knowyourneighbor

"...call it what they are"

Did you hear? Sister Julie B. Beck, General Relief Society President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is asking us to stop calling our mini-classes (a.k.a "homemaking meetings"  -- a title of yesteryear I am still stuck on) Home, Family and Personal Enrichment. 

Nothing lost on me, it was a title I could never remember the sequence of things or say ten times fast.

I suppose I could have tried. I did after all learn "two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun."

But why?

Sister Beck said, "Let's call it what they are." 

Oh, thank you!

Why bring this up in Know Your Neighbor? Because I am concerned about language in the Church that only church members understand. Isn't it nice when we can use a term or title our neighobr understands and we don't have to translate?

I can invite my neighbor to the Relief Society meeting, conference or seminar...etc. Easy, I don't have to translate.

It's a simple change that I see as monumental.

Besides being easier to say, there are, I know, implications for the Relief Society brand (forgive the corporate reference), though I have no professional expertise in marketing. My co- KYN blogger, Whitney Johnson, will likely have more insight, but this is my thinking.

In the previous title of Home, Family, Personal Enrichment with two all beef patties, special sauce...etc., -- oh I am confused -- there was no association with the brand name Relief Society. The longish title, though descriptive, begged the question: so whose putting this on?

Relief Society does this, that's who. The implication: this meeting, seminar, group, club or workshop is brought to you by a worldwide sisterhood. 

Translation for our neighbors: Sisters Rock!...and you are welcome to join the fun.

Elder Ballard: Talking about our Beliefs

In his commencement speech at BYU, Elder Ballard encouraged us to avoid being defensive in speaking about our beliefs.

“In our interactions with others are we expecting always to have to defend ourselves?  If so, I think we need to make a course correction...It is inconsistent with where we are today as a Church and as a great body of followers of Jesus Christ.”  

I know I can be defensive -- not so much when people ask questions.  But if I think about Elder Ballard's remarks and define 'defense' as the opposite of 'offense', I tend to play defense when it comes to my spiritual life.

Here's just a small example.

Last Sunday, Neal Robison asked the question from the pulpit, "When your colleagues ask you what you did over the weekend, do you say I went to church, or talk about what you did that was church-related or do you instead talk about your large-scale gardening project, for example?"

I'll wager (if I did wager) that 4 out of 5 of us said the latter.

He then asked, "What if today after church when we write on Facebook (which he did do, btw) or tomorrow when we speak to work colleagues, or parents of our children's friends, etc.  and they ask what we did this weekend, we say, "I had a great day at church -- there were some really inspiring talks [and I just love playing the piano for the young children]?"

We're pretty good at defense.

Shall we throw in a little offense?

Eunice Shriver: Faith Informed Her Life

I recently wrote about Eunice Shriver, a woman of capacity and courage, over at dare to dream.

Having read an excerpt from Cardinal O'Malley's tribute, I am further intrigued.  He writes:

"Her Catholic faith and education was a very important part of what motivated her and helped her to interpret reality...She reminds me very much of Jean Vanier who founded the L'Arche movement in Canada. That movement was born out of the Church's teachings on the dignity of every human person as a treasure made in the image and likeness of God and of our obligation to care for each other and to recognize the gift in each person."

Who do you know that is Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant -- whose faith motivates them, helps them to interpret reality -- to do good?

What kinds of wonderful conversations might we have with our faith in God and desire to do good as a starting point?