NOM

Yep, your family is on the ward council list. Usually these presses blow over after being snubbed on a handful of obvious reactivation efforts. I would give it a month.

It sucks that you can't say yes to giving a prayer without blowing oxygen on their fire.

Azflyer! So good to hear from you! What do you think your family would expect from you, and do you care? I have an uncle who lived far away and we didn't do much with and I'm pretty sure he stopped going to church years ago, but nobody really knows, and people think what they want to think. I don't ...

DW and I worked out how "Come Along with Me" will work next year, so I will be done teaching primary at the end of this year, and getting my kids out of primary some too! I will bring the kids home with me for the second hour for one Sunday a month and we will do a little family lesson about stuff m...

It's tough when doing something as vanilla as choosing your underwear can cause despair in our loved ones. But it is understandable from a believing perspective. I think doing the little things that keep you sane without broadcasting them to your DW is a fine temporary place to be. I hope so anyway ...

I have just the opposite problem. I have lots of friends at church, and enjoy the association with them, but not church! We even have a standing invite from one family for Sunday dinner every week. So I go to talk with my friends. I'm in this boat too. I was heading home after sacrament meeting one...

I think it's Covey who says "seek first to understand...then seek to be understood." When we ask questions that genuinely look to understand the "other" they end up vocalizing inner stances or territory that they have staked out and want to defend. In the process of doing that vocalization, they so...

You might already know the answer, or possibly you do but a great question might have been, " What was it that you enjoyed about talking with Sis about religion?" She's probably wanting to connect with you and feels that talking about church would be one of the ways if it wasn't so difficult. I'm t...

My mom mentioned to me that she was having a religious discussion with my sister the other day and as they were talking she said to my sister that she wishes she could talk with me that way. I began responding with the reasons that is difficult and she jumped in to say that she just wanted to let me...

My ward is pretty great sometimes. For the past couple years we have received a text from the primary president asking if we are still ok/interested in teaching primary for the next year. It almost feels like I am truly volunteering. Recently DW and I got the text. I am ready to be done with primary...

Sounds like a great step! Letting your believing husband know your plans ahead of time will make it much easier when the time comes.

The internet has created an interesting stage for human tribalism. With the blogs and forums that have popped up a person can find a virtual tribe or set of virtual tribes which closely align with their values and interests. These virtual tribes can be more closely aligned with a person's interests ...

Well, I eventually agreed to meet with our Bishop today about it and it was a total non-event... he simply asked if we were full tithe-payers, I said yep and that was that. Meeting was less than 5 minutes. But that is all a Bishop is supposed to do as there should be no questioning, shaming, pressu...

Our primary program this year was a complete disaster. With the short sac. meeting vs prior years (10 whole minutes), our Primary Pres decided there was no time to waste having kids walk up to the microphones. Instead, she purchased some wireless mics and passed them down the rows. Each child was a...

The tone of the description really doesn't want people to think that there could be a good reason for wondering about God (and by extension God's prophet, even R. Marion Nelson). Have you been so focused on poking holes in your faith that you’ve started to disbelieve? He searched for every negative ...

The Primary Program is next week and I had the pleasure of participating in the rehearsal yesterday. The songs are bad enough, brainwashing my kids with sure statements about unknowable things packaged in a nice melody. But the statements they have the kids read are even worse! My son gets to read s...

I walked my 8 year old son to the church men's room yesterday and watched him walk in the door after a man from another ward. It took me about 3 seconds imagining something horrible happening for me to walk in and wait at the back of the room. Before having kids I would have thought I was crazy to b...

Lately I'd say that my percentage of belief in these things has increased from 5% to 10%. It's just enough to keep my mind open to any new possibility, but I still maintain my mistrust of any human on the planet that say they have it figured out and can tell you how you should live your life. Good ...

See you there!

Sorry to hear about the strife between you and Mrs. Mackman, I hope it sorts itself out ok.

Congrats on a good outcome on priesthood, Stuck! Sounds like your wife wants you to find tender mercies. Believers searching for tender mercies is priming themselves for confirmation bias. "I successfully navigated traffic, even with a close call, god must be protecting me." I don't have any experie...

Thanks for all the support NOM! My posts here are usually pretty negative, because the positive stuff is boring, but overall things are actually pretty good. Just a few interactions with my family in a short period of time has me in a tough spot. Thank you for your commiseration. Some boring positiv...