has cougarguard discussion replaced sunday school/priesthood

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by SteelBlue

A good and wise friend once told me that you reach a certain point in the church where your presence in church is sometimes needed more for other people than it is for yourself.

Yes, and about the time I feel that way, something smacks me upside the head and I realize I need to be there for me more than for someone else. Odd how that works out.

I haven't attended GD or PM for a few months now. I'm the only clerk in a struggling French ward and we just introduced MLS. I'm fairly busy trying to keep everything in order so that I'm not spending all day at the Church. Also, my French isn't good enough to participate in the lessons at the level I would like, so it seems a little fruitless at this point. Given the language barrier, Sacrament Meeting is interesting for the family. My daughter does her Seminary homework and the other kids occupy themselves with books, pencils, and paper. Mrs. myboynoah and I try to listen and follow the speakers but after about 5 minutes we are off in lala land someplace, thinking about whatever (I know she's thinking about sharing time in "la Primaire").

Are we wasting our time? Certainly not. This is our religious community and we love these people. We need them and I hope they need us. I am inspired by their faith and sacrifice and hope our experience in functioning church units can add to making this thing work here.

It isn't always fun and can be very frustrating at times, but we are happy that through "blind obedience" we decided to tough it out.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

Yes, and about the time I feel that way, something smacks me upside the head and I realize I need to be there for me more than for someone else. Odd how that works out.

Neither my friend nor I meant to say that when you reach that point, you don't need to be there for yourself. Only that the service isn't always "what can I get out of this meeting/lesson/talk?" but "what can I do to help?". I'm sure we've all had many Sundays that weren't all that spiritually uplifiting or enlightening for ourselves. But perhaps we are able to make it so for somebody else.