LDS Freedom Forum

I go to church each week to fulfill my calling as Sunday school president, I look after and support my teachers, I enjoy the teacher council meetings each month, I look for opportunities to serve others but that is it. I haven't been to the temple since I was sealed to my wife some 30 years ago. I never bear my testimony. I feel lost!

I’m not sure. Why do you think you don’t feel much at church?

What do you feel a lot about?
What motivates, inspires or moves you?

Maybe it is your quiet voice that every body is waiting for, as they also are thinking the same thing. Maybe you have the answers. Maybe get up and bear your testimony and let other's feel the warmth of your testimony and maybe that will start the flame again.

Don't sit around being a follower if you were made to lead!

There is a war on you know, if the Holy Spirit is lacking then time to do some warfare to bring it back. In the last days only those who have taken the Holy Spirit to be their guide will be protected because the enemy knows where we go to church and nothing stops them from coming in and praying their curses. We have to up our game because this is war.

Thank you Juliet
In terms of what motivates me is helping others, for me there are still too many meetings for example priesthood every week, I don't need to be taught any more what I should be doing, I know what I need to do I need to get out into the community and minister firstly to my fellow saints and secondly to those in need, I need to love and care as the saviour did!

I only feel something when I am doing something for someone else, words and rhetoric are cheap for me actions speak louder than words!

Church work doesn't = a christian life.

Perhaps something is amiss in your life that's making you numb. Something that must be confronted.

How do I find out what it could be?

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 10:15 pm How do I find out what it could be?

I like what you wrote above about serving as Christ.
Maybe use Sundays as more service opportunities- both at church and elsewhere.
In church, look for people who could use a friendly handshake and chat, or someone to sit by.

When I had a faith crisis, attending church was difficult. What helps me a lot, besides focusing on loving others & appreciating their love, is constantly trying to learn deeper and higher truths. I redefined some gospel terms so they were more inspiring to me - and I’m learning symbolic meanings that is opening a whole new way of seeing scriptures! When I had time here and there, I listened to Jordan Peterson’s bible series and it’s helped open up more expansive gospel perspectives.

I will try that thinker thank you

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 10:15 pm How do I find out what it could be?

How is your personal relationship with God and Christ?
How is your personal scripture reading?

Church should be a place to be able to commune together with fellow Saints and fellow travelers on the road of Christianity. It should be a place where we strengthen each other as we share our journey with others about how Christ has helped us overcome our trials, our problems, our weaknesses. In the sharing of our journey we help strengthen others in their fortitude to live a life centered on Christ.

There is a combination of doing Christ-like things and also believing Christ centered thoughts. For example, helping out at a local soup kitchen is a very Christ-like thing to do. Yet the principle of charity exists in many religions, and faiths-therefore simply helping out in a soup kitchen does not a Christian make.

I'd like to share a scripture and this isn't directed at you, it's just something that I think about from time to time and it causes me to reflect and ponder my own life.

Matthew 23:27
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

All the good works we do or might do, all the callings in the Church that we have or that we might have mean nothing if inside we are not purified and sanctified by the Holy Ghost by giving our lives over to Christ.

I ponder this a lot . . .

How do we give our lives over to Christ

“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you.” (D&C 88:63.)

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 9:53 pm Thank you Juliet
In terms of what motivates me is helping others, for me there are still too many meetings for example priesthood every week, I don't need to be taught any more what I should be doing, I know what I need to do I need to get out into the community and minister firstly to my fellow saints and secondly to those in need, I need to love and care as the saviour did!

I don't know why this is, but sometimes serving just amounts to being there. Isn't that true for the role models in your life? It is in mine. I remember family night lessons growing up and one time told my dad how they made me feel so warm inside and were really making an impression on me. My dad said at the time he felt like his lessons were horrible, not well thought out and meaningless. I guess Satan was trying to make him feel bland when truth be told he was doing a great job.

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 10:39 pm How do we give our lives over to Christ

You give up everything and let his will become yours.

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 9:37 pm I go to church each week to fulfill my calling as Sunday school president, I look after and support my teachers, I enjoy the teacher council meetings each month, I look for opportunities to serve others but that is it. I haven't been to the temple since I was sealed to my wife some 30 years ago. I never bear my testimony. I feel lost!

Why haven’t you been to the temple?

My wife is inactive I didn't want to go without her

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 4th, 2018, 5:33 am My wife is inactive I didn't want to go without her

Get engaged! Put forth a valiant effort. Pray that you will feel the Spirit.

Get yourself to the temple! Help someone on the other side. Let them help you.

Get up on the stand and bear testimony.

