"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;"
Doctrine and Covenants 59:9
I like the idea here that rather than an obligation, church attendance is about keeping ourselves clean and on track. I think we get things backwards a lot and think about life as being about external expectations, when it is really about who we want to be. And church helps us to be who we want to be. I think it helps my attitude a lot to think about it that way... and really isn't it that way with a lot of things in our lives? It would probably change the way we feel about our lives in a lot of ways if we examined our own motivations a lot more, and remembered that we are free to act for ourselves and to choose to be who we want to be.
Instead of doing things because we are expected to, or feel some obligation, maybe we could lift our perspective past the simple law and order level and do things that help us to be that better people. We might not be there now, but if we want to become the kind of people that get a lot out of going to church, then let's work on choosing that. As we do, with God's help, we will grow into our choice.
Now of course I don't want to encourage anyone to use that choice to walk away from God. I think that would be a very poor choice. God is the most important relationship that we have. However, God gives us even that choice, and on some level that *is* what we are choosing every day... to get closer to or farther away from God and decide for ourselves what we want in that regard. Today, let's choose everything that edifies us and helps us to be the good people that we want to be, hopefully including God and going to church. :)
Doctrine and Covenants 59:9
I like the idea here that rather than an obligation, church attendance is about keeping ourselves clean and on track. I think we get things backwards a lot and think about life as being about external expectations, when it is really about who we want to be. And church helps us to be who we want to be. I think it helps my attitude a lot to think about it that way... and really isn't it that way with a lot of things in our lives? It would probably change the way we feel about our lives in a lot of ways if we examined our own motivations a lot more, and remembered that we are free to act for ourselves and to choose to be who we want to be.
Instead of doing things because we are expected to, or feel some obligation, maybe we could lift our perspective past the simple law and order level and do things that help us to be that better people. We might not be there now, but if we want to become the kind of people that get a lot out of going to church, then let's work on choosing that. As we do, with God's help, we will grow into our choice.
Now of course I don't want to encourage anyone to use that choice to walk away from God. I think that would be a very poor choice. God is the most important relationship that we have. However, God gives us even that choice, and on some level that *is* what we are choosing every day... to get closer to or farther away from God and decide for ourselves what we want in that regard. Today, let's choose everything that edifies us and helps us to be the good people that we want to be, hopefully including God and going to church. :)
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