dahlia

I'm not a convert, but I did go through a period of inactivity and soul-searching, during I married my Evangelical husband.  He is VERY anti-tithing to any church, including his own (says "it's my money").  As I've become more involved in church again, and further strengthened my testimony, tithing has been a thing of much prayer search for me.  I am now comfortable with the idea because:
1)  It really isn't my money.  Saying that it's "my money" is like my 2 year old saying that they are "her fries and I can't have any"-- in reality I'm the one who bought the fries, gave them to her, and I could literally drown her in fries if I wanted to.  Her giving me one of "her" fries is about her showing thankfulness and a lack of pride.  It's the same as tithing.
2) If we are unwilling to depart with are money for Heavenly Father... which are we really having being our god?  
3)  My family of 3 lives well below poverty rates.  But... we're ok.  Honestly, I feel that we have plenty and more than we need.  Us Americans are spoiled rotten: we don't really need fancy cars, fancy TV's, and all the junk we have.  I look at other places, the way people live in 3rd world countries... and I am spoiled rotten.  I have been given so much, and I too should give.

I know Mormons have a problem with 'Big Love,' but watching the show made me think about Mormons (not on my radar before), showed some Mormon behaviors, and got me thinking about polygamy, boys, and women as social as well as religious issues. I'm not sure I would say it was anti-Mormon as the characters were not Mormon and polygamy is illegal (for now). They were people using a Mormon base (the 1st wife) and an extremely flawed FLDS-type base (Bill & the 2nd wife) to create a new religion. To me, that's a different story than if the show had purported to be about observant Mormons and made fun of them. 
Am I a Mormon because of Big Love? I don't know. Maybe a little. 

My RS lesson is about tithing. The person I mentioned in a previous thread is still sending me 'helpful hints' for the lesson. : (  This suggestion was to use personal experiences. OK. I have my own tithing 'moment' to use. 
Tiithing can be a hard decision for converts if it's not in your previous religious belief system. When I first learned of it, it smacked of TV evangelists begging for my money with which to buy their mansions. No. Not gonna happen. I have also heard a few testimonies in church from born Mormons who let their tithing lapse and had to re-convince themselves to get back into it.
So, the question for this week is, what made you decide to tithe, especially if you were a convert. Please don't tell me that you came to a realization that the money was God's first or that everything comes from HF. OK. To me, that's the easy, unexamined answer. I want to know what changed in your thinking to make tithing a continuous choice for you. Also, if you had family members were interested in converting, but couldn't get past the tithing thing, how were you able to convince them to tithe or how did they convince themselves? 
I put this here because I think it is a Church topic, but feel free to move if it's in the wrong place.

I still enjoy his work. I guess I don't care what his personal views are, unless he makes movies that are specifically anti-Mormon.
Bridge of Spies and Captain Phillips were both excellent.
I wonder why he hates Mormons. Maybe he's had some bad experiences? This case is the one I can most forgive. My brother in law was poorly treated by Mormons growing up. I can't fault him for not liking the church. This kind of thing makes me crazy frustrated. (Luckily, he realized later that individual members' actions do not equal the church or the gospel.)

I have been sick with bronchitis and staying home. Then when I went back to work, I fell and knocked the heck out of my knee. So, I stayed in and didn't go to church. Sometimes that can be a good thing.   
While I was home feeling sorry for myself, I cut up fabric for a rag wreath I am making, thanks to Pam's influence. These darned rags are gonna be the death of me. I should have started with a little frame, but no. I'll be cutting rags until the Millennium. 

Oh my gosh. Next to corn dogs, this is the most disgusting food I ever heard of.   No offense. : )

Oh my gosh. Next to corn dogs, this is the most disgusting food I ever heard of.   No offense. : )

OK, she wasn't American. I was thinking of her in terms of the stories during WWII and the freaking RED WHITE AND BLUE costume with stars. Shoot me.

I got baptised this evening and it was amazing so happy 

Didn't mean to post and run, but I had a lot at work and had the lesson this week.
Anyway, I probably should have been more clear. Part of what I look for in diversity and inclusion is not just skin color. That's superficial. I'm looking for people in leadership positions who have lives that look like mine. I'm not married now, I don't have bunches of kids, I don't even have grandkids yet. I work and have worked for years. I'm not one of these sweet LDS leadership ladies who always sound like they are talking to kindergarteners. Often, I feel like I can't be myself with the women at church because they don't have any experience being out in the world with men and people who aren't LDS and having to deal with all of that.  The only person I feel I can really talk to is another convert who works on campus. I'd just like to see some women in leadership who haven't been at home eating bon bons for 20 years. /ducks and runs.

