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We want to hear your perspective! Write for Exponent II Blog by submitting a post here.
Our blog content is always free, but our hosting fees are not. Please support us.
Exponent II provides feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
6 Responses
I’d like to explore this “(*Reverence is “a feeling or attitude of deep respect, love, and awe, as for something sacred.” )” further as I’m confused.
To me the verbs respect, love, and awe are rightly applied to people, not things, not even sacred things. I too would clean up the paper towels on the bathroom floor, not in respect for the bathroom tiles, nor the building, but in respect to the next person to use the restroom. I love my wife, not the institution of marriage (even though we often use the term marriage is sacred). I’m in awe of the Creator of the grand canyon, but not really in awe of the large hole in the ground.
Am I making sense? I know people are sacred (because we are created in His images – are His children), but how can things be sacred?
Yes, I remember the O.T. where God told Moses to take off his sandals because the ground near the burning bush was sacred. How long does the sacredness last? I suppose by now there is much animal waste on the ground near the bush – If God doesn’t keep it clean should we still consider it sacred ground?
Thanks for this lesson, Eve!
Anonymous, I don’t think that the objects or places are inherently sacred. I think we show respect those places or to those things as a way of honoring the person who created them. Like you said, I’m in awe of the Creator of the grand canyon, but not really in awe of the large hole in the ground.
I particularly appreciate the end of your lesson, Eve, where you talk about helping children, particularly those with disabilities, be reverent. We have 3 autistic kids in our Primary of 20. One has improved enough to sit through class. The other two have me perplexed. Clearly, they can’t sit through class, but I want them to get some sort of spiritual education (ok, that’s a lousy phrase). Lately, I’ve been thinking that maybe just loving them and helping them make it through Primary each Sunday, even if it’s in the halls or empty classrooms, will teaches them (and me) all they need to know.
First off I love this blog and utilize it often. Living in a small branch I need all the help I can get to teach in Relief Society, Primary, and manage the library.
When you have a child with autism society, makes your life becomes a daily struggle for reverence. The reason is because you suddenly become a bad parent because you cannot control your child. Our small branch of 90 has three autistic children. I am the mother of one of them. From ages one to nine we struggled to get our son to sit in sacrament. If the setting of church changes by a new face or a loud person is speaking or a baby cries most children with autism are set off.
To reach a child with autism you need to have a sensory, friendly area with a small number of people. We found that creating a class of 2-4 average children with one or two children with autism worked best. The child with autism will often model the average kids and reverence will be easier to achieve.
Because of the small class our children gained so much. They also can sit in class and manage their outburst in sacrament. Our son just turned 12. He is looking forward to passing sacrement.
To anonymous: “Things” are revered and treated with reverence because just like us, His Children, the things of the earth were created by Him. Dust to dust. Everything we see, hear, touch, feel, taste, create, enjoy, can be traced back to our Heavenly Father and Savior.
emily
“Clearly, they can’t sit through class… maybe just loving them and helping them make it through Primary each Sunday, even if it’s in the halls or empty classrooms, will teaches them (and me) all they need to know.”
thank you! as a mom of one who’s spent vastly more time in the hallway or an empty class and finds even entering the church building and primary room to be too difficult most days, thanks for being willing to understand how just getting an inch closer, just being kept company and loved outside the classroom is so important, so helpful and meaningful to the child and his family.
Seems to me that not one person cares about the lack of respect inside the chapel:
The Back Sctratching.
Why does the wife has to scratch her husband’s back during the services? Why the husband bend himself so the wife can rub his back, scratch it, or pass her fingers on it like if playing the piano? THAT IS IRREVERENT.
Why the husband plays with his finger on the neck of his wife, or rubbs her “fat rolls” of her ribbs during all the services? THAT IS IRREVERENT/. Why the people removes their shoes and begin cleaning their toes? Why doing the hair of the child during services? Why filing your fingernails during the services?
That irreverence MUST stop. It is the home of My Heavenly Father. Respect it !