Who am I to judge anotherI hope the Lord will help me to express the important realizations that I have had recently on this subject when I speak next week. I hope that I will touch someone's heart to help them treat their brothers and sisters with more sensitivity. We are our brother's keepers. I know that the Lord has not placed us together on this earth to judge each other and turn away in times of need. At certain times in my life I have felt so angry that the church has not been a place of refuge. In fact, in my early teen years it was one of the greatest sources of persecution that I ever experienced. That has not caused me to turn away or my testimony to diminish, but it has increased my desire to affect a change. Changes begin with me, of course. I recognize that I am a fairly big hypocrite right now even as I am typing this. I feel detached from my ward. I don't want to go to Relief Society. It is emotionally (and sometimes spiritually) draining to sit through mediocre (and even downright incorrect) lessons and afterwards get ignored by the other sisters in the ward. I sit in sacrament meeting and feel renewed by taking the sacrament and uplifted by the words spoken, but once again, I retreat back to my place of comfort after the meeting is over and I don't really reach out to anyone. I can't continue to behave this way if I really want to show that I care about others. This talk will not be a tirade on the injustices that we perpetuate with our judgmental behavior, but I want it to be somewhat of a wake-up call. They say the teacher learns even more than those they teach, so I hope to be awakened to a greater degree as well.
When I walk imperfectly?
In the quiet heart is hidden
Sorrow that the eye can't see.
Who am I to judge another?
Lord, I would follow thee.
If anyone has suggestions or a situation that they would like to share with me that would help in forming ideas for this talk, please let me know. I would love to hear what you think.
9 comments:
I think you should pass out copies of "Helping LDS Men Resolve Their Homosexual Problems." Or... even a better idea. You should start by coming out to them... and then say just kidding! And then chastise them for not being more accepting! jk
Seriously, I think you're on the right track. That's an awesome topic and a great opportunity for you. I'm jealous. The song is also perfect! The question is, how do you make the talk real and personal and make sure they understand how it applies to people dealing with SSA while still preserving anonymity. Or maybe you aren't planning on being that explicit.
Well... I'll be sure to let you know if I have any ideas. I think i may have to come to your sacrament meeting on Sunday...
Lucky. I just got assigned to speak on "obedience" in my sacrament meeting, but I like your topic better.
I think it's great that you are excited about this. And I think it's even cooler that you're applying the lesson to yourself, not just preaching to everyone else. You should talk to the Native about this. He often feels like church is more hurtful than helpful because people in the Church aren't very accepting. Like I said--talk to him.
You mentioned being a "hypocrite"--I'm not going to agree or disagree with you, but it brings up an interesting point. We are asking for acceptance and tolerance, but maybe we need to give it too; maybe we shouldn't judge representatives of the Church too harshly when they make mistakes...I suppose that brings up a whole lot of other issues about what is crossing the line and all that, but it's interesting to think about.
I do hope you post your talk so we can all read it. Best of luck to you.
I think you should wave... you could even point and have me stand up... or you could use me and/or le mec for an object lesson. It would be very informative... and everyone always remembers object lessons.
ps... I wrote this really heinous and vulgar comment but then i deleted it... jk... I just made a mistake and wanted to fix it.
thanks for your comments today. seriously, you seem like the coolest girl ever. it's a pleasure to know you.
The call to love and accept other's is very important--what was the second great commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself, or whatever the wording is.
First of all we need to love ourselves. We cant expect to be happy in this life if we are hating every inch of who we are because we deal with depression, or we experience same-gender attraction.
Learning to love myself is the hardest part about dealing with being ssa/homo/gay.
anywho, i probably didn't make any sense at all. but there you go. make us fags proud!
another idea, you could let us know when youre speaking and you could have your own gay cheering section. hmmm...just a thought.
I really like ATP's comment about loving ourselves first. I've realized that much of the petty jealousy, competitiveness, offensiveness, judgement, etc. from people comes from insecurity. People are insecure about themselves and their choices and think that they need to prove others "wrong" in order to be "right". There are many choices to be made in this life and most are not a dichotomy like people think they are. When we can accept and forgive ourselves we will accept and forgive other people too. I just spent three years in a ward where there was little judgement and insecurity in the Relief Society. I miss that feeling--even though there are more women my age in my new ward, they aren't as kind to me. My old ward was mostly older women (some really old), and I think most of them were kind and accepting of others because they had grown into themselves and were comfortable with their lives. Anyways, just an idea and something to think about. Don't know if that will help you much.
Oh, and there was a really good article in Sunstone a year or two ago about how women are mean to each other. You can look it up online. I really liked it a lot.
Nice job today... I really enjoyed the talk and thought it did a really good job expressing clearly the things you wanted to say. Kudos from the gay cheering section!
i really appreciate what you said about not judging others. the hymn "lord i would follow thee" has always really touched me-- i can hardly sing it, REALLY sing it, without wanting to cry at how trite and imperfect we can be, but conversely, how loving and wonderful the lord is. the last line expresses all that i can ever hope to accomplish on this earth-- "lord, i would follow thee."
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