September 2007 Entries
By: Belladonna
Today I was finally set apart as Enrichment leader in our ward. (I was sustained several weeks ago.) So now it is official. I truly am out of Primary. (BIG SIGH.) That's not a sigh of relief, mind you. It is one of ambivalence. I completely understand that all callings are for a season and that I grow spiritually as I accept both callings AND releases. But this particular release has been more difficult than most for me.
By: Paradox
And is it our fault if they do?
By: The Baron
[An occasional series discussing recent movies in theaters or on DVD from an LDS perspective. Other articles on strictly LDS movies can be found here]
Personal debt is an oft-referenced topic in the Church despite not having an obvious spiritual relationship to the plan of salvation. One might wonder why avoiding debt is a spiritual issue at all—but if you hear that over half of divorces have ‘financial difficulties’ as a primary factor, then ‘avoiding debt’ turns into ‘making your marriage stronger—almost by default’…and the relationship between debt and the plan of salvation becomes clear.
By: Starfoxy
A piece of advice I've heard over and over again from various sources is to 'practice church' during the week. How on earth do you go about doing that, exactly?
By: The Baron
Imagine you're stepping on college campus for the first time as a freshman. The college administration, in an effort to help you find the most suitable core history class to take, gives you a survey about what you believe:
#1: The American Civil War:
a) was won by the North (the Union).
b) was won by the South (the Confederacy).
c) never happened--America was never at war with itself.
By: Starfoxy
I'm sure I'm not the only person who gets nervous when praying for a large group. I've only prayed in Sacrament meeting once or twice and was rather nervous both times. Because of this it is not suprising to me when someone does something like praying for the health and safety of their children by name in a large group meeting.
By: The Baron
According to this site, I’m 70% Feminist, despite my plethora of (very manly, muscular) Y chromosomes.
“Feminism” is one of those buzzwords that means vastly different things to different people—why people tend to talk past one another when the subject is brought up, since each person has a unique (and often mutually contradictory) mental paradigm of what the term ‘feminism’ encompasses. After all, are we talking ‘women-are-people-too’ feminism, or ‘marriage-is-bondage-men-are-rapists’ feminism?
By: The Baron
Two quick facts:
1. I live in Utah
2. I know *lots* of people who smoke.
#1 and #2 considered together may surprise some, considering Utah's reputation, but it's true: Utah has lots of smokers. I see them every day: at work, outside of stores, and on the road. I don't know how statistically Utah ranks in smokers per capita, but by my unscientific count, Utah is nowhere near the bottom.
By: Starfoxy
One of the more enjoyable games I've used to successfully teach a song is as follows. I write all of the words to the song up on the chalkboard. We recite the words together without music once or twice, then sing the song through. At this point I pick someone to select a word (or two) from the song, and I erase every instance of that word from the board.
By: Eric Nielson
Asking 'Why?' can be a good way to learn. When you ask why, you get more than just the bare facts, you get the reasons behind the facts. The inquisitive truth seeker will frequently ask why about many things.
Asking why can have other motives as well. A parent may ask a child to clean their room. This child might ask why. When the parent gives a reasonable answer, the child immediately asks why again. A patient parent may give another reasonable answer, to which another why comes from the child. At this point many parents might say 'Just do it', or 'because I said so'. The child in this example is not looking for deep and meaningful insights, they are trying to get out of doing something they do not want to do. So they ask why as a distraction or a delay tactic. It can be an annoying form of rebellion.
The company I work for is trying to implement lean manufacturing methods similar to Toyota Motor Company. One of the Toyota methods of problem solving is to ask why five times. An example is given in a book I am reading that goes something like this:
By: Belladonna
I've heard it said that active LDS people are some of the busiest people on earth. Not only do we have high standards of performance for ourselves in our jobs and family relationships, we also devote much time to church callings AND often taken on other responsibilities in our communities. Yes indeed, many of us are feeling the pressure of a very full plate.
By: Belladonna
This year has gone past in a flurry. How can it possibly be September again already? As we wind down summer my thoughts turn to preparing for holidays and holy days. September brings us Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan.
By: The Baron
Taking a secondary element from Paradox’s thread on favorite scriptures: Scriptural marking methods (of which Paradox and Stady shared a bit of theirs) are a topic worthy of further discussion.
I have seen the personal scriptures of a great many wonderful, faithful church members, where opening their scriptures to almost any page reveals a sea of red. Red words, red sentences, even entire sections of scriptural verses, all shaded in lovely red pencil. Some pages have even more red (marked) sections than white (unmarked) sections.