Journal entry #2

We had a nice Easter service in church today. Our choir is actually really good. I'm not sure why that is so surprising to me but it is. Some ward choirs are just not so good. ya know? But is it weird that we don't do more for Easter Sunday in our church? I live across the street from a very popular community church. Every Saturday night and Sunday there are police aiding the drivers in and out of the busy parking lot. I could not BELIEVE how many cars were there this morning on my way to 9am church. And I felt a little jealousy that we don't have the same elaborate Easter service.

I've reflected on that throughout the day. It was a gorgeous day here. After church I decided to head up to the Vegas temple. I had my iPod loaded with some talks from conference last week and I sat outside for quite some time listening and reflecting. How easy would it be to go to church just for the big Easter and Christmas celebratory service? Yet, would that sustain us for the long time between holidays? I can barely not go to church every week without forgetting the feeling of peace. But I've tried; trust me I've tried. Being just one it is so so easy to oversleep or find any sort of reason not to go. I'm sure that is true of a Mother of a large family or a Mother with crabby kids as well.

I've reflected throughout the weekend about my outing on Friday night with my co-workers that I posted about yesterday. Ty is a good friend of mine so I really wanted to be part of his birthday celebration. But it was not without much angst. Being raised the way I was I was taught to live by a different standard. Its a standard that is becoming harder and harder for others to understand. Its a standard that I myself was not sure I wanted to abide by anymore. Its a standard that others often mock and make fun of. And I'm 36! I feel for my friends who are Mother's of teenagers and the pressure their kids must feel and how they must constantly be an example of living apart from the norm of society. Way to go! But to continue... what do you say to others when they make fun of what your religion preaches calling it old-fashioned and silly? We are taught to abstain from partaking of alcohol and smoking so what do you say to others when they say "you know, you aren't going to go to hell if you have a few drinks"? I see others drink and the enjoyment that comes from it and no, I don't think they will 'go to hell'. So why is it so important that we don't participate in those activities? And how do you answer such direct questions?

I've done research on the evolution of the Word of Wisdom. Do you know it was almost 70 years before it became a commandment and even then the older brethren of the church or those "set in their ways" were not required to abide by it?

We believe that God and Jesus Christ appeared to the 14 year old boy Joseph Smith and through him restored the true Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the Earth. I'm not sure anything can be said to a person about why we believe the standards we do unless they first understand and possibly believe that statement. Anything else is just a man-made religion full of man-made rules.