Today's Testimony Meeting - Venting

[Guest]

We used to have testimony meetings overloaded with Junior Primary kids... then the bishop told the Primary Presidency during Ward Council to allot for Testimony Bearing in Primary Class.  So they talked about it in Primary prior to Testimony Sunday and the bishop announced on the podium the Sunday before Testimony Meeting that children are encouraged to bear their testimony in Primary... worked like a charm.

 

 

Yesterday was a weird Testimony Sunday for me... it started off with an elderly woman who bore her testimony about the power of forgiveness when her military grandson died in Afghanistan and her son was at peace with it because he forgives the people who killed him.  My 11-year-old decided to take his once-every-2-years opportunity to bear his testimony after that and his opening statement was... "I don't know what it is about my family, but we love to argue over the littlest things.  We went to the Philippines for 2 months without my dad and my mom missed arguing so much that she called my dad just to argue... It is great to know that even when we're fighting we can still be an Eternal Family because we are able to forgive each other."  Hah hah... I squirmed in my seat.

[estradling75]

Hmm I guess yesterday was interesting testimony day.

 

My 9 year old daughter (all on her own) decided to share her feeling about the importance of Eternal Families by sharing about the time we thought we lost our youngest son.  Apparently thinking he was lost but only to find him sleeping under the covers of her parent's bed was some what traumatic for her.  Of course she leaves out certain details and phrases it in certain ways that I end up fielding question and good natured jabs all the rest of the day.

[Blackmarch]

If you want someone else to bear their testimony then i Highly suggest sitting up on front row, as close to the mic as you can and be the first one up there- set the example. and pray hard.

If you are really worried about the spirit or lack there-of I'd suggest doing some deep prayer, study, and fasting for it.

As for the children it's always a blessing to have them come up, even if its the same thing. AS for parents telling them what to say, that is fine. I recall times being asked at home if i wanted to share my testimony and saying yes, then not wanting too when i was in front of everybody and often would forget what i wanted to say..... if for nothing else its good for them to get used to being in front of the crowd.

I've no problem with having the exact same people go up every time and say the exact same thing. My only wish is that it would inspire more to get up and share theirs.


On a different note, silence is not bad either as it gives time to reflect and think.

[The Folk Prophet]

Seems strange to me that some are so quick to judge other's testimony efforts as invalid, in need of correction, or otherwise wrong.

 

Beam in our own eyes, indeed.

[Misshalfway]

Yup.  Testimony meeting is a crapshoot.  You never know what you are going to get.  I've left feeling uplifted and like I'm not so alone in my troubles.  

 

But other times I'm sorry to say that I leave with my eyes rolling.  I'm embarrassed for that behavior.  With a church full of humans with such varied experience and perspective and in speaking ability and imperfect emotions, who am I to judge it?  Yet I do.  I go home and rant about all the human weakness that drives me nuts!  I pick those people apart and argue with their words and demand in my mind a more perfect meeting so I....the great and important me...gets what I deserve from a church service!!!  

 

Yuck.

 

If I stop thinking about myself and think of that older man who spoke in your ward.  I wonder if he's struggling.  I think.... He's lost the world he knew and the values that used to give him security and comfort.  And now he tries to navigate a world he doesn't understand with perspectives he doesn't relate too.  He's mourning the past and arguing with the present and afraid of the future. And maybe he just wants it to go back to the way it was.

 

If I think that....what's there to argue with?  He's a man who is mourning.  Don't we all mourn?  And aren't we suppose to mourn with each other?

 

I don't know.  Thinking this way prolly won't make me like testimony meeting anymore than I do now, but maybe I'd love the people better.  And maybe if I practice this more, I'll like myself more.  I don't know.  Or maybe I don't want to be so afraid that if I got up there and risked to share some of my thoughts that my ward wouldn't be tearing me apart over their pot roast later that day.  

Edited December 14, 2014 by Misshalfway