Fether

I haven’t noticed any changes

Every time I think about it, I just start laughing. But then it turns into frustration as I think about how instead of going home after work, I have to go teach 4 and 5 year olds how to play soccer… a sport I never liked.
We had a good talk today and she is going to do it with me still

I’m pretty conservative in my thinking, but I do have to admit that many of us were sold a bill of goods when it comes to college, college loans, and degrees. 
 
On one hand, I would life some sort of repayment for the 30+ hours I worked while taking 16+ credits a semester to pay my way through college. Why should the people with no work ethic, poor fiscal literacy, and a lacking vision of their future be rewarded?
On the other hand, everything we were taught growing up from educators, parents, church leaders, and media screamed “go to college or your life will suck, also, you are cool if you go to an expensive college”. Then, everyone is thrown on front of government back predatory lenders as their first experience in borrowing money and told “this is a good decision”. I’m lucky to have had the wit and vision to not have fallen into the traditional traps.
My mom works as a school counselor and college is not longer the push for their district. They just push for what they call “secondary education” which encompasses college and other post high school learning opportunities.

You’re a better man than me.  I’d be livid.

STORY TIME!

A couple months ago, my wife signed my 4 year old so. Up for soccer. While at the signup place, she saw that there was a signup for parents to be coaches. When she got home, she said “Fether! We should coach our child’s soccer team!” I explained to her that we have too much going on and adding another thing to our plate would not Be good. We debated this over the next week or so, sometimes turning into an argument. One day, she got a little frustrated and said something to the affect of “Our child needs to see us doing things like, and you spend so much time at work, you need to spend more time with our son!”
 
(Side note, I have complete control over my schedule and choose to work 40 hours a week. I’ve calculated it many times. The fact that I have the ability to take time off whenever I want and still choose to work 40 hours a week gives the illusion I spend too much time at work. A conversation we have had multiple times).
Anyway… I gave in and agreed to do it with her. Fast forward to last week when we had our first practice. I decided to give it my all and choose to have a good time with the kids. On our way there, my wife told me that she was feeling really really nervous and wanted me to head everything off. Fair enough, I could do that. The practice went great.
The next day, my wife was feeling overwhelmed with being a mom, homeschooling, ministering, and other stuff. She said to me in a very emotional tone “I can’t help you with soccer, I just have too much going on and it stresses me out”. So the very reason I told her I didn’t want to do it is the reason she is now wanting to pass it all off on me.
Wives… can’t live with them… also can’t live with them.

I’m pretty conservative in my thinking, but I do have to admit that many of us were sold a bill of goods when it comes to college, college loans, and degrees. 
 
On one hand, I would life some sort of repayment for the 30+ hours I worked while taking 16+ credits a semester to pay my way through college. Why should the people with no work ethic, poor fiscal literacy, and a lacking vision of their future be rewarded?
On the other hand, everything we were taught growing up from educators, parents, church leaders, and media screamed “go to college or your life will suck, also, you are cool if you go to an expensive college”. Then, everyone is thrown on front of government back predatory lenders as their first experience in borrowing money and told “this is a good decision”. I’m lucky to have had the wit and vision to not have fallen into the traditional traps.
My mom works as a school counselor and college is not longer the push for their district. They just push for what they call “secondary education” which encompasses college and other post high school learning opportunities.

I’m pretty conservative in my thinking, but I do have to admit that many of us were sold a bill of goods when it comes to college, college loans, and degrees. 
 
On one hand, I would life some sort of repayment for the 30+ hours I worked while taking 16+ credits a semester to pay my way through college. Why should the people with no work ethic, poor fiscal literacy, and a lacking vision of their future be rewarded?
On the other hand, everything we were taught growing up from educators, parents, church leaders, and media screamed “go to college or your life will suck, also, you are cool if you go to an expensive college”. Then, everyone is thrown on front of government back predatory lenders as their first experience in borrowing money and told “this is a good decision”. I’m lucky to have had the wit and vision to not have fallen into the traditional traps.
My mom works as a school counselor and college is not longer the push for their district. They just push for what they call “secondary education” which encompasses college and other post high school learning opportunities.

STORY TIME!