Didn't mean to post and run, but I had a lot at work and had the lesson this week.
Anyway, I probably should have been more clear. Part of what I look for in diversity and inclusion is not just skin color. That's superficial. I'm looking for people in leadership positions who have lives that look like mine. I'm not married now, I don't have bunches of kids, I don't even have grandkids yet. I work and have worked for years. I'm not one of these sweet LDS leadership ladies who always sound like they are talking to kindergarteners. Often, I feel like I can't be myself with the women at church because they don't have any experience being out in the world with men and people who aren't LDS and having to deal with all of that.  The only person I feel I can really talk to is another convert who works on campus. I'd just like to see some women in leadership who haven't been at home eating bon bons for 20 years. /ducks and runs.

Hum...perhaps the real "happy heaven" others speak of involves the belief that all marriages and families are dissolved in heaven automatically.
Yah, that sounds happier to me.

Didn't mean to post and run, but I had a lot at work and had the lesson this week.
Anyway, I probably should have been more clear. Part of what I look for in diversity and inclusion is not just skin color. That's superficial. I'm looking for people in leadership positions who have lives that look like mine. I'm not married now, I don't have bunches of kids, I don't even have grandkids yet. I work and have worked for years. I'm not one of these sweet LDS leadership ladies who always sound like they are talking to kindergarteners. Often, I feel like I can't be myself with the women at church because they don't have any experience being out in the world with men and people who aren't LDS and having to deal with all of that.  The only person I feel I can really talk to is another convert who works on campus. I'd just like to see some women in leadership who haven't been at home eating bon bons for 20 years. /ducks and runs.

That's what we are supposed to do: individual reading, study, meditation, reflection, prayer, and thinking.
The problem is, too few of us do that. We're not alone: I used to sell Bible reference books door-to-door in Texas, Virginia, and Kentucky. I met people in their homes, and talked to them about religious topics for fourteen hours a day. They knew little or nothing about what their churches taught, unless the pastor had mentioned it in his last sermon. (Well, that's not strictly accurate: they knew "Mormons" were cultists and going to hell.)
Thinking is hard work. Reflection is not a mindless thing. Reading is not as much fun as watching Gilmore Girls. Letting someone else do that tough stuff is easier than doing it yourself.
I have said that Sunday School is an apostate organization. Not that it teaches bad doctrine, not that it doesn't help us learn and be better, but because it is a crutch for the Saints who should be doing all this in their families. It is an excuse for fathers and mothers to "let George do it." But there is no magic: it isn't going to be a Sunday School teacher, or a Relief Society teacher who makes the difference: it'll be Mom'n'Dad, it'll be a Laurel or a deacon who makes the effort himself to know and internalize the Gospel of Jesus Christ — to be converted.
While the Relief Society is modeled on the Priesthood, and we learn that a president of a quorum (or society) has the duty to sit in counsel with his quorum (or Society) members and teach them their duty, "doctrine" is not "duty" and that's not what the Lord meant when He gave us that commandment. We could be spending our quorum/society time learning to serve, planning to serve, preparing to serve both the Lord and His children (see Benjamin's speech). But we are lazy, we don't learn the Gospel in our homes, where the Lord has commanded us to learn it, so we waste our time in Church meetings learning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, Baptism by immersion, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
Prophets and Apostles have told us that it is a parent's duty to teach his children the Gospel. We have heard for generations that we must study the Gospel, but we don't do it any more than we store food, clothing and money against the rainy day. We don't read the scriptures as we should. We fail to listen and re-read conference talks.
Yes, this is somewhat hyperbolic, but in essence, it is true: Israel is stiff-necked people, slow to head the word of the Lord, and quick to do iniquity.
Lehi

I see Sadlers point about teachers not using the spirit because I teach for a living and I taught without the spirit for a long time. In fact, although I pray over lessons (having taken Teaching No Greater Calling), I still struggle to teach more with the spirit and less as though I am preparing students for an exam. This tendency is a failing with professional teachers especially me! But I am fighting the tendency hard! Must do better! Not saying, you do this Dahlia! Don't get me wrong!

I don't get why this is hard.  I'd consider just briefly scanning through these emails, if I saw anything worth including I'd include it.  If I didn't, I wouldn't.  
Next move is hers.  If she asks you 'what about my email', answer with something like "Thanks!  I read through it as I was preparing my lesson."  Make it genuine.  Even if all you can do is appreciate what you think may be a positive motivation behind her emails.   Leave it at that.  I find nothing saps another person's helpful energy like empty silence.  
Does this lady attend your class?  

Me too.  Hi Dahlia!!!

I just want to interrupt this lovely conversation to say...
HI DAHLIA!
 

