OK, all of you parents of primary kids out there should get prepared to be offended and yell at me.
As far as I am concerned, and I think I can back this up, fast and testimony meeting is not the time to prove how cute primary kids are. Yes, I can see myself thinking that my child is adorable, and therefore enjoy watching my child waddle up and perch under the podium and robotically chirp out what the sunbeam teacher taught to be part of a testimony. But that doesn't make it a testimony, and it shouldn't be included in testimony meeting. When 5 kids get up in a row and say the exact words with the exact tone of voice and inflection, guess what, they're not bearing testimonies, so can some one start tossing them back to their parents? I am open to the possibility that a child can have a testimony, and I am open to being edified by it. But I'm guessing that's not the case when the drooling toddler ventures up onto the carpeted step stool and becomes the ventriliquest dummy for whatever Mom, Dad, or (my favorite) 8 yr old sibling is standing behind them whispering in their ear. If someone is feeding you lines, you might do well in Hollywood but you don't belong at the podium since you obviously aren't "bearing" anything of your own, especially not a testimony. I say we make it a goal to avoid vain repititions like instructed by scripture. If we got rid of phrases that have now lost all meaning, most of these kids wouldn't have anything to say anyway. "I know this church is true".. ok....share with me why, "I know Monson is a prophet", again, great, can you tell me how you KNOW that at the ripe ol' age of 4? "I love my Mom and Dad" glad to hear it, it has nothing to do with a testimony, but I'm glad you do.
I hate the argument that we are teaching them to get up to the podium. The podium is a sacred place and the teaching and preparing to step up there should happen in primary, or better yet in family home evening. When the child can articulate how they feel about the church, Jesus, and the Prophet without memorizing a script or being told what "comes next", that should be the time to venture up to the podium, instead of the stand resembling the funland at MacDonalds. If my child decides to leap from the top step and dash back to their seat, well we must not have had a good enough FHE lesson about it after all.
Now that we have the toddlers strapped back down to the pew, whose job was it to watch Crazy Grandma, because she's back up at the podium spouting poetry about West Canyon, the cows, and riding a horse. She also was saying something about the geese in her field being her children, but I was too busy banging my head on the pew in front of me to catch it all.
Let's end with a little poll.
Primary Songs: teaching principles , or just good old fashion brain washing?
Maybe I need something to eat
5 comments:
Sounds like testimony meeting was wonderful today! I get what you are saying, and I think I agree, I don't want to fully commit to your view until we have discussed it, the favorite in my ward is the self righteous couple in the back who gets up when things are slow to try to guilt people into going up, which ruins the whole meeting for me because then I just get pissed off, not exactly the best spirit for bearing a testimony!
I couldn't agree more. I HATE it when people drag their kids up with them to the pulpit. Seriously you don't have to have your kid as an ice breaker. By whispering in your kids ear the things they "know" defeats the purpose of teaching them to bear a true testimony. FHE and the talks they do in primary help prepare them so that when they are able to bear their own testimony they will know what to do, not what to say. Now we need to address the "thank-timonies" and travelogues. Great Post! Tiffany
Can I have an Amen for my brother. AMEN!!!!! Our Stk pres. went around to the wards saying basically the same thing. Primary, FHE are the correct venues and we should teach and encourage then. It happened to be testimony meeting in our ward and we he finished bearing his, guess what. The first person up there after him was a guy with his toddler. I couldn't help but feel it was an "oh yeah, watch this"! Very strange.
Wow I agree totally. In fact it gets worse in our ward. We tend to have thanktemonies. A person will thank everyone and their dog. Or storymonies. Seriously is there a point to this. We had a bishop who got up in our ward and said that testimony meeting was for the adults and requested that more priesthood holders bore their testimonies. Little note- Don't go to church on Fast Sunday. It solves a lot of head banging
I can kind of see where you're coming from... but I think as long as you're not dragging kids to the pulpit and they sincerely want to bear their testimonies then good for them!
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