nymormon

Please get help! You are a Child of God. You are the Daughter of a King. You are of great worth. As you can see, many people are here waiting to hear how you are doing. Depression is very serious. Please let us know how you're doing.

Much of scripture is figurative, and should be taken as such. Some of it we can understand literally. The Book of Isaiah is mostly figurative, and each passage has 2 or more meanings. What one person understands, another person may not see at all. And, we may get a different meaning each time we read a passage. We should read the scriptures prayerfully, and ask for help in understanding what we are reading. We can most definitely go to the scriptures for answers to our questions, and concerns. The Spirit will guide us to the relevant passage, and we will find the meaning in it that the Spirit wants us to find.

As a rule, we are responsible for our children as long as they are under the age of 18. Up to that age, we have the right, and authority, to tell our children what to do, and they should honor our wishes. Even when we have the right to tell our kids what to do, they have their agency to honor our wishes or not. After the age of 18, if we are still paying their bills, we can still tell them what to do. But, once they are out on their own -- in their own apartment, working and paying their own bills -- then we most of the time have to bite our lip, or wait for an opportunity to counsel with them about what they are doing, or about our concerns. Also, consider that if they are doing anything illegal that you have the responsibility to report them to the proper authorities. If you have adult children living in your home, you need to have a family council and make up house rules. These rules need to be agreed upon by everyone in the house. I have simple rules in my house, and my adult children have honored them. Currently only one of my adult children lives with us. One of my children has managed to go in the opposite direction of what we taught. I work hard to respect all of my children. I love my children, I just don't have to love the way they live their lives. I keep praying that they will discover that the Church is the best place to be.

Does the church still own all or part of Coke or Coca-Cola? I think they did or maybe still do. No, the Church does not, and never did, own any or part of Coca Cola. That is an old urban legend that refuses to die.

In my many years in the Church, I have yet to see the Word of Wisdom state in any way, shape, or form, that we cannot drink coke. It is not mentioned at all. One of the Church Presidents, when asked about this, said that the Word of Wisdom states "hot drinks" which has been interpreted to mean coffee and tea. Many members have added to the Word of Wisdom, and include sodas and chocolate, but this is their personal choice. As with all things, we need to use common sense and moderation. If you choose to drink coke, fine, but also drink water. If you choose to not drink coke, then don't condemn the rest of us.

It sounds like you need to pay a visit to your doctor. I'd start with your family doctor, first. He may want you to have your eyes checked, but probably not. I'm sure he'll want to run a few tests, to see if he can determine what is wrong with you.

I am really sorry to hear about your problems. You are a very angry young man. The fact that you posted this means that you recognize that you need help. You don't say what your bishop's response was when you talked with him. You do need someone to talk to. Have you asked either your bishop or your parents if they could refer you to a counselor?

I think the best way to handle this is to reassure your children that their father is not about to loose his job, and that you are all in a position to help others. Let them know that what is happening to their aunt and uncle is not happening to them. You don't have to go into how shaky the economy is right now, or why their aunt and uncle are having problems. Simplify your answers to their questions to just the basic information. You could say something like, "Your Aunt Sue's deli isn't doing as good as she had hoped, and she doesn't have the money to keep it going. Uncle Mike may loose his job. Without jobs, they can't afford to keep their house. We thought we'd help them out by asking them to come stay with us until they can get back on their feet." You don't have to go into detail about how all of this happened. Sometimes complete honesty is not necessary, or even appropriate.

Thank you all for the wonderful welcomes. I hope that I enjoy it here. I'm looking forward to making many new friends!

Glad you liked my "twig" idea, Marianne. I thought it up when trying to describe how small my branch is. My branch covers quite a large area, but we just have so few active members. Today we were short 3 sisters in Primary, and there was only 1 to replace them! That gave me only3 sisters in Relief Society. I counted 36 people in Sacrament meeting. And that included 4 visitors! Our missionaries are working hard, but this is a tough area.

Ah, yes. Big Pine Key. Some members of the Church there live on Big Pine. That is a nice area, too. Have you been down there since Wilma? I never did get over the casino ship that got stranded on the sea grass off of Big Pine! I need to find out if it's still there! Wilma did a heck of a lot of damage. Many people lost everything they owned! Many folks had no homeowner's insurance! We lost everything on the ground floor of our house, and one car! I was on Stock Island, at a friend's, my youngest daughter was on Key Haven (she had my car, the one that we lost), and my other daughter was up on one of the other keys (never can remember the name of it, but it will come to me later). We didn't do too badly, compared to others. We're watching the hurricanes now. I keep emailing friends to find out how things are, but they never respond!

Hi, Meg. Great to meet you. I hope that we all can help you to find whatever it is you are looking for. Maybe God led you to this site. Keep searching, and you will find what you need.

Hi, I'm new here, and I'm from New York state. Hope to get to know you, Taiwan.

Truegrits, where in the Keys does your father-in-law live? We were actually in the city of Key West for 4 years. My husband was in the Air Guard, and got activated on 9/11. After a couple months, he decided to stay active duty, and take a transfer. Key West was one of the options. So, we headed south, in 2 cars. Our first trip down the Keys was something! It was too bad that I was driving, so I couldn't look around too much. I never did tire of driving down the Keys, but I did tire of the 4 hour trip! We were displaced in 2005, due to Hurricane Wilma paying a visit to the area, and spent 6 months in a spacious FEMA "trailer" (by that, read 1 room camper). The first month was a challenge, and it went downhill from there. So, after 6 months, and no news on permanent housing, my husband decided it was time to retire. So, we moved into the bedroom in a friend's house for 6 months. And, then we headed north. If we went any further north, we'd leave the country!

Hi, I'm Susan. I just joined last week, and am getting around to wandering around this site. I'm not very good at introductions. I am married to a nonmember. We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary last month! We have 4 adult children: 2 boys and 2 girls. We have one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Unfortunately, my kids are all inactive. I live in northern New York state. I'm actually about 7 miles from the border with Quebec. I've lived here almost 2 years now. We lived in Key West for 4 years, and before that we lived in central New York state. My husband is from central NY, and I'm from northern VA. I'm currently the RS president in my little branch of the Church. We need a term for really small branches, something like, Twig. We have so few members that we hold a 2 hour block each Sunday. We alternate Relief Society and Priesthood with Gospel Doctrine. I'm guessing that YM/YW are alternated with Sunday School, as well. We have 2 YW and 1 YM, I believe. That's a lot better than what we had in the branch in Key West. We had no youth at all in that branch! Well, I guess that is my intro. I'll be happy to answer any questions.