A Woman at Church

Our discussion in Relief Society today was led by a PhD candidate in literature who recently joined the ward because she turned 30. She is a lovely human being that I am always glad to be around. I have yet to regret that she had opened her mouth in a discussion at church. And we cleaned the chapel together this week. We had an interesting discussion about the sacrificial lamb (Exodus 12) and the scapegoat (Leviticus 16). This afternoon I was reflecting on the children of Israel marking the doors with blood to protect them from the destroying angel. The way we mark ourselves now is by baptism and renewing baptismal covenants during the sacrament every week. But the mark isn't so much about the mark. Doing those things are necessary tokens, but not sufficient. It isn't about doing the things that are a type and symbol, a way to access the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The thing that has the power to save us from destruction is internalizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ in such a...

I had my ministering brother's family over for lunch after church today. Well, actually, I made pancakes for them. And bacon, so it was really breakfast. Tom and Amelia didn't show up for lunch, but Tom came in as we were having a Come, Follow Me discussion. He loitered in the background, eating bacon, and eventually sat down with the group. Eean had been on youth conference in his role on the high council. He brought me the dvd of the Church history videos each ward made to watch on the bus, so we watched a couple of them. Tom and Amelia were in charge of editing the one for our ward. They did a good job. It was quirky and fun. As we wrapped up, I faded into the kitchen and let Tom visit with the Crawfords. I think they had been ready to go, but were happy to hang around a little bit to spend some time with Tommy. I was surprised to see that Tom was in church clothes. I don't know whether he attended our ward. Amelia didn't come to lead the opening hymn. She only did t...

We had a remarkable sacrament meeting today. The youth speaker did a lovely job talking about how prayer has brought her comfort and peace. Makayla, a woman who recently joined our ward, gave a beautiful talk about being of good cheer. It turns out, it isn't so much about being happy as having courage. She shared stories of her grandmothers and her mother that showed their different ways of having courage and the confidence that can come to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Then we sang, "I Am a Child of God." Isaac gave the last talk, with similar motifs. He made a point at the end to say that having challenges and feeling bad are not synonymous with being out of favor with God. The Relief Society discussion topic was on Becky Craven's talk "Careful vs. Casual" and Pr. Oaks's talk "Where Will This Lead?" It was good for me to revisit Sis. Craven's talk and find that it was less annoying than I perceived in its delivery the first time aro...

Amelia was assigned to lead the music in sacrament meeting. She had agreed to the assignment, but I wasn't sure she would follow through because she hasn't been attending. She did it, and did a pretty good job, too. It's interesting to me that this is the thing that got her to church. I also noticed that it was easy for me to set aside any nitpicky perfectionist tendencies of my own and just feel grateful she was there. For example, she decided to sing the 5th and 6th verses of "Father in Heaven, We Do Believe," even though they are labeled for use at baptisms and there is a note to sing verses 1-4 in sacrament meeting. There was a time I would have viewed that choice as a mistake or oversight. Now it just seemed like a decision she made that was one of the available options. And we had just observed the confirmation of two young women who were baptized yesterday, so it seemed fitting in that regard, too. I am always grateful when I notice myself having thinking t...