Random thoughts

All day I’ve been thinking about how a good mother raises a child. Hopefully she teaches the kid what she expects, what the child should be doing in any given situation, how to be polite and even how important it is to ask questions.  A good mom does not constantly say or scream NO. The poor kid only knows what they’ve done wrong, not what the parent wants.

I’m kind of shaken up about not understanding that gossip is talking about anybody. There must be parameters, but I haven’t grasped them yet. Thinking about this made me ponder other conundrums I have had. People might snicker, but I spent days trying to figure out what petting truly means. I looked it up in talks and dictionaries and other sources. Mostly what I found were vague descriptions and euphemisms.

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a few years, do you remember the first time I ever went to sacrament meeting as a newly baptized Mormon? I got to church on Sunday and NO ONE was there! I burst into tears and had no idea what was going on. At home I had set the DVR to record General Conference, then I took off for Montpelier. No one explained to me that folks stayed home for general conference! I had no clue. Geeze…

Then I was confused about Relief Society when I got to Florida.  I knew our third meetings on Sunday were divided up between men and women and I went to Relief Society. I never quite figured out why sometimes Heather was with me and sometimes she was with a group of teen girls. It was all a mystery to me.

Then there were the meetings on weeknights. I thought they were for higher ups or something. I had no idea that enrichment had anything to do with Relief Society. I didn’t go to these evening meetings because I didn’t know I was supposed  to or that I was invited. It was only when the RS president made a snide comment about people not attending that a glimmer of understanding hit me. I felt soooo guilty!

I’ve been LDS for 2 1/2 years, but have been floating around most of that time. Maybe 3 or 4 times two women came to visit me at my house in Zephyrhills. That was Visiting Teaching. After a while I was given a partner, a list of names and told to visit teach. The partner never wanted to go the two months I was assigned to her. We never did visit anybody. I called folks and sent some cards and then I was gone from the ward. It wasn’t until much later that I learned I was supposed to tell a particular woman every time I visited, talked or wrote to the folks on my list. Sigh…

I still don’t know the difference between Gospel Principles and Gospel Essentials. I looked one of them up last week  online. I knew what Family Home Evening was way before I ever became a Mormon…but what the heck were Empty Nesters? Once I found out, I went to those meetings most Monday nights.

There are all sorts of groups and acronyms and other things I don’t quite understand yet.  I used to ask lots of questions in RS…once I knew enough to ask the questions!

I feel like I have a very strong testimony, but am lost when it comes to the other stuff. Well…like the scriptures say….line upon line, precept upon precept…  Feel free to enlighten me about things I seem clueless about.