"WHERE ELSE COULD WE GO?.."

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_barrelomonkeys
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Post by _barrelomonkeys »

beastie wrote:Yeah, my kids had plenty of "church time" in their youth. When I left the LDS church, my oldest was almost 8, my middle 6, and the youngest 3/4, and had been attending church for three hours a week their entire lives. Then I went to the Episcopal church for a couple of years, taking them with me. So I guess by the time I quit attending any church, they'd had their fill, too, because the only one who still went with friends now and then was my youngest, my daughter, and it was a social more than religious function.


I can't get my boys to go at all. They pretty much just refuse and I don't push. My girls go for the social aspect. My oldest daughter appears to be very spiritual but she doesn't appear to gravitate toward any religion.

3 hours a week! I couldn't do it!
_beastie
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Post by _beastie »

I can't get my boys to go at all. They pretty much just refuse and I don't push. My girls go for the social aspect. My oldest daughter appears to be very spiritual but she doesn't appear to gravitate toward any religion.

3 hours a week! I couldn't do it!


To be more accurate, I should have specified that all those three hours took place Sunday morning (I went other times for other meetings during the week, but my kids didn't)

I had three babies in four years. It was delightful, just delightful, to try and get them to sit still and "listen" during three hours of straight meetings. :P

(you may not realize this, but LDS churches do not have a nursery in which babies and toddlers are watched during the "sermon" section of the meeting, a.k.a., sacrament meeting. They're expected to stay with their parents during the meeting, sit still and behave. Needless to say, every Sunday morning a small coterie of young parents stood around in the hallway with wriggling, crying babies and toddlers.)
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.

Penn & Teller

http://www.mormonmesoamerica.com
_barrelomonkeys
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Post by _barrelomonkeys »

beastie wrote:
I can't get my boys to go at all. They pretty much just refuse and I don't push. My girls go for the social aspect. My oldest daughter appears to be very spiritual but she doesn't appear to gravitate toward any religion.

3 hours a week! I couldn't do it!


To be more accurate, I should have specified that all those three hours took place Sunday morning (I went other times for other meetings during the week, but my kids didn't)

I had three babies in four years. It was delightful, just delightful, to try and get them to sit still and "listen" during three hours of straight meetings. :P

(you may not realize this, but LDS churches do not have a nursery in which babies and toddlers are watched during the "sermon" section of the meeting, a.k.a., sacrament meeting. They're expected to stay with their parents during the meeting, sit still and behave. Needless to say, every Sunday morning a small coterie of young parents stood around in the hallway with wriggling, crying babies and toddlers.)


That's actually one of the reasons I stopped attending Church. As I stood outside with my little ones I wondered what was the point. I spent all morning getting myself and the kids ready and then stood outside the chapel or in the meeting room waiting for it to be over.

What do you do for 3 hours every Sunday?
_Gazelam
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Post by _Gazelam »

It would be ridiculous for me to claim that "only Mormons are good"

that's obviously not the case.

The church is there to teach and instruct the members how to receive thew sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost. Like any school, the knowledge is only as useful as it is applied.

There is no guarantee that the church will make someone a better person than a nonmember, but it is the only source of a fullness of the gospel. Applied, it has no limitations to how far it can take you.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
_Polygamy Porter
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Post by _Polygamy Porter »

barrelomonkeys wrote:What do you do for 3 hours every Sunday?
Only Mrs. Porter knows!
_beastie
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Post by _beastie »

That's actually one of the reasons I stopped attending Church. As I stood outside with my little ones I wondered what was the point. I spent all morning getting myself and the kids ready and then stood outside the chapel or in the meeting room waiting for it to be over.

What do you do for 3 hours every Sunday?


Hoo, boy, the stress of those days. Getting three babies ready alone (then-husband at early bishopric meeting), one throws up the minute I'm trying to leave. Turn around, go back, change baby, back to the car. Get there late, stand in the hall juggling a baby on one hip, refereeing the other two, feeling guilty for not being one of those perfect Mormon mothers who could get seven kids to sit still (we had one of those, and she also lost every pound of baby weight before leaving the hospital in jeans) Not to mention trying to struggle with mid-week meetings. I ended up in a therapist's office (nonLDS, the LDS therapist was no help at all). Felt guilty for THAT, too.

What did we do for three hours? It was divided into three meetings, with more time spend in sacrament, the "sermon" meeting. There, aside from having the sacrament (what protestant churches call communion), three members of the ward are pre-chosen to give talks on assigned subjects. It's usually dreadfully boring. Then you have Sunday School, in which teachers use the preset curriculum material to teach lessons about various scripture-centered topics, pulling in church history at times. Then the women go to Relief Society, the men go to Priesthood. Again, the teachers deliver prepackaged curriculum material about aspects important to either being a woman and mother, or father and priesthood holder.

These lessons cycle over a four year period (at least they did when I was a member). They make new lesson material, so it's not exactly the same, but basically the same topics are covered over and over and over and over and over. There's a lot of repetition in LDS meetings, but that is true to SOME extent in all religions. But since "correlation" (in which the central church exerts tight control over what is taught), I think that trend is heightened in LDS meetings. Leaders recognize this repetition, and tell members it is their responsibility to learn SOMETHING NEW in every meeting, no matter how many times they think they've heard it before. :P
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.

Penn & Teller

http://www.mormonmesoamerica.com
_Gazelam
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Beastie

Post by _Gazelam »

If it makes you feel any better, I never use the pre-packaged lessons. Only if its a last minute type deal where the teacher didn't make it, and then only if I don't have an old lesson I made in a pocket in my scripture tote.

Tell ya what, you give me a topic to teach in priesthood next sunday, and that's the lesson I'll give. I'll post the lesson I make fresh in the Celestial room.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
_beastie
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Post by _beastie »

If it makes you feel any better, I never use the pre-packaged lessons. Only if its a last minute type deal where the teacher didn't make it, and then only if I don't have an old lesson I made in a pocket in my scripture tote.

Tell ya what, you give me a topic to teach in priesthood next sunday, and that's the lesson I'll give. I'll post the lesson I make fresh in the Celestial room.


Hey, neither did I, as either Gospel Doctrine teacher OR RS teacher, and people seemed to respond to that.

This is a very sweet offer, Gaz, but I've been out of the church so long, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what to suggest. Of course, if I'm being deviant, I'd suggest discussing the lack of contemporary evidence for the restoration of the MP. (devious smile)
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.

Penn & Teller

http://www.mormonmesoamerica.com
_barrelomonkeys
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Post by _barrelomonkeys »

Polygamy Porter wrote:
barrelomonkeys wrote:What do you do for 3 hours every Sunday?
Only Mrs. Porter knows!


We really need smilies here. *roll eyes*
_barrelomonkeys
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Post by _barrelomonkeys »

Beastie,

Oh, I knew one of those mothers too. Hated her!!! :)


What is the Relief Society?
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