Today my 3-year-old came home from church singing “Follow the prophet!”
“Actually”, I told him, “we should sing ‘Follow the Savior…He is the Way!”
“No”, he said, “it’s ‘follow the prophet’.”
***
The first Sunday of every month, a member of the bishopric teaches the Primary lesson in my family’s ward. Today’s lesson was (what a surprise!) “Follow the prophet”. The first counselor taught the lesson. I’m told he said the following to these little kids:
“Can a prophet ever change his mind?”
“No!” they replied.
“Well, actually, yes he can! A long time ago the prophet encouraged women to have as many children as possible and men to have more than one wife. We call that polygamy. A few years later another prophet told us we shouldn’t do that anymore.”
Of course, if I had talked about making babies and having more than one wife with these 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds — instead of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost — I would have been yanked out of there and threatened with excommunication in a heartbeat! Oh, wait, come to think of it....
Maybe the first counselor will be joining me on Sunday mornings.
Wouldn’t that be nice.
His teaching is utterly orthodox.
ReplyDeleteHere's a better question - how could it be different, really, in the real world with the real history it has?
Really? Oh, I don't know...Passing The Heavenly Gift comes to mind! ;o)
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what you mean to say.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to your terse way of "communicating", I thought you were asking "How could it [which I understood to mean "the Church" or "its teachings"] be different, really, in the real world with the real history it has?" And I proposed PTHG as an alternative narrative.
ReplyDeleteI'm not asking for a story accounting for how we got here - I'm asking how the Church could realistically be anything other than what it is now given what has actually happened - whatever story you choose to believe?
ReplyDeleteOr, maybe another way to make the same point - Will, I know very little about your past, and it doesn't matter, because you are as I have found you. How you got there, whatever narrative accounts for why you are the way you are, doesn't matter - the reality of you is what it is, as it is for everyone. The only real issue to me is how do I emulate the Savior to those around me.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make sense?
Basically, the story of how all this got the way it is now doesn't matter, which is another way of saying the past doesn't matter; the reality we are confronted with is what it is; what are we going to do now?
ReplyDelete"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets."
Log,
ReplyDeleteAs we have discussed, you have herein encapsulated (or rather the Savior did) the strait and narrow path, the one and ONLY way back to Him. Indeed, we are where we are, we cannot change that, we can only go forward from where we are . Feast upon the words of Christ, with a love of God and of all men, the Holy Ghost will tell you all things what ye should do. I have been pondering this all weekend. Thank you Will for providing a forum.
JRU
No basic doctrine of Christ here...just the basic training that ensures the Church will have a steady flow of contributors in the future.
ReplyDelete