Weve had sermons based on bumper stickers, Willy Wonka, the Grinch, and quite possibly Chicken Soup for the Soul, etc. Mark, This post was positively Uchtdorfian! And home teachers were not comfortable giving flowers or candy to a single sister. I do think a lot of Mormon women enjoy talks that validate their efforts at motherhood, and I think some of these talks get interpreted as angel mother talks when theyre really not. The first speaker was a single father, then the bishop spoke, then the stake president spoke. They really did. For the past two years, I have been passed over because other women tell the youth passing out the gift, that they need to take one for so-and-so, shes ill today,without looking for women in the room that havent received one yet. 22 Im sorry too for the harshness In my expression in a previous thread regarding your views of sacrament meeting. And this is all in addition to the everyday problems like getting the bills paid and the laundry done. Mothers Day was pure torture and the only time I ever serious entertain thoughts of staying home. I dont think it would occur to anyone to give a man a plant for Fathers Day *, but its very common to give women plants for Mothers Day. 34 Ideas for LDS Sacrament Meeting Talks When People Don't Apologize: Forgiving and finding reconciliation with God Would borrow from Forgiveness + Tribulation, a talk I gave fall 2019. So this year we are setting up tables and chairs in the gym, hauling in meat and cheese and veggies and chocolate, and the Bishop will talk for five minutes and then we will let everybody socialize while I play the tuba for the entire primary. I love your idea of wearing different color of flowers. Thanks for the reminder. Uchtdorf, but you have to admit he gets pretty Hallmark(y) sometimes. Nothanks to my back problems got to fly non-stop from Atlanta to Seattle. However, like you, I thought Fathers Day was a done and done. I am confident that a poll ofactive Mormons would show that Mothers Day sacrament meeting is, hands down, the one meeting of the year most fraught with difficulty for the people who attend. My own dear mother, long since gone to her reward, summed up the essence of the perfect Mothers Day talk quite nicely. Personally, I like cookies. It seems sometimes that activity organizers believe somehow that no one will participate if not bribed by pizza, pop, potato chips or pie. We can only celebrate the nonentity because we are afraid of hurting those who are not being celebrated "today". This is brilliant, Mark. Not an official website of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thanks for thinking of me, my youngest bishop son! . Mothers Day gifts at church should be like free t-shirt day at the baseball game. It falls short when it is not delivered with love, patience, acceptance, humility, an understanding of the limitations of REALITY, and the the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Then it gives them the option to (1) print traditional paper programs, or (2) give members access to a digital version of the program on their phones. In this case it will likely be mothers, and the Primary kids will sing, too. It appears that we have adopted the perverted sense of inclusion to such a degree that we cannot mention our gratitude for our mothers and motherhood without "hurting" or "marginalizing" those who are not mothers. Its hard to please everyone. Why does the church HAVE to be a part of it? I think this can be especially true for women who feel theyre just holding on. Based on the comments it seems to be prevalent everywhere in the US church. On the other hand, women tended to speak about motherhood as the most emotionally-exhausting and time-consuming chore imaginable. The men work. Families are good about this but public acknowledgement is hard to come by. At one point they cut down a tree and paraded it into town to symbolize the mother of the Gods (Asherah, anyone?). Tracy M posted an amazing video that deals with the general concept of this post in a really insightful way. Ohand did you say you had an extra ticket??? At least half the ward was so embarrassed for her at this point that they looked as if they wanted to crawl under the benches. This is Elder Hollands second appearance on this list of LDS talks on motherhood. I could send you a PDF of the sheet music, but it's probably too late now for your choir and Primary to prepare in time for Mother's Day. It isnt uncommon for LDS women to be dealing with some combination of the following factors: a difficult marriage, no marriage, no children, difficult children, health problems, loss of faith. Clap my hands and shout for joy! Lewis moments ago which speaks directly to those thoughts: I would love tohear from you. Honest! Isnt it reasonable to think that Abe is trying a little too hard, and might be overcompensating for something? What does this mean about women? Something else for me to kill.. Im sure that attendance in RS would be higher on that day though. Avoid speaking of angel mothers. Might spark some interesting conversations. They seemed to love the tradition and I never received negative feedback. Why in the church is there such a strong, almost secular aversion to motherhood? The only thing I might try if I were in charge would be to put out pink, white, red carnations and safety pins and invite everyone in the ward to wear a carnation to honor their mother pink/red if shes living, white if shes passed away. #93 Ruth I am glad you had a good father, but