Lately the LDS Church has been in the news a lot over a little thing called "Ordain Women". It is a movement by a group of women who decided that they should hold the priesthood, and should protest against the church in order to change how things are handled in the church, and get it all changed. Now, there are countless articles on both sides of the fence over if this is right, or not. And personally (although I would happily send my friends to countless articles on the subject showing my point of view, including http://www.ldsmag.com/article/12563 , and http://thestyleofbeing.blogspot.com/2014/06/mormonism-feminism-and-being-snarky.html) I want to focus my blog on something a bit different.
Awhile ago we changed how we did family scripture study (ok.. I am not the best at doing family scripture study, but we try!). Instead of just reading the scriptures over and over, we started reading smaller chunks, sometimes not even a whole chapter, and then just asking the kids "Why is this part of the scriptures? Why was this story important enough to include in here? What are we suppose to learn from this?" It made a huge difference! My kids had insight I had never seen. Each of us could learn a new and different part of God's plan because someone had something different going on in their lives, or some past experience that just let them see a different side, a different angle, a different perspective. It was amazing to me how God could talk to any of us, even my young daughters, in such diverse ways, and guide us each in a way we personally needed to be guided.
Well, since I have never been one who believes in coincidences, I decided to put this practice to use in other parts of my life. Instead of just going through life, and hoping I learned something along the way of God and his plan for me, I started activity looking. I was trying to turn my perspective into more of a learning experience whenever I could. And that is when all of this hit the news.
Personally, I have never had a problem with men having the keys of the priesthood. Never bothered me one little bit. I am sure part of that is due to the fact that I have always felt more than respected and valued by those who I have had the chance to serve with. But obviously, others felt this so strongly, they were willing to let it tear them apart, and lose the testimony they had. This isn't the first time I have watched this happen. I have watched those I love turn away for many reasons. Guilt, confusion, even sadly even inconvenience. So often I am stunned as people, whom always appeared to have such a strong testimony have something that bothers them, and somehow lose their testimony, sometimes quickly sometimes slowly. It seems to be a pattern I see time and time again, and it truly saddens me.
So, what can I learn from this? What does God want me to learn?
I have no doubt that everyone I have watched follow this path have not woken up one morning and thought, "I think I want to turn away from God today! I think I am going to leave." That just doesn't make sense. I think what happens is they find one little thing they don't understand, or one little thing that someone does which offends them. Satan loves those kinds of small things. He tends to help us dwell on it, constantly reminding us to be upset. He tries to get us completely focused on that one item, and tries to make us see it as more powerful, or more overwhelming than everything else we have. We slowly lose sight of what really matters, and with it, we can lose our testimony.
So what can I learn? How can I grow from this? I think the most important thing is for me to remember to be strong, and daily work on what I need to help my testimony to grow. Never do we hit a point where we are strong enough that Satan will give up on turning us away. In fact, as we grow stronger, chances are he will work harder against us. Even when we think we are strong enough, we aren't, and we need to keep working.
The second thing is to remember, God knows more than me. Yep, I know, hard to believe, eh? When you have faith in something, you believe it, even when there is a part you don't understand. Does that mean you just have to take that and cram it down your own throat? Nope! You have an option, and option to discuss it with God and ask for personal insight. It doesn't mean he will change anything to fit your "opinions". He doesn't work that way. But he has the ability to help you discover why things are how they are, he can open your eyes to see the big picture, and realize why he made things how he does. If we remember to let the little things be little, and take them up with God without hardening our hearts, we are able to use those little pesky things, that could end up driving us out of the church, to instead bring us closer to god.
Hopefully I can follow my own advice, and continue to progress closer to God as he teaches me, so that I can always be strong enough to stand tall for my god and my church.
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