This morning I went to www.lds.org just to see what was on there, and wow! Front and center, there was a link to the general conference talk, "Returning to Faith" by Rosemary M. Wixom, the Primary General President. The link had a picture of a sad-looking middle-class white lady in her thirties, which is pretty much an accurate representative sample of Mormons who lose their faith these days, and the lady was sitting alone in her room, gazing towards a window. And the picture has a caption that says, "Afraid You're Losing Your Faith? Focus on What You Know." I feel for this lady! Ha! I know she's just a model, but if she was a real person, I would probably say something like, "You don't need to sit alone in your house and look longingly through windows, agonizing about anachronisms in the Book of Mormon! Just don your Pioneer Day garb and bake whole wheat bread!"
Anyway... you should go read this talk. It's great.
Sister Wixom is the sixty-fourth reason to stay LDS!
Oh and by the way, I just had another baby. Well, my wife had the baby. LOL. So now I've got three daughters, and my life is kind of busy and blah blah blah, so, I have not written as much on here as I'd like, but I want you to know that I'm still around. I still have faith in Jesus Christ and I believe that the LDS Church is a good Christian Church. As crazy as it sounds, I believe I have been divinely inspired to stay LDS.
I was a young men's secretary for about a year or two, but about two months ago I got released from that and now I teach a Primary class. It's a great calling and I'm excited to show the love of God to the little ones in my class each and every Sunday.
Take care.
I've loved discovering your blog as I'm prepping a R.S. lesson about Sis. Wixom's talk. I didn't pick it up while watching Conference, but the themes in her talk seem to be woven throughout Conference if one keeps reading the talks that follow hers in the May 2015 Ensign. That was also an interesting discovery. Collectively, these talks reinforce your "reason to stay #27... the Church Wants You." I plan to read your entire list. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Fran! I write this blog in solitude, so it's nice to hear from people who read it. When people leave comments, it makes me feel like I'm not writing to a brick wall. Thanks for thanking me.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a TBM, you may not want to read this blog. I wish there was a way I could prevent happy, content TBM's from finding this blog. The target audience I'm going for is people who are thinking about leaving the Church or going inactive. I suppose I'd also like some church leaders to read this blog.
I enjoy your blog and thank you for your work. I stay for a few general reasons:
ReplyDelete1. Divorce is a frightening possibility to resignation
2. I don't want to face complete social and family isolation
3. It might help prevent my kids from making negative life-altering decisions as they grow into adulthood. (Not that plenty of unbelievers haven't successfully raised kids without indoctrination, but it probably helps).
Great blog, thank you for writing it. I have been a bishop, in leadership positions my entire life. If I am being intellectually honest, I have learned of just too many inconsistencies in church history to say I believe in the church, but I still believe in the gospel and feel this is a good way to raise my still somewhat young family. If we can come together and try to make each other better people, I can support that. I just can no longer say that this is the only way...
ReplyDelete^ Anonymous, thanks for being intellectually honest. It makes all the difference to know there are others out there facing the same situation, especially those who have served in leadership roles.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog. It has been comforting to me as I'm trying to "figure out" what to do. I was born and raised in the church. My upbringing was somewhat finatical/ extreme due to some family distinction. Anyway... I'm 28 years old now and my husband and I had a temple marriage 4 years ago. My testimony has been on a roller coaster ride ever since I went through the temple for my endowments and just recently I've been unable to pretend to believe anymore. There's no way I can tell my family and I think my husband wants to stay in the church so I've been thinking that maybe I'll just keep going? Aaanyway... I'm rablmbling. I just wanted to say thank you for your point of view.
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