honestly, that attitude is what keeps me away. Put me in the column of those who think Sacrament Meeting should be about Christ. But since we have instituted Mothers Day as the day my family ditches church and meets my parents at Shoshone Falls for a picnic, I look forward to it every year. Today the sacrament is an ordinance in which Church members partake of bread and water in remembrance of Jesus Christs atoning sacrifice. Have a young child, a teenager, husband and elderly father take you through the different phases of motherhood in their own point of view. I have some ideas of speaker topics but I thought I would start a thread for suggestions of topics, scriptures, conference talks, etc that would help make a great Sacrament Meeting that honors Motherhood while also keeping a focus on Christ. But I realize others prefer plants. When chocolate is handed out, our children end up begging for it but its the one day I wont share. Gag. That said, I cant say I recall ever hearing a bad Mothers Day talk. Are you looking for the best LDS talks on motherhood? Im catching up on the comments, but Kristines suggestion in #72 is perfect. . Id really love to see the fathers acknowledged on Fathers Day. Respect her. I havent had a bad Mothers Day since I divorced my ex and the day stopped being about making my kids miserable so that he could appear to be a good husband. We teach that you are basically good or even great (gods in embryo), that you are responsible for your actions and that you can actually make other people do what is right through prayer and works especially your children, that the sins you accumulate both those of commission and omission are entirely your fault, that Christ is not really in the middle of the picture until you really screw up and commit something unforgiveable like adultery and that you need to try harder to keep every one of those commandments or you are going to lose your reward of having a planet & of having eternal sex , and the celestial DFAC will snatch your children from you and destroy your perfect family sprouting from the buried nuts of polygamy where mother valently hoisted the impossible burdens. Love your mother, my young sisters. Thats why youve been my cyber-crush for years. And dont even get me started on the Are We Not All Mothers tripe. Does this mean that finally..a talk could be about our Heavenly Mothers? I'd had a challenging morning, but somehow, my 3-year-old-daughter was decked out and ready for church on time. Today the sacrament is an ordinance in which Church members partake of bread and water in remembrance of Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice. We've gathered five inspiring gifts for Latter-day Saint women to help them feel cherished and celebrated. . My bishop knows where its at, and we always get Dove bars, Milk for those of unrefined taste and Dark for the rest of us. Mark did as well in his postminus the saccharine and accent. With that in mind, there are great ideas in this discussion thread of ways to do exactly that. Sadly, though, it probably caused a lot of pain to the listeners. Replies to my comments
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/wanted-hands-and-hearts-to-hasten-the-work?lang=eng. I did this for five years and the sisters seemed to enjoy sitting, chatting, and not having a child demanding a bit of their pie. Mother's Day Last year I used the last verse of "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and the song "Teacher/Mother Do You Love Me" for the Mother's Day Primary songs in sacrament meeting. Just sharing those times with women in the scriptures and what we can learn from them - and NOT have a focus on mothers. Sharon if that is our Sharon, please PM me. How about we don't celebrate either at church, but celebrate it in our homes with our mothers and fathers? Ours, like most, has its strengths and its weaknesses. More than at any time in the history of the world, we need mothers who know. I wish you were speaking in my ward! You can still give the women the day off. When her dad found out that there was a whole lottashakin goin on without him, he summarily divorced his adulterous wife and took the children to live with him. The perfect hymn for Mothers Day Sacrament meeting. Thank you. It was perhaps the best talk I gave as a bishop. don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging. Especially since whoever asked him to speak didnt learn their lesson and he said the exact same talk a year later. "We express our love to those in this congregation and our prayers for the victims and their families. I agree with #15youth speaker, song and chocolate and the rest of the meeting devoted to Christ. We got there at about 7:30 AM and one of my Aunts had already been there and left flowers for her. That we be a great subject for Mother's Day. We should not celebrate anything unless it is universally acknowledged around the world. Actually, Ive never heard anything about Heavenly Mother beyond, Isnt it so wonderful that we believe in a Heavenly Mother?!. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. Feelings of guilt, shame, loneliness, anger, disappointment, abandonment, and not measuring up to impossible expectations are prevalent. Dont take us out of Primary to go eat Treats! There are sins that need confessing; Which meeting do you think would be more meaningful to the participants? I wonder if this phenomenon is uniquely Mormon. The first consideration is that you, the speaker, need to begin with your audience in mind.