Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sunday thoughts

At church today the Young Women and Young Men's presidents spoke.  They both gave good talks.  Some stuff the Young Men's president said made me think about judging others.  I just wanted to jot down some thoughts.  Hopefully it is somewhat coherent so y'all can understand what I'm trying to say!  These are thoughts that started while living in Dallas.

The speaker started of with a small anecdote about a Mormon attending a Southern Baptist sabbath meeting. The Mormon felt an overwhelming sense of love and acceptance from the Baptist congregation.  No judgments. Just love.

The first thought I had was that we as members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in 'absolute truth' and/or 'universal truth'.  We believe things to be pretty cut and dry, right and wrong; it's been ingrained in us since birth.  Which is why I think it can be somewhat easy for us to become judgmental of those we see who may not be living in accordance with that truth.  I think that sometimes we let our perception of other's lives and choices interfere with just loving and accepting them.

The second thought I had was that I also don't think that our judging stops there.  I also think that we have a tendency to inaccurately judge the level of perfection in
ourselves.  The speaker quoted a statistic that said that Utah has the highest level of depression in the country.  (I do not know what study he found this in, nor do I know the level of accuracy but I believe the point still stands...Utahn's struggle with depression.)  Why, when we have the happiness of belonging to God's church are we depressed?  My own personal experiences and observations lead me to believe it is because we are too hard on ourselves.  We know what we should be doing to be perfect.  We also fail at being perfect everyday.  

Anyway, I guess I just relate to the story.  I moved from Mormon dominated Utah into 'Christian' Texas.  I never once felt judged for being a Mormon.  I felt love and acceptance from the friends I met there.  I am grateful for their example of those most important qualities.  And I hope I can extend those feelings of love and acceptance to everyone, including myself.

6 comments:

Jami said...

Definitely something important. Thanks for sharing.

Parkinson Family said...

yes, love and acceptance, very important

Mama Beus said...

I love your thoughts! We are definitely always too hard on ourselves and I have to agree with you also that we judge too quickly. I have really tried to teach my kids to not judge, it's not an easy thing to do! Thanks for your thoughts!!

Kathryn said...

I just gave a similar lesson in YW. Many of my YW are suffering, and I mean suffering from depression. Not as a result of anything they have done wrong, but because they are being dishonest with the amazing individuals they are!! Satan seems to put blinders on the most incredible individuals! We are not going to let him win!
It's one of my personal goals this year to not be judgemental of others. Thanks Mikel for sharing your thoughts!

Tristen said...

I agree with you completely Mikel. It is such a different world outside of Utah - judging just seems to come so easy when we are measuring ourselves up to perfection. How can we even compare? Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Amen, sister!