I thoroughly enjoy fast and testimony Sundays at my ward, because there are certainly no dull moments to be had. For example, there was the time that a speaker came up to the pulpit and declared, to the horror of many people in the congregation, that - I kid you not - "90 percent of all sacrament meeting talks are worthless."
But I digress.
Recently, a friend introduced me to the concept of "testimony bingo." The idea behind testimony bingo is that you predict, prior to the meeting beginning, who's going to bear their testimonies, using a makeshift-bingo card (i.e. the back of the program) to keep track. Essentially, if you take into account the many people who seem to bear their testimonies each month, you might easily come out with a winning card.
At this past Sunday's monthly testimony meeting, I set out to give testimony bingo a try. But something funny happened: Many people who hadn't borne their testimonies in a long time found the courage - and it does take courage - to walk up to the pulpit and speak what was in their hearts. Further, I actually found myself paying attention and listening to them. And, as a result, I found myself enjoying the meeting very much.
The idea that was reemphasized to me through this experience was that you basically get out of the gospel whatever you put into it.
This brings me back to my post from a few weeks ago about enduring to the end and trying to stay on the straight and narrow path. I asked the questions: Is it enough to pray and read the scriptures every day and attend Sunday meetings? Or do we have to be even stronger than that?
Many of you posted comments on the matter or otherwise opined on the subject, and I am grateful to you for your thoughts and ideas. "All of the above" factor in, I think.
In addition, the answer I've come up with is: Yes. We do need to be even stronger than that. We can go through the motions of praying and reading our scriptures daily and attending meetings, and if our hearts and minds are not in the right place, it profits us very little. We need to strive to become converted on a daily basis. The little decisions do matter just as much, if not more, than the big decisions.
And that's all I have to say about that.
2 comments:
And we can't forget the opera singer in the congregation. The expressions on the ward members' faces were priceless. Good ol' Millstream Ward. Too bad 5-minute man wasn't there to fill in your free space!
On a more serious note though, we do have a great ward. These past two Sundays alone speak volumes to the caliber of people we get to associate with.
what happens in a single ward, stays in a single ward. . .
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