Sacrament meeting reverence


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Huh. All my Utah and Idaho wards have been fairly reverent. Then again, they all had a high number of older folks, which makes me wonder if it's a generational thing.

A few bits I recall:

Reverent child.

Prelude music.

Bishopric member giving a 30 - second pause to draw attention and silence.

Actual verbal reminders and examples of reverent behavior.

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A baby every year is much and I can't imagine it healthy for the woman. In fact, I'm pretty sure doctors try to encourage women to wait a couple years before becoming pregnant again. But people do what they're gonna do. I have a friend that has four children and she's been married about years...That'd be too much for me, I know often times it's too much for her, it's just a lot of offspring in a short amount of time.

I've heard it suggested the "natural" child spacing would be 2-3 years.

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For your consideration:

 

I propose that the irreverence in Sacrament Mtngs is significantly less of a problem in our journey to Zion than the nit-picky, judgmental, holier-than-thou, criticism that ensues therefrom.

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I'd say becoming pregnant right after having a baby is crazy. One mother in a birth group I was in became pregnant shortly after giving birth. I don't recall how many months it was, but much too soon.

I had a student whose little sister was in the same grade, different class. 10 months apart. Parents said it was an oops.

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It does bug me when people don't take their screaming babies or toddlers out. Sometimes they'll calm down after a minute, and that's great. But there becomes a point where they're just not going to quiet down, and the polite thing is to deal with them outside of the chapel.

 

Toddlers and older need to be taught to be quiet in church. There are a lot of ways to do that, but common sense to me is that you don't make going out fun. I'm personally okay with them having reverent things to do during sacrament meeting. 

 

The real problem, in my opinion, is that 1. People are scared of their kids, or scared of hurting their feelings or not being their buddies, and/or 2. People have lost any sense of decorum and considerate behavior. If my kids are being disruptive to the people around me, I should feel enough responsibility (and maybe some kind of shame, heaven forbid) to first make the disruption stop, and second to teach them better. Isn't that what parenting is? 

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The chapel doors are propped open until the sacrament hymn starts, at which point they are shut and remain shut for the rest of the meeting. We usually have a teacher (AP) standing in front of the door during the sacrament itself to act as the doorman for the deacon and to discourage people from entering during the administration of the sacrament.

 

Ours generally shuts all the doors during the Sacrament hymn, but then reopens the far back set after the Sacrament so people going to the bathroom or whatever aren't constantly opening and closing them.

 

As for seating the bishopric early, the most inviting ward I've had the pleasure of visiting a few times, the stand was pretty much empty until the actual start time because everybody was making the rounds greeting visitors, checking up on new members or those who hadn't been in a while, helping a disabled lady to her seat and generally seeing to it that everyone felt welcome.  I'd gladly trade a minor point of ceremony for ward leadership that cares that much.

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As for seating the bishopric early, the most inviting ward I've had the pleasure of visiting a few times, the stand was pretty much empty until the actual start time because everybody was making the rounds greeting visitors, checking up on new members or those who hadn't been in a while, helping a disabled lady to her seat and generally seeing to it that everyone felt welcome.  I'd gladly trade a minor point of ceremony for ward leadership that cares that much.

 

Our Ward Leadership cares that much as well... They do all that until 5 minutes before meeting starts.  Those 5 minutes sets the tone of reverence in the meeting.  It signals all the people chatting and greeting and helping to go find their seats and mentally and spiritually prepare for sacrament.

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The first part of this talk has some great advise on how we should attempt to create reverence in our Sacrament Meetings:

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/04/reverence-and-morality?lang=eng&query=appropriate+sacrament+meeting+behavior

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Our Ward Leadership cares that much as well... They do all that until 5 minutes before meeting starts.  Those 5 minutes sets the tone of reverence in the meeting.  It signals all the people chatting and greeting and helping to go find their seats and mentally and spiritually prepare for sacrament.

 

In ours, they'd only be helping the three people that show up 5 minutes early.  Then sitting on the stand watching eight more file in.  In order to greet the rest, they'd have to be milling around until halfway through Sunday School.

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In ours, they'd only be helping the three people that show up 5 minutes early.  Then sitting on the stand watching eight more file in.  In order to greet the rest, they'd have to be milling around until halfway through Sunday School.

 

The issue is not going to be solved by the bishopric sacrificing the 5 minutes for sacrament preparation.  The issue can be solved by urging people to come on time and delegating greetings to missionaries or after sacrament meeting is over for those that don't.

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Since kids were mentioned, I know from my own personal experience, having a twin brother and another brother 11 months after us and a sister 4 years later that reverence can be maintained during sacrament. There must be something in the air this new year because I have agreed with TFP and VORT in as many threads today..

 

Discipline your kids!!! Little Johnny needs to know that it is NOT ok bounce around like a maniac during sacrament meeting. Trust me by age 2 I had the fear of God in me instilled by my parents.

 

My mom had 3 kids in diapers at one time, and we never got away with misbehaving during sacrament meeting. It simply was not going to happen on her watch.

 

I now have my own children, and while times have changed (I don't beat my kids with a hair brush) they know that during sacrament meeting they are to be reverent. Trust me they DO NOT want dad to take them out.

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This is just a major problem in general. Can't count how many times parents have allowed disruptive kids to remain in movie theatres and restaurants. I'm tolerant of one or two attempts to redirect but indeed there comes a limit when the child needs to be removed.

 

What gets me is the ages they're excusing; my girls are 3 and 5, and both of them have known how to sit and be quiet for an hour for quite a while now, especially if they're allowed to draw or play a game on a tablet.  Seems like about half of the loud kids on Sundays aren't crying babies, but 2-7 year olds that should have learned better by now.

I briefly dated a lady from the next ward over who sat in the foyer because her kids just couldn't refrain from whispering to each other during the meetings.  I couldn't hear them from five feet away, but she was ashamed that they wouldn't be quiet when they were already the quietest kids in the building.

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It's hard parenting. You do something right one day, and feel you've messed up on something the next. I'm definitely more tolerant of others and their children, now that I have my own child, but obnoxious and malicious behaviour should be addressed. I know that autism is on the rise, and affects a vast amount of our population, and realise that many children act out despite looking like a seemingly normal child on the outside.

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I remember a family member took her three sons to the zoo. It was meant to be a therapeutic day trip. All boys are on the autism spectrum, but one, is much worse than the other two. He is also the oldest child. Well, apparently, something triggered an escalation, and he was full on panicking and screaming. The boy looked normal enough to bystanders, and many figured he was just a "bad kid" or she was a "bad parent" for allowing this kind of outburst. I remember her accounting this day to me. It was rough.

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I think its in the food, what has changed since the 19790's/early 80's. No one eats at home anymore/cooks fresh. it is all processed junk.

 

Or it could be that we now have a name to it so we can recognize autism easier now.

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I think its in the food, what has changed since the 19790's/early 80's. No one eats at home anymore/cooks fresh. it is all processed junk.

 

Possibly. I wonder.

 

Or it could be that we now have a name to it so we can recognize autism easier now.

 

Possibly. I wonder.

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It's hard parenting. You do something right one day, and feel you've messed up on something the next. I'm definitely more tolerant of others and their children, now that I have my own child, but obnoxious and malicious behaviour should be addressed. I know that autism is on the rise, and affects a vast amount of our population, and realise that many children act out despite looking like a seemingly normal child on the outside.

I so agree...it is hard parenting. I am glad ours are out of the house now. What worked with one kid didn't work for the next one and etc. my favorite line from a kid....don't know why I can't do it or go here or there ...other kids get too. Ggggggrrrrrrrrrr

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