Doctrine and Covenants 62:3

3 Nevertheless, ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you.

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 9:53 pm Thank you Juliet
In terms of what motivates me is helping others, for me there are still too many meetings for example priesthood every week, I don't need to be taught any more what I should be doing, I know what I need to do I need to get out into the community and minister firstly to my fellow saints and secondly to those in need, I need to love and care as the saviour did!

So why don't you do that then?
Also, why do you go to church expecting to get something out of it?

I feel pretty much the same about church. It does sound at least like you are serving others with your attendance, so while you may not feel that you are getting much out of it, you almost certainly are helping others to progress.

I think what causes this kind of boredom is feeling like we have reached the "endure to the end" phase - we have learned all that we need to and just need to remain faithful. In my opinion if you feel that you have 20, 30, or 40 years of "hanging in there" that could be super unmotivating.

The temple can teach you a lot. Scripture study can teach you a lot, no matter how much you already know. Even if yo have learned all the doctrine that there is to learn in Sunday School, I promise you that you have only scratched the surface of what you need to know.

I'm terrible at serving others, it sounds like you have learned and applied that lesson.

If you are in an "endure to the end" mindset, there are many things you can do to wake up. How you best do that is pretty individual though. I enjoy studying the thoughts of some great Christian and LDS thinkers like Hugh Nibley and C.S. Lewis. But that may not be the thing that excites or stimulates you to continue on your path of progression. I do think that studying the scriptures and ATTENTIVE temple attendance are fairly universal ways to help you get out of the spiritual doldrums.

Some very good comments made thank you all
Some food for thought
I'm going to take your comments on board to see how I can incorporate them into my life
Thanks for taking the trouble to comment

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 9:37 pm I go to church each week to fulfill my calling as Sunday school president, I look after and support my teachers, I enjoy the teacher council meetings each month, I look for opportunities to serve others but that is it. I haven't been to the temple since I was sealed to my wife some 30 years ago. I never bear my testimony. I feel lost!

You kind of answered your own question.

You identified two areas which are vital for having the spirit in your life--you made sacred covenants in the temple, then voluntarily chose to never go back. That's going to hurt your spirit, no question. And then having a firm testimony of the Gospel. If you never bear testimony, I'd assume it's because you don't feel the spirit enough to want to share it and considering that you are only enjoying half the blessings of membership in the Lord's church, it's not surprising.


So basically, you're going through the motions that you could do in any church--you might as well be attending a Lutheran church and helping out there.

If you want to change this, if you WANT the spirit in your life and when you attend church, you have the ability, but it means getting out of the comfort zone you and your wife have created. You need to go back to the temple(with or without your wife) and you need to develop and nurture your testimony. When you do those two things, your life will change and you'll wish you'd done it 30 years ago.

just my two cents

AI2.0 wrote: ↑July 4th, 2018, 9:54 am

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 9:37 pm I go to church each week to fulfill my calling as Sunday school president, I look after and support my teachers, I enjoy the teacher council meetings each month, I look for opportunities to serve others but that is it. I haven't been to the temple since I was sealed to my wife some 30 years ago. I never bear my testimony. I feel lost!

You kind of answered your own question.

You identified two areas which are vital for having the spirit in your life--you made sacred covenants in the temple, then voluntarily chose to never go back. That's going to hurt your spirit, no question. And then having a firm testimony of the Gospel. If you never bear testimony, I'd assume it's because you don't feel the spirit enough to want to share it and considering that you are only enjoying half the blessings of membership in the Lord's church, it's not surprising.


So basically, you're going through the motions that you could do in any church--you might as well be attending a Lutheran church and helping out there.

If you want to change this, if you WANT the spirit in your life and when you attend church, you have the ability, but it means getting out of the comfort zone you and your wife have created. You need to go back to the temple(with or without your wife) and you need to develop and nurture your testimony. When you do those two things, your life will change and you'll wish you'd done it 30 years ago.

just my two cents

No, that is at least 10cents!

From President Nelson:

When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you.22 And then you will understand the deep meaning of words we sing in the hymn “The Spirit of God”:

The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding. …
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst.23

Dusty52 wrote: ↑July 3rd, 2018, 10:15 pm How do I find out what it could be?

How many time have you read the Book of Mormon cover to cover?

Study Alma 40-42, minimum, and learn about the restoration of body and spirit.

Learn about faith, that we gain faith by hearing, where hope comes from and what it is for.

Learn that each member of the church is in a partnership with Christ, none of us have to compare ourselves to any other. It's like being on a tandem bicycle, where you are on the front seat and Christ is on the rear seat. As long as you keep peddling Christ peddles also. But when the front rider quits peddling altogether, that's when the partnership ends.

Also read Believing Christ by Steven E Robinson.

Then after you have learned lots of spiritual aspects of life, you will be more lively, possessing a newness of what your doing and why.

Just some thoughts.