BrotherHinds

RM, I am very glad you have made the decision to return. I too know how difficult it can be to return, due to the influence of the adversary. I spent much time prior to my return from inactivity and even apostacy, but I too have returned. I spent 3 and a half years preaching against what I knew in my heart of hearts to be true. I suffered great pains of my soul that humbled me to the point of falling on my knees in humble supplication before my God. The bishop of the ward I was in welcomed me back as will yours. You will not be condemned by your brothers and sisters within the church. We welcome you back with open arms our brother. Come unto Christ, ye who are heavy laden. If the Lord can accept a one time apostate back into the fold, he can accept you.

With all due respect, I think this is a common misconception of LDS. I know a LOT of former Mormons, and don't know of any who became inactive because of being offended, although I'm sure there are some. Everyone I know is inactive because they stopped believing in the truthfulness of the church, for whatever reason. It may be that they stopped believing, but why did they stop believing. Often times it is because they took offense to something someone said or did, and thus feel that the church can no longer be true. Some then go about trying to find other reasons to say that the church is not true or rather they seek for evidence proving their new belief. My parents left for this reason, and even I left the church for a time because of this reason. After I left I felt the church was not true because of what people had done or said to me. I speak from experience Shanestress. Outside of that Shanestress, I was not posting this as a response to those less active or those that have left the church, but rather to everyone regarding taking offense towards something someone does or says to us. If you look at my post in that way I think you will find it more meaningful. Thank you for your comments sister.

I do not know how many of you watched the Sunday afternoon session of the 176th October General Conference, listened to it, or have recently read the transcripts of General Conference, but I thought that the talk given by Elder David A. Bednar was very moving and had some lessons we could all learn. That is not to say that the other talks were of any less importance, but I have felt the need to focus on some things Elder Bednar had to say in this post and then to add to that the thoughts and words of Terrance Olsen given in 1998 to students attending BYU in Provo, Utah. Elder David A. Bednar spoke of being offended as being the primary reason for most if not all of peoples inactivity. He then went on to say that there is no such thing as being offended, but rather we "Take offense". Two points I thought to write down from Bednar's talk are: The time to sop being offended is now. To be offended is a choice we make, not something done to us. We can not determine what others say or do, but we can choose how we respond to those things.I thought that was very insightful. Someone may give counsel that we do not agree with, may make fun of us, may even ignore us. We may find these things offensive, but these people did not offend us. Rather, we allowed anger to enter our hearts because we took offense.Some points I would like to add to this are the words spoken by Terrance Olsen at Brigham Young University Provo in 1998. He said that "To be void of offense is to not be resentful of, angry with, or hostilly blaming of someone else." How much like the Savior Jesus Christ is this behavior? For Christ truly suffered many things to which He could have taken offense. He was beaten, mocked, rejected, spit upon, cursed, driven up the hill Golgatha to be nailed to a cross, and yet rather than take offense, He uttered this simple plea to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Brother Olsen also mentioned that we often feel that feelings of resentment, hostility, and injustice are the fault of someone else besides ourselves, yet it is no one's fault, but our own that we have allowed ourselves to feel this way and thus we become like those whom we have taken offense from. The Gospel starting point to dealing with injustice, lack of appreciation, or favoritism, or any other kind of offense lies not in the offender, but rather in the one taking offense. We can see this in the story of Nephi and his older brothers Laman and Lemuel as found 1 Nephi 16:1-3: "And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou has declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear. And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center. And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us." When we take offense, brothers and sisters, we condemn ourselves of our own faults and shortcomings. We then go on the offense and we behave offensively and harden our hearts toward others as a suppossed defense against attacks from those who might do or say something to which we would take offense. Yet instead we allow ourselves to be further offended or rather we take increased offense and harden our hearts more increasingly. Can you not see brothers and sisters, that this is Satan's path and the way of the world? An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? If we follow that line of thinking, pretty soon we will all be blind and toothless if we are not already so. We can not be offended unless we let others offend us, or rather unless we decide to take offense. The Savior said, "If a man shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if a man shall sue thee at the law and take away thy cloat, let him have thy cloak also." Also, in 1 Nephi 19:9 we read "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men." Should we not do likewise, when men shall do evil against us, or do that to which we might take might take offense? "I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." I know that this is not an easy thing to do, and Heavenly Father knows this, but if we humble ourselves, and become like a little child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things, just as the Savior was, then we will be blessed. I have a testimony of the truthfulness of this. And I leave you my testimony, in the name of our beloved Savior. Even Jesus the Christ. Amen.

I really enjoyed General Conference this time. The talks were all very moving. Some of the main themes that I got from Conference were as follows: Come Unto Christ All Ye Who Are Heavy Laden Faith and Repentance or The First Ordances of the Gospel and lastly, Keep The Commandments All three of these themes tied in together and I think the some of you have been right to say that it was directed to investigators, recent converts, and the less active, but we all have something to gain from this. We all need to keep the commandments, we all need to repent, and we all need to come unto Christ and cast our burdens at His feet. I have seen all too often, members of the church who profess with their lips to be members of this great church of our Savior, but with their actions are far from it. So many of us are hypocrits. I know I have been one at times. We must all strive to do better. We must learn to live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God, whether that is from His holy prophets and apostles or through the scriptures. We must be saints in both our words AND our actions. That is one of the main arguments I have seen people make against joining the church, is that investigators do not want to join the church because they see the members that they know not living the Gospel that they profess to believe in. If we are going to teach others the truth and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, we must first remove the beam that is in our own eye, then we shall see clearly enough to remove the speck that is our brother's eye. I leave this with you my brothers and sisters, in the name of our beloved Savior, even Jesus the Christ. Amen.