NOM

I haven't posted here in a long time. Things have been hard. Sometimes it's easier to just disconnect from Mormonism during the week...

That being said, I have come back to lurk from time to time.

I did want to share a positive experience I had at church on Sunday. My wife came to church with me on Sunday. This hardly ever happens. I've been down to about 50% or less attendance myself. As we sat down in the pew and SM was starting, they announced the first hymn. It was "How Great Thou Art". I looked at my wife and smiled. This is her favorite hymn.

Hymns are a big trigger for her. "Praise to the Man", "Come, Come ye Saints" and "We Thank the Oh God for a Prophet" are all LDS favorites, but any one of those will send my wife into a depressive tail spin. So it was just really nice to sing a song together that meant something to both of us. It was just so nice to be able to put my arm around her and remember back to the time when I was courting her sitting next to her in church with my arm around her singing hymns.

I had all of these emotions just flood back into me in an instant. It was very powerful and brought me much happiness. The icing on the cake was the talks. They were all focused on love, kindness and service to others. It was a beautiful sacrament meeting. For just a few minutes it was so lovely to not worry about prophets, translations, revelations, visions, polygamy, the priesthood, gender biases, sexuality and race issues. For just a few minutes, we were able to just sit and listen to messages of love and kindness.

I love Sundays like that.

I am with you on the hymns. I was raised in a musical household and good hymns help me enjoy church.

It's good to hear from you azflyer! I'm glad Sacrament Meeting was a good experience for you and DW this week!

I can understand your wife's feelings on some of those hymns. I love singing but I just can't sing the Joseph Smith worshipping hymns, or How Firm a Foundation.

AZ Flyer, good to see you and glad things are well enough off for you.

I too came from a very musical family. Mom was in MoTab and we all played 1 or more instruments.

The words in the hymns have changed along with my perspective on eternal truth and salvation claims.

Praise to the man is tough for me because I love the Scottish bagpipe history of the tune but the words are offensive.

Glad you had that moment with your wife this week.

I have had those too, great Sundays that are about love, service, etc. where the music is great. DW is very musical and I love so much of the music.

Good to see you here again az! I'm so sorry for how hard things have been. I'm glad you were able to have such a great experience Sunday with your wife.

AZFlyer, Great to hear from you, and I'm sorry that recent times have been tough. Thanks for the update, and I hope you will drop in and visit us from time to time. I was wondering how you and your family have been doing, and I look forward to your posts. Best wishes, from Wndr.