Things I love and Things I struggle with: An attempt at openness
I love
The atonement
The call to be unselfish
Covenant making
The call to have loving families and make that a first priority
The community
The Book of Mormon
the pre-mortal life
eternal progression
the faith in miracles
Prophetic priesthood authority
The call to serve
baptism by immersion
giving blessings
Going on a two year mission
The mission to comfort the weary and strengthen the weak
The reminder that kindness begins with me
personal revelation
Living by faith
that repentance is turning toward god
The efficacy of temple
The religious outreach to the poor and needy
The Hope in Universalism
The efficacy of prayer
The New Testament
Modern Prophets and Apostles to help guide us and encourage us
The acceptance of fallibility
wheelchairs, wells, perpetual education and other charitable acts
I struggle with
The gender exclusion of the priesthood
The anti-gay marriage issue and how we say we want religious freedom but are trying to deny it to others
The other “republican” platform stuff like:
- Climate change denial
- Evolution denial
Husband/wife male/female black/white equality being even slightly debatable
Treatment of Single people
my personal Anxiety in social settings
the recent BSA stuff (I was introduced to the church at scout camp)
My own hypocrisy
Ok, that’s mine, what’s yours?
I will not put in as much thought as you did, but I love:
Being eternal beings
3 degrees of glory
spirit offspring of God
Book of Mormon
Temple worship
atonement
Blessings from obedience (ie tithing)
prayer
personal revelation
priesthood authority
Struggle with
BSA before the gay leader thing
BSA after the gay leader thing
BSA during…
Milk instead of meat
bully management
anything goes expectations.
Comment by Eric Nielson — August 30, 2015 @ 3:07 pm
Thanks Eric. Glad you shared.
Comment by Matt W. — August 30, 2015 @ 4:12 pm
You both left out God. The Bible says love the Lord thy God with all your heart soul and mind. And your brother as yourself. It’s the first command. How is it that your love is on works only guys?
Comment by Barry — September 3, 2015 @ 7:48 pm
Bury: You left out ment
Comment by Matt W. — September 3, 2015 @ 8:05 pm
Barry,
I do not see how you can read either list and say that God is left out. Additionally one could say that love is a verb, and we are simply being specific in the nature of our love rather than being vague about it.
Comment by Eric Nielson — September 4, 2015 @ 11:23 am
Isn’t a same sex marriage a contradiction to evolution? Why do you put both in the same pot? It’s just a question that maybe you can clarify to me
Comment by Sergio — September 7, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
Sergio: I don’t see your reasoning.
Comment by Matt W. — September 12, 2015 @ 9:07 pm
I love the teaching of agency, the book of Mormon and how it fits in with the old testament and New Testament setting. I love and admire the selflessness of the people in my local ward, how they show love towards God and their fellow beings. I have a hard time with the “us vs them” and “we are better than the world” mentality. I prefer to see more of independent, critical thinking and open minded views. I don’t like the claim of God’s ownership from the church leadership. That the church has the full gospel and all truth.
Comment by Mindy — September 15, 2015 @ 8:00 am
Thanks Mindy. I can appreciate that. I too am frustrated by the “we are better than the world” mentality, because I think we paint a straw man of the world when we do that.
Comment by Matt W. — September 15, 2015 @ 8:43 pm
i understand from your post that you struggle with evolution denial and in the same group of the things that you struggle with, same sex acceptance. isn´t that a contradiction?
Comment by sergio benidio — September 24, 2015 @ 5:51 pm
if you were the president of the church would you bring back polygamy ? I don’t see distiction on a social points of view that states over there a liberalizing SSM and not Polygamy, after all people are adults they should be free to praise their God in the same manner?
maybe I see things from an European points of view, our countries here, like Germany and the UK have about 5 millions Muslims which a great majority believe in having more that now wife, what should we do?
Comment by sergio benidio — September 24, 2015 @ 5:57 pm
Great lists Matt. Your lists look very similar to mine. I would add “hymns” to the list of things I love. I would remove climate change denial from the list of things I struggle with. But mostly we are aligned.
It is obviously striking that the amount of goodness on the top list. The list of things you struggle with is a serious list with real consequence, but it would be quite a loss to jettison the top list because of the bottom list.
Comment by Jacob J — October 4, 2015 @ 1:30 pm
Completely agree Jacob.
Comment by Matt W. — October 4, 2015 @ 3:05 pm
Yay! You’re back!! I think you can see a difference in petiurcs too. A scale is a number, a picture is proof!! I love this idea and I wish you lots of luck
Comment by Zied — November 24, 2015 @ 1:49 pm