Whiny Mormon Rantings

I'm going to come off a little pessimistic here, but I just came from a performance (I was in) of "From Cumorah's Hill," a pageant typical of cliche, LDS, youth-oriented artistic performances. And I find fault with it mainly because I think it misses the mark on being a Mormon youth, at least from my perspective.

Like a lot of things in its genre, it uses made-up stories of "youths" struggling to live their lives. That's fine, but when characters are generalized into "my parents are inactive and it's hard for me to go to church," "I'm a bishop's daughter and I want to be a rebel," or "I just feel so alone," it misses the mark.

If we live the Gospel only to be different from the big bad world, and we pride ourselves on that, we aren't living the Gospel. Christ asks us to be active in interacting with our brothers and sisters around us to show them the joy that comes from the Gospel. The Gospel doesn't bring despair, it brings joy -- and how much more joy when you can share with someone the cause of your joy.

That's my main gripe with LDS youth-stuff: it focuses too much on me, me, me. I'm living the gospel. It's about me and my actions. I don't feel that it's so much about sharing IN the gospel with the good people around me; maybe even sharing the gospel WITH the good people around me.

I guess, perhaps, we focus on the "me-living-the-gospel" idea at that time in members' lives (teenage) because we want to build strong youth who know for themselves the truth of the gospel. But in some ways that's ironic because the only way you really know for yourself is when you interface with others...

I feel that, despite having good seminary teachers, I've learned lightyears more here in these few months at college than I did my entire high school experience. The broad generalizations and syrupy mush that was served in seminary didn't do much for my testimony. To have someone like Brother Randy Bott as a teacher here in college, however, someone who "doesn't pussy-foot around" has enabled me to grow and realize what the gospel REALLY is about, to LIVE IT, and to motivate me to keep learning about it . . . that has strengthened my faith, my conviction, and devotion to the Lord and His gospel immensely.

I know God lives because of experiences I've had here at college. I know of the reality of His Son, who atoned for me, and who showed all of us the way back to eternal life in God's kingdom. I know where my goals are, and have a firm conviction of the Plan of Salvation, and want to ever live my life taking those steps to get there. I look forward with hope and faith to learning ever more about the gospel, about God, about His revelation, about leading others to His presence. I am anxious to lead a life of service for God's children and creating things that celebrate God's glory and more firmly establish Zion on the earth.