A couple months ago, my wife signed my 4 year old so. Up for soccer. While at the signup place, she saw that there was a signup for parents to be coaches. When she got home, she said “Fether! We should coach our child’s soccer team!” I explained to her that we have too much going on and adding another thing to our plate would not Be good. We debated this over the next week or so, sometimes turning into an argument. One day, she got a little frustrated and said something to the affect of “Our child needs to see us doing things like, and you spend so much time at work, you need to spend more time with our son!”
 
(Side note, I have complete control over my schedule and choose to work 40 hours a week. I’ve calculated it many times. The fact that I have the ability to take time off whenever I want and still choose to work 40 hours a week gives the illusion I spend too much time at work. A conversation we have had multiple times).
Anyway… I gave in and agreed to do it with her. Fast forward to last week when we had our first practice. I decided to give it my all and choose to have a good time with the kids. On our way there, my wife told me that she was feeling really really nervous and wanted me to head everything off. Fair enough, I could do that. The practice went great.
The next day, my wife was feeling overwhelmed with being a mom, homeschooling, ministering, and other stuff. She said to me in a very emotional tone “I can’t help you with soccer, I just have too much going on and it stresses me out”. So the very reason I told her I didn’t want to do it is the reason she is now wanting to pass it all off on me.
Wives… can’t live with them… also can’t live with them.

Not sacrament meeting, but Gospel Principles class.  I was the instructor, and halfway through my lesson before realizing my fly was undone and my white shirt was sticking about a foot and a half out of my fly.   🤢   These were the good old days of me still grappling my way through my fear of public speaking and general social anxiety.  Everyone was mature about it, and I survived.  
Living through that, and a small handful of other cripplingly embarrassing things, probably did more than anything else to get over my fears.  Who knew there was life after turning that red?

What’s the fix?

There is not really an issue with it directly. 
But when you’re actively in that dark place, it’s very very VERY easy to feel like others talking at you are don’t “get it”. 

Having a young adult daughter that is suffering from deep depression, is borderline suicidal and has left the church. I found his talk kind of flippent regarding those young people that are struggling with life. I feel kind of let down by the seeming arrogance from church leaders lately. I have a testimony of Jesus Christ only, not in people. I refuse to worship the arm of man in any way. Sorry, just how I am feeling right now. :(

Spitefully? No.
But if there is a major issue with a policy, then yes. 
 
It is easy to turn our passionate political opinions into a radical religion. I am under the impression that we should not do that.
I also think we confuse how we ought to act in public and how we talk about political issues in formal debates and opinion articles. I will oppose laws that demand me to accept LGBTQ views, but I’ll also respect a transgender person’s chosen pronouns and call them by such. I know far too many people that are turning every disagreement into a battle ground

Spitefully? No.
But if there is a major issue with a policy, then yes. 
 
It is easy to turn our passionate political opinions into a radical religion. I am under the impression that we should not do that.
I also think we confuse how we ought to act in public and how we talk about political issues in formal debates and opinion articles. I will oppose laws that demand me to accept LGBTQ views, but I’ll also respect a transgender person’s chosen pronouns and call them by such. I know far too many people that are turning every disagreement into a battle ground

The question is "how much do you feel violence is justified", and the result is the % of people who answer "not at all".   So, 95.8% of very conservative folks believe violence is "not at all" justified, while only 66.5% of very liberal folks say that.
(Yep, sorting through double-negatives makes it a tad confusing.)

I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday about a concept that is very difficult to work around. There are people on this world that are extremely sensitive and will spiral into depressive states at the drop of a hat. On the other side, there are people that thrive on being called to repentance. It gives them energy to push forward knowing that there is more growth to be had. A single talk cannot provide the needed energy for the latter whilst being conscience of the needs of the former. 
 
there are speakers that I detest listening to, but I know others love it. I would hate to see those speakers disappear because of my opinions. I would also hate to see those “in your face” talks disappear because a portion of the church finds them difficult to listen to.

Perfectly.