Boy, a million and one things to spend hundreds of hours on, and the OP spends it on learning about evil spirits. Not chemistry, not art, not literature, not agriculture, not the light, but the dark and evil spirits. Sigh.
 
I guess I go two ways on this. I don't spend a lot of time thinking or talking about the Adversary. I don't give him a lot of room in my life. On the other hand, I do think that we can create good or bad atmospheres in our home by what we bring in, what we spend time on, how we speak to each other, etc.
 
This may not be the best way to deal with it, but I live hundreds of miles away from toxic family members because they are toxic and I don't want them in my daily life. I stay away from people with a lot of drama. Are they evil? No, they're just people who can't handle their issues, BUT, depending what those issues are, you can get friggin' killed hanging around some folks, so I stay away (that's the Philly girl talking. You guys probably don't have homicide-level drama in Utah).
 
As for "Parley P. Pratt called electricity a “spiritual fluid.” meaning anything, people called electricity all kinds of things in the early days. What one person, not a scientist, called it is meaningless. I taught about early technologies and technology/utility polices and worked on tech policy in a think tank. I know more than a little bit about this topic.  Men used to think women and blacks shouldn't work with electricity. I'd as much believe or be influenced by what Pratt said about electricity as I would be by what Captain Kangaroo said about nuclear physics. Jeez.

Two tech stories (I am the tech guru in my family)
1) Years ago, when Windows 3.1 roamed the earth, one of my sisters called me long distance for help with some trouble she was having. Nothing I suggested worked, and I finally said, "Maybe it's frozen."  My sister said, "Yeah, well it is cold in here."
2) My stepfather, an attorney and not entirely stupid, pulled me aside one day and said, "I can only ask you this. I don't want anyone to know I don't know... I've seen commercials on TV for banking on your computer. Tell me, how do you get the money out of the computer?"
 

Two tech stories (I am the tech guru in my family)
1) Years ago, when Windows 3.1 roamed the earth, one of my sisters called me long distance for help with some trouble she was having. Nothing I suggested worked, and I finally said, "Maybe it's frozen."  My sister said, "Yeah, well it is cold in here."
2) My stepfather, an attorney and not entirely stupid, pulled me aside one day and said, "I can only ask you this. I don't want anyone to know I don't know... I've seen commercials on TV for banking on your computer. Tell me, how do you get the money out of the computer?"
 

Hard to progress in life without it to a certain extent. Home and car seem like 2 things you can't live without and the requirement to enter into debt to have these things is necessary.
 
Yeah I know someone will come on here and extoll the virtues of their cheapness and how they pay cash for everything, but sometimes debt can work for you.

Boy, a million and one things to spend hundreds of hours on, and the OP spends it on learning about evil spirits. Not chemistry, not art, not literature, not agriculture, not the light, but the dark and evil spirits. Sigh.
 
I guess I go two ways on this. I don't spend a lot of time thinking or talking about the Adversary. I don't give him a lot of room in my life. On the other hand, I do think that we can create good or bad atmospheres in our home by what we bring in, what we spend time on, how we speak to each other, etc.
 
This may not be the best way to deal with it, but I live hundreds of miles away from toxic family members because they are toxic and I don't want them in my daily life. I stay away from people with a lot of drama. Are they evil? No, they're just people who can't handle their issues, BUT, depending what those issues are, you can get friggin' killed hanging around some folks, so I stay away (that's the Philly girl talking. You guys probably don't have homicide-level drama in Utah).
 
As for "Parley P. Pratt called electricity a “spiritual fluid.” meaning anything, people called electricity all kinds of things in the early days. What one person, not a scientist, called it is meaningless. I taught about early technologies and technology/utility polices and worked on tech policy in a think tank. I know more than a little bit about this topic.  Men used to think women and blacks shouldn't work with electricity. I'd as much believe or be influenced by what Pratt said about electricity as I would be by what Captain Kangaroo said about nuclear physics. Jeez.

Oh for crying out loud - how often does this stuff have to come up? Didn't the Church put out a press statement about a year ago about this? When I was an investigator, one of my first questions to the elders was could I continue to drink diet Pepsi - with the response being a resounding 'yes.' If you drink soda by the liter every day, you might have an addiction issue that you need to address. Otherwise, can we put this topic to rest?

Read 'Spoon River Anthology' by Masters. Many of the young people in the cemetery died from tetanus and other diseases/accidents that are curable or fixable now. Sad. 
 
I had Scarlet Fever when I was a kid. We were quarantined. I got a heart murmur as a remembrance.  Recently I asked a health professional why we don't hear about Scarlet Fever much anymore and she said it was because people get treated for strep, so it doesn't develop into something worse.