Airing the Restored Laundry List

[græy]

I have to speak in SM this weekend. My assigned topic is "Constant vigilance is required to counteract complacency and casualness in our daily
living of the gospel of Jesus Christ." I was also told to use Bednar's talk from this past Oct. '19 conference (remember the cheetahs using team work to sneak up on their prey).

I'm thinking that at least part of my talk will contain a list of the myriad of things we're asked to do so that we can more fully receive the blessings of being active in the one and only true and living church of God.

Per Red Ryder's suggestion, I wanted to open this up to a larger discussion. What are the many things we're asked to do in order to keep ourselves too busy to ask questi.... I mean, get blessings... to get blessings?

• daily personal prayers
• daily personal scripture study
• daily family prayers
• daily family scripture study
• seminary classes
• weekly youth activities
• minister to families
• be ministered to
• have ministering interviews
• prepare sunday lesson
• attend temple monthly
• wear garments
• pay tithing
• pay fast offerings
• attend weekend service project
• help new family move in
• help old family move out

What else have you got to add to the list?

[StarbucksMom]

Prepare lessons and treats for, and have FHE, duh

Magnify your priesthood and give blessings

Also how about all the things women are supposed to do? Grind wheat, bake bread, take meals to new moms and sick people, while also cooking for their families. Exercise to look perfect for your hubby and take care of kids 24/7 so he can go fulfill priesthood.

[alas]

I remember once when I was a new mother seeing an article in a parents magazine where she humorously went through all the advice she had been given. Then she timed feeding her breast feeding baby, timed the rocking to sleep, the diaper changing, then went through all the recommendations for new mothers, like be sure to keep getting exercise so you lose the baby flab, sleeping when baby sleeps so you don’t spend all your time too exhausted, eating yourself, to don’t forget to spend time with your husband, and all the other things on the recommended list. Then she added up the time you needed to be a good mother and still take care of yourself. It came to 46 hours a day. Yeah, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Of course then she went into the idea that you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself if some days all you accomplish is you and baby surviving.

So, be sure to put some humor into this and maybe add up hours per day or average over a week in this case.

So, adding to your list.

1. food storage and don’t forget using the food storage in daily cooking. That gives you an extra hour or so cooking time each day.

2. Missionary work means making friends with nonmembers. That is going to take another hour a day.

3. Read church magazines.

4. Independent study, such as reading the new church history book, Saints.

5. Shopping for modest clothing that adequately covers your garments and is remotely stylish. (women only)

[Palerider]

Prepare lessons and treats for, and have FHE, duh

Magnify your priesthood and give blessings

Also how about all the things women are supposed to do? Grind wheat, bake bread, take meals to new moms and sick people, while also cooking for their families. Exercise to look perfect for your hubby and take care of kids 24/7 so he can go fulfill priesthood.

Can't you see from this that having the priesthood would only add to your burden?

[StarbucksMom]

So stupid lists aside, I wish I could give this talk. I would give Bednar the middle finger by talking about how we can’t let all the silly lists of things we THINK we need to do get in the way of ACTUALLY following Jesus. Only use NT scriptures and say what Jesus wants us to do.

. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet

And that’s all.
Use the “I was sick/in prison and you visited me” verses. And do what I did when I was a NOM NT SS teacher. Use real life examples of nevermos around the world who are doing what Jesus actually asked us to do. I would bring in magazines like “People” with stories of everyday heroes
jumping in to help after a disaster. I found and talked
about inspiring stories of forgiveness after tragedy. Etc etc. My class loved my lessons. They ate it up bc they were so sick to death of preachy guilt trips and repeated lesson garbage they’d heard their whole freaking lives.
The SP was in our ward and I was always nervous when he showed up to my class. But I kid you not, he came up
to me after every lesson, often with moist looking eyes and said he always “felt the spirit so strongly” in my class.

[græy]

Then she added up the time you needed to be a good mother and still take care of yourself. It came to 46 hours a day. Yeah, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Of course then she went into the idea that you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself if some days all you accomplish is you and baby surviving.

So, be sure to put some humor into this and maybe add up hours per day or average over a week in this case.

That is the exact idea! Thanks, alas! And thank you for the additional list items.

[Linked]

- Planned acts of real service (per StarbucksMom)
- Random acts of real service (per StarbucksMom)
- Meetings for callings
- Action items from meetings for callings
- Quality family time
- Maintain a career/care for children
- Maintain a house of order, a house of cleanliness, a house of God
- Choir
- Participate on the ward basketball team
- Share the gospel
- Ponder and plan for all these things

It's interesting how there are a few things they encourage which some people really want to do, or feel they should do, but those may get bumped for the things on the list which are easier to check off. Sacrificing quality family time for meetings for calling, or sacrificing real service for a ministering visit. Honestly, I think the church tried to push things in the right direction with the ministering change, allowing for/encouraging real service to replace a standard visit.

[græy]

So stupid lists aside, I wish I could give this talk. I would give Bednar the middle finger by talking about how we can’t let all the silly lists of things we THINK we need to do get in the way of ACTUALLY following Jesus. Only use NT scriptures and say what Jesus wants us to do.

. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet

And that’s all.
Use the “I was sick/in prison and you visited me” verses. And do what I did when I was a NOM NT SS teacher. Use real life examples of nevermos around the world who are doing what Jesus actually asked us to do. I would bring in magazines like “People” with stories of everyday heroes
jumping in to help after a disaster. I found and talked
about inspiring stories of forgiveness after tragedy. Etc etc. My class loved my lessons. They ate it up bc they were so sick to death of preachy guilt trips and repeated lesson garbage they’d heard their whole freaking lives.
The SP was in our ward and I was always nervous when he showed up to my class. But I kid you not, he came up
to me after every lesson, often with moist looking eyes and said he always “felt the spirit so strongly” in my class.

This is also what I had in mind for the general theme of my talk. I like the idea of People's everyday heroes, I think I may do that as well. Thanks for the input!

[græy]

It's interesting how there are a few things they encourage which some people really want to do, or feel they should do, but those may get bumped for the things on the list which are easier to check off. Sacrificing quality family time for meetings for calling, or sacrificing real service for a ministering visit. Honestly, I think the church tried to push things in the right direction with the ministering change, allowing for/encouraging real service to replace a standard visit.

Good points here. Your comment about the change to ministering being an attempt to move in the right direction brought up a few thoughts I've had recently, I may need to make another post on that though. Thanks, Linked!

[2bizE]

Don’t forget to make time for procreation.

[græy]

Don’t forget to make time for procreation.

You mean date night? That's part of temple attendance, isn't it?

[Mahonri Moriancumer]

Perhaps this is included with scripture study, but another possible item to add to the list:
Study the materials in the "Come Follow Me" curriculum weekly/daily (home-centered, church-supported)

[Red Ryder]

Don’t forget to make time for procreation.

You mean date night? That's part of temple attendance, isn't it?

Procreation or at a minimum practicing the act of procreation is the last thing on anyone’s mind after a temple night. The baker cap imprinted into the forehead alone is enough to prevent foreplay and that’s before we even get to overcoming the sheer exhaustion and boredom of attending the temple. If you could get past those two things, the final obstacle to sexy time would be garments and the fact I didn’t hang up my pants or white shirt and left them crumpled on the floor.

Date night temple trips? Hell no, even as a TBM we valued our precious time.

[RS Teacher]

I no one doing their genealogy? Come on people! (Or do we call if Family History now?)

[Mormorrisey]

So stupid lists aside, I wish I could give this talk. I would give Bednar the middle finger by talking about how we can’t let all the silly lists of things we THINK we need to do get in the way of ACTUALLY following Jesus. Only use NT scriptures and say what Jesus wants us to do.

. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet

And that’s all.

I just got tired and depressed reading these lists; I'm so glad I got off the guilt train. Sb Mom's take is the one I'd go with.

[Mahonri Moriancumer]

I no one doing their genealogy? Come on people! (Or do we call if Family History now?)

And don't forget indexing too! (By doing genealogy/family history, I assume you mean finding names to take to the temple)

[Linked]

I have to speak in SM this weekend. My assigned topic is "Constant vigilance is required to counteract complacency and casualness in our daily
living of the gospel of Jesus Christ." I was also told to use Bednar's talk from this past Oct. '19 conference (remember the cheetahs using team work to sneak up on their prey).

I'm thinking that at least part of my talk will contain a list of the myriad of things we're asked to do so that we can more fully receive the blessings of being active in the one and only true and living church of God.

Græy, how did your talk go on Sunday? Did you use the list?

I saw this on reddit and thought it would make a good quote for a talk.

[græy]

Græy, how did your talk go on Sunday? Did you use the list?

I saw this on reddit and thought it would make a good quote for a talk.

Hey Linked! It went pretty well I think. Very good call! I did in fact use that exact quote and one other from that same talk. I believe that to be one of Holland's best talks in a very long time.

How did your talk go?

[RubinHighlander]

I think at the bottom of all these lists should be FEEL GUILTY! Because even if you managed to do all that, it still would never be enough, so then you recognize where Jebus stepped in and made up for your insignificant and insufficient efforts; you "miserable creatures" --King Benjamin

[alas]

I think at the bottom of all these lists should be FEEL GUILTY! Because even if you managed to do all that, it still would never be enough, so then you recognize where Jebus stepped in and made up for your insignificant and insufficient efforts; you "miserable creatures" --King Benjamin

While this is SO SO true, it is not something that TBMs would take well to being told. Especially told as if it is a bad thing. That gets a bit too honest for most people. It is one of those rules, like the first rule of guilt club is that we don’t talk about guilt club.

But the church has to manufacture all kinds of guilt in order to keep normal people feeling guilty and like smucks who need a church in order to be worth anything. Because, after all, you are saved AFTER all that you can do, so obviously all that you can do will never be enough. So, ratchet up that guilt you smucks and get busy working for the church for free, so you can get to *all you can possibly do* without it killing you, and it still isn’t good enough. It really is a guilt club.

This is ultimately what drove me out of the church, is the constant guilt for existing and shame that you can never be good enough. My fragile self worth could not take the constant guilting and shaming, especially when it was guilt over things that one cannot control.