So I just read an awesome blog post that was written by an old friend. We grew up in the same ward and had a lot of very similar experiences growing up. We were best friends in the same group of friends and told each other everything since 7th(ish) grade. I LOVED her post. Not just because she mentioned my awesome mom(which by the way, made me start to cry-in a good way) but because i felt the same way. Incase you're interested, here it is.
http://vidaebom-sorrir.blogspot.com/2012/08/thoughts.html
My mom was put in as the relief society president in her LDS ward. She was asked (along with the other presidency members) to talk on her first day as president. She talked about how life isn't perfect, and your children don't always make the decisions in life that you would want them to make. Being one of the children that my mom was referring to, I didn't make the best decisions for a few years there.. and during that time of "exploration", i discovered my beliefs. Some of which i grew up with, or came to really understand after some major struggles. But then some of those experiences led me to my new beliefs about Gay rights, and missionary work. I feel like some people try to force their opinions at people and that includes their beliefs. And as for Gay rights stuff.. i have my opinions.. and they aren't always the same as the churches stand. (i lived in CA during the whole Prop8 thing.) and faced the issue that some church lessons were too focused on almost "condemning" people instead of teaching of Christ and his love for everyone. Sort of like the "bitten cookie" lesson I had when I was in young womans, which was an object lesson that some members would use during the chastity lesson. They would pass around a plate of cookies (some of which had bites already taken out of them) and everyone would take a cookie. No one wanted to take the cookies that already had bites taken out of them so everyone in the room took one of the "untouched" cookies. I knew where this lesson was going(my sister had the lesson a few years earlier at the worst possible time they could have had it in her life) and i took a bitten cookie. THAT threw a wrench in their lesson, but they still tried to ignore what i did, and proceeded with the lesson about how we need to wait until we are married to have sex, because no man would want a "bitten cookie". It's a lesson of fear. Christ and the Atonement wasn't mentioned a single time during the lesson.
People respond much better to a soft heart, than a hard one. And that, i believe is really what the church is supposed to be about. Sometimes our leaders and friends in the church may forget that when they mix their opinions and the caos that is going on around us with the intended lesson. I hope we can fix that. I am SO glad my mom was put in as the relief society president. i really feel like she will be able to help a lot of people through their hard times. Because believe me, thanks to me and my siblings.. she has been through enough hard times to be able to offer some comfort to others :)