The experience when someone doesn’t want something until they see it.
My children experience this when they see each other playing with a toy. They were as happy as they could be until they saw their sibling playing with a toy. They all of a sudden become angry until they get that toy.
Im trying to find a word for this because it helps me overcome weaknesses if I can label it. I find myself doing this extremely often. I am as happy as can be until I see an interesting video, forum post, or article. I then can no longer function until I watch or read the thing I saw.
Is there a word or concept that explains this?

I’ve written before about the priest-king model I think of with the Nephites. With that background, here’s my take:
Not so. Many ordinances were the same, but they may not have had the same offices we do. There’s no indication of a First Presidency for instance. The relationship between the church and state are definitely different.
Alma had church authority in the land of Nephi under King Noah. When he began to do something similar in the land of Zarahemla he could only do so with permission from Mosiah.
Any church operating needed the king’s permission, and if it was the king’s church it needed his approval. I do think your comparison with the modern church has similarities. I already have authority to baptize, but may only do so when authorized by a bishop.
Mosiah 
Some speculation on my part, but I wonder if this was a way of appeasing the precursor to the king men. By appointing Alma high priest (who then ordains his son as successor) Mosiah may be appeasing future kingmen by creating a role similar to the Levitical order that largely functions apart from the monarchy.
In another post I’ve added the following:
 

As I recall, Don Bradley’s book on the 116 lost pages talks about how an Israelitish king had some degree of inherent priestly authority (he used this, IIRC, to extrapolate certain theories about the flight of Mosiah I to Zarahemla and the origins of Zeniff’s colony and Noah’s relationship with his priests).  You may want to check it out.
In a broader sense:  from a technical standpoint, Joseph Smith taught that *all* priesthood is Melchizedek.  If you have had the MP explicitly conferred upon you,  you implicitly have the authority to officiate in any of the ordinances of the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood (subject to the keys of your presiding officer, naturally).  I believe we are told that most OT prophets (presumably including Lehi and Nephi) were ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood.  It seems logical that the MP would then have been passed down through Nephi’s kingly line, at least so long as that line remained righteous; and following Israelite precedent, final ecclesiastical authority amongst the Nephites probably remained with the throne until Mosiah II chose to (having been quite possibly horrified by the specter of one of his four apostate sons gaining the throne and thus control over the church) grant the ecclesiastical structure complete independence from the political hierarchy.
Given Israelite/Nephite norms, Alma I’s ordination under the auspices of Noah’s kingly line may well have been deemed legitimate as fas as the Nephites were concerned; and on Alma’s arrival in Zarahemla Mosiah II seems to have either ratified that legitimacy or else conferred it anew by the authority of Mosiah’s own kingly lineage.  We have no record of Mosiah II interfering with Alma I’s ordination of Alma II to be his successor; and since Mosiah II ended the role of “king” among the Nephites first by shifting to a judgeship system and then by his own death, there was no one left with real standing to challenge Alma II’s authority to name his own ecclesiastical successor.
And just in case there were any lingering doubts as to whether the new role of “chief judge” could exercise ecclesiastical authority the way the king used to, Alma II  resolved the question by initially serving jointly as high priest and first chief judge and then appointing a successor to serve only in the latter role.  In post-Almaic society it will be crystal clear that the church is *not* merely a creation of and subordinate to the state.  If anything, the reverse is true.

It is said that Sherem both denied that there would be a Christ, yet believed the scriptures.
How is this so? What is the modern day equivalent of this?

Living in 2022 is amazing, isn’t it? Thirty years ago if you wanted to find Latter Day Saint gamers you had better hope your ward has them. Now, we can reach out with people who share interests/values all over the world. 

This may be a little to hip and cool for you old geezers…. But Discord is an INCREDIBLE and free platform. It’s more of an organized chat room than a forum, but I have found a few Latter-day Saint groups there. I don’t stick around them though because I have to limit my addictions to a deliberate few 

I found a Latter-day Saint video game group a while back that seemed to be full of faithful saints. 
 
the other more faithful groups are fairly small, but not any smaller than third hour. 

This may be a little to hip and cool for you old geezers…. But Discord is an INCREDIBLE and free platform. It’s more of an organized chat room than a forum, but I have found a few Latter-day Saint groups there. I don’t stick around them though because I have to limit my addictions to a deliberate few