for the Miracle". I've never met a man more full of faith and trust in God than him and one of the things that his story taught me is that when we have faith in God we expect blessings, but we don't dictate outcomes. We make room for God to bless us, and then we are grateful for whatever those blessings are.

I think most of us are like a monet painting; beautiful from a distance but up close, kind of a mess. Some messes we are willing to tolerate and others we aren't. Some messes we have mercy for and some we don't. For me personally, it probably depends on the day and how long it has been since I last ate. I can be very forgiving and charitable and I can be very self-righteous and judgmental. Sometimes I dislike me, so I can see why other people sometimes dislike me too.

I think there is a difference between obedience that begets blessings, and the spiritually immature action of being obedient for the blessings. One does not have to lead to the other. I think the story of the friends of daniel (whose names I am not going to try to spell) being thrown into the furnace. They knew that God would bless them for their obedience and had faith that they would be spared, but even if the blessing did not come in that specific way and they died in the furnace, they would still obey Him. That story is a great example of looking for and expecting blessings and yet not doing something for the blessings.

I'll disagree with you a bit on this one because I actually think this is a really good mindset. In those verses God Himself encourages the mindset but commanding us to prove Him and see what blessings come when we are obedient. Noticing when God keeps His promises, seeing His hand in our lives, etc. Those are all things that are paramount to being able to have faith and trust in Him. They are the "evidences of things not seen" that our faith needs to be built on. I agree with you in that I don't think it's a good mindset to be obedient in an attempt to secure specific blessings though. There's a difference between looking for blessings and looking for specific blessings. One is good and the other almost always causes problems. We don't pay tithing and look for a check in the mail. Or so yes to a calling so we get the job we want, or serve our neighbor so our kids are active in the church. That's a black hole faith crisis that is going to suck you in sooner or later.

There is definitely been a lot of changes in how things are organized since the beginning. But it really doesn’t make any sense to think of the church patriarch as being the highest authority in the church. I mean, Joseph Smith never took any marching orders from the patriarch when he was alive did he? (sincere question) And it seems like all revelations concerning the church patriarch came through Joseph Smith or other prophets. We don’t have any records of the church patriarch getting a revelation for the entire church do we? Did the church patriarch hold any keys? It seems like all of those would be evidence that we could use to see where the patriarch actually stood in the hierarchy of things over time.

I think I see what you mean but I’m not exactly sure? Do you mean they hate us because they aren’t able to convince us that they are right about us? That they hate us because we just keep on keeping on regardless of their opinions about us? Or were you talking about something with sports?

Or they don’t actually know any latter-day Saints in person, and they’re getting most of their information from sources that don’t like us.

But I thought that the First Presidency has always outranked (for lack of a better term) everyone else?

How so?

I only remember this because I just read it in the newsroom release, but holding conferences was actually one of the things JS was commanded to do. It talks about it in D&C 20 and probably other places too, I'm not sure. But how they are currently organized wasn't a part of any written revelation I don't think. I'm sure much of how they run right now is tradition.

I assume they believed they were doing God’s work within the church here.

It is interesting that we are supposed to have stake priesthood meetings each year but there is no requirement for a general priesthood meeting.

I knew it looked wrong but could not figure out why!