A Woman at Church

I arrived a few minutes early for ward council. As the other people arrived, I felt a thrill at the four women in attendance: me (Self-Reliance Specialist) and the three female auxiliary presidents. We were a full third of the people in the room. We had sacrament meeting talks by a graduating senior, the stake patriarch, and a high council visitor. The youth talk was the best one. Relief Society made me a little nervous. The teacher told us how she is used to lecturing and being an authority, but that's not what we're meant to do in Relief Society. Often when people make such assertions, they disappoint. This one didn't. She actually entertained numerous comments, including responses to the comments of others. We spent a few minutes in groups discussing questions after the initial general discussion. She even wrapped up pretty close to on time, in spite of having the groups report a little on their discussions. We had a linger longer at the pavilion after church. A lo...

Today I noticed that all the hymn numbers were right justified at the front of the chapel. This happens sometimes. I think the organist does it. I always center them when I do it, but I kind of like mixing it up with right justification. Sacrament meeting was talks by a retired couple departing on their mission. The wife told of some experiences where she had decided scripture verses were telling her how to handle the sale of their house. I can't say she's wrong, but I also wouldn't recommend coincidences in the Come, Follow Me curriculum with incidents in your life as a guide for personal financial decision-making. I had a feeling of magical thinking. The real fun came in Sunday school. The teacher had a verse from Matthew 19 written on the board to ponder during the lesson. "That's a nice idea," says my friend. Then we read the verse and she changed her mind. We had this interesting and odd lesson about vinculum (literally, "chain," but also a ...

Church was fine. My good humor prevailed. We sang a super slow and tragic sacrament hymn with six verses. The adult speaker was the father of young children whose wife stays at home. He ticked all the boxes for defending her/their choices as if they were under attack, including the obligatory reference to the mothers of Helaman's army. At-home parents under attack has not been my observation in the world. Mostly people outside of my church are better at minding their own business. I have only ever heard about mothering under attack within my Church culture. And someone besides me must realize that the promise of survival against the enemy had to be a specific, contextual spiritual gift given to them, not a promise for faith and obedience generally. And then we closed by singing "Love at Home." Slowly. At least the ward music leader with a predilection for dirges is moving. Thankfully the meeting was ten minutes shorter than last year and we moved on to Relief Society, w...

I think my water heater is out. It’s 9:38 p.m. and I just remembered that I had cold, quick shower this morning. I got distracted this afternoon because I found a dress pattern that my daughter had cut out more than a year ago and never sewed together. I decided to sew it for her for her birthday, on Thursday. It may not fit. It will most definitely be fairly short. We may need to add a strip of solid fabric to the skirt at some point, but it’s done. I finished it. I am thankful her sister spent the whole afternoon with me cheering me on and keeping me company and giving me zipper courage. Sacrament meeting was pretty good. I cross-stitched on RBG’s face, just in case something came up, but nothing did. Fast and testimony meetings have taken an interesting turn with the shorter format. Four of the five so far have had more testimonies by women than by men. We are currently at 44/56 YTD male/female. We have yet to cross the 60% line for women that has historically been more common for...