Sunday Musings

Church was really good today.

I have always enjoyed going to Church and found it to be an opportunity for reflection and renewal.

Some weeks are so crazy that the only time I have to spend thinking about my spirituality are those few moments just before I take the sacrament (and if the kids are being particularly rowdy, not even then).

We are, fortunately, at a really great stage with the kids. There is time during the week to read my scriptures and pray, and even time during the sacrament to think about the Savior and be really grateful for my blessings.

I am really thankful for that.

Today's Relief Society lesson was about repentance. While I thought it was a good lesson, at the same time I felt like it was a missed opportunity.

So many times in Church we talk about basic, gospel principles, which we all need. We even sometimes talk about deep doctrine, which we also need. But rarely do we talk about the pracical application of the principles of the Gospel in our day-to-day lives.

I know what I need to do, but sometimes I could use a little more how-to.

There was a quote in the lesson today by Joseph Smith which said, "Let not any man publish his own righteousness, for others can see that for him; sooner let him confess his sins, and then he will be forgiven, and he will bring forth more fruit."

I liked this quote because I think that this is something we are missing. We talk so often of what we are doing right, and about all the good things that we should be doing, but we rarely admit, publically, when we are stuggling and when we could use help.

That reminds me of another quote, "Finding help is easy. It's asking for help that's hard."

I am not saying that we should go around publically confessing our sins, especially the big ones! But wouldn't you love to hear someone say, "I'm really stuggling with finding a good time to have family prayer, and I could use some ideas." Or, "My personal scripture study isn't what I think it should be. I would love to hear how you do it."

I guess we can have those moments in our close, personal relationships, but I would really like to have those discussions in Relief Society. We are supposed to be sisters, and it seems the ideal place to have these type of discussions, but we don't.

I am in a good place now, but I think back to the times when going to church was hard, or when I really struggled with my testimony. I would have loved to know that I wasn't alone. That there were others who knew exactly what I was going through.

So, I am going to try a little harder to speak up...and avoid missing those opportunties. Who knows when we may get another one?