We're covering Isaiah in Sunday School these days, so of course we spend most of our time talking about how difficult it is for mere mortals to read him. This caused a new woman in the ward to stand up and share her personal experience with reading Isaiah--long story short, the experience saved her sanity at a very difficult time of her life. Her testimony made people a little uncomfortable because she was emotional and a little long-winded and we don't know her very well yet. Still. Everyone was touched by her sincerity and the authenticity of her feelings.
So then we went forward and people said AGAIN dude! Isaiah is hard to read! So then the new woman kinda hectored everyone and said Isaiah is actually a piece of cake. Which okay. I know from personal experience that some cakes are kinda complicated such as that red velvet cheesecake thing from The Cheesecake Factory that I was eating every day for several weeks last spring.
Anyway, I understood that she wanted to impress upon us her absolute belief in the simplicity of Isaiah and that, in fact, she wishes for us all to have the exact same experience that she had because it meant so much to her. But there's the rub. We're all different. We get to the same place in different ways. Like my wily dad always said when it came to getting football players graduated, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Not that my dad skinned actual cats. Or did anything nefarious on the graduation front. He was just willing to acknowledge that some people have different paths.
Still. Somehow we always feel that if people just DO THINGS A CERTAIN WAY, le voila! Success!
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5 comments:
My motto has always been "It's my way or the highway". Is there something amiss about that?
I LOVE Isaiah. And I can understand her frustration. There's something to be said about how our attitudes can shut off our brains, and not understanding isaiah can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
BUT. You are right, we are all from different walks of life. We learn differently. So we have to be careful of soapboxes so that we don't alienate others or have them feel like there is something wrong with them for not seeing what we see. Line upon line, baby.
That's like when I mentioned to two skinny sisters I serve with that I really needed to lose some weight, and one said, "Just set a goal."
She's right. Why didn't I think of that before!
Because I have a PhD in difficult personalities (married to one very difficult personality and fathered by an even more difficult personality) I get this.
Life is hard, and we can make it harder..........or easier. When Isaiah is easier for one person, then it is their responsibility to teach those who aren't there yet. In our wards we can serve each other so much more than we do. Because when we do...it is a beautiful thing.
We haven't figured it out that we came here different, with different strengths and weaknesses so that we
can serve each other...
that's all...
Sounds like you needed a Dr. Pepper.
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