Equality of Women. Trending now.

I love turning to the younger generation to see what their perspective is.


Young Person:    Polygamy now legal?   So what?  The Mormon Church won't even speak to that.  Remember, it was done to "raise up a royal people"......it served its purpose.  End of story.

Me:       But the theology says you MUST have celestial marriage to reach exaltation, and that is to include multiple wives.  Like they do out in Colorado City.

Young Person:      Well, this is not a trending issue and won't become one.  Who cares?  No man wants more that one wife, not even Mormon men.  One is more than enough.
The big issue on social media trending now is Ordain Women....actually Ordain Women is bogged down into how women are treated in the Mormon Church.  Period.  "Ordain" is the lynchpin for huge conversations but the real trending issue is the lower status of females in the Mormon Church.  Not allowing equality in multiple ways. Real issues on old men criticizing young women and telling women how to behave and still trying to make women responsible for the sexual behavior of men.
These are trending issues for women and their daughters.




Me:   In other words, Ordain is light years further up the ladder from the rung of women's place being set forth and maintained by men?

Young Person:       Well, I can just tell you what Mormon women are posting about on social media.  Most are quite unhappy and they are also unhappy with the Mormon women who support the church position like female robots.   Here, read these comments.



These are progressive issues that are not going to go away.


Me:  Well, sounds like the women don't want to be ordained to a priesthood that puts them down.


Young Person:  Women expect to be invited to the table, every table.



 





Please enjoy this beautiful song of Social Justice. Please.  It is my favorite now.
                                                         
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUlJvzRal4&list=RDhmUlJvzRal4&index=1 



Loving you for dropping by,
Riverwatch

Patriarchal Blessing. Stumbling Block?

patriarchal blessing stumbling block

         

Once upon a time when I was Mormon, I loved my patriarchal blessing.
 For one thing, it referred three times to goals I had written and outlined, goals which by the way were private and unshared with anybody except God.
 Certainly I had not even spoken of my hidden written spiritual goals to the man giving me my patriarchal blessing.
 Those sort of experiences impress me!

The blessing is transcribed as it is given so you have a copy to read over and over and over.

  The patriarchal blessing given to me told me I am of the Jewish tribe of Ephraim (so I could know who I am and how important I am!)


However, the patriarchal blessing had the flavor of fortune telling and that is where the stumbling block comes to “faithful” Mormon people who hang onto their patriarchal blessing as a lifeline of prophesy for their earthly life.
 Many of “the blessed” are promised marriages, children, greatness and things that do not come to pass.



Some die young...........and out pops the stumbling block of a Patriarchal Blessing that gave no hint of that possibility.



And so the “worthy Mormon” grieving a young person's death struggles to make sense of something that has missed the mark.

Mormons are told that the patriarchal blessing is a prophetic guide  (for the “worthy” only).  You have to be "worthy" to even receive the blessing.
You must remain "worthy" for the promises to be fulfilled.
Right off that puts Mormons outside of Christianity because Christianity blesses the "unworthy".
Christ came to bless the unworthy.
I know this because He came to bless me.

But for the "worthy Mormon" whose blessing didn't come true, the anguish is about "worthiness".
If it didn't come true, was the person "unworthy" in some hidden way?  Was a relative unworthy? Entering Heaven is about worthiness!

Death has come unexpectedly and suddenly, and promises based on worthiness did not get fulfilled.
Is Heaven's door open or not?
Faith falters in the face of questions.

For the true believer in Christ, these questions are astounding.  Of course we are unworthy!
Christ came to SAVE us, not to score us on how well we are keeping the commandments.
In fact, He said that if we break one of the laws we are guilty of having broken them all!  We have fallen short.
We have all fallen short.  And there is no measuring stick on that!
In fact, He said He came to fulfill the law.  We are not going to be judged by the law.

Christ stepped in on our behalf, not because we are good, but because we fall short.

The only real question is will we accept His grace?
Count me in!!



The Bible calls on Christians to be evangelists.

Mormon scriptures, (not the Bible) declare that “evangelist” spoken of in the Bible is actually a “patriarch” and that is what that word evangelism means! And it is an office to which a person ("straight" male person or closet homosexual) is ordained  for life.
No, there are no women patriarchs.






Whatever.
The duties of women are different in Mormonism.  
No female patriarchs.  


Blessings from God:  real.   

Dictation from God:  suspect.

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Riverwatch, the aging. 

PS  Actually, evangelism as understood by Christians is simply being a mouthpiece for God's message of mercy to sinners.

I love that I can be an evangelist.
  

Most of all I love His mercy.

A Sort of Peace

The Fallen of World War II


An amazing video of numbers, and the hope of the peace of cooperation instead of competition:
This video helped me see Russia with increased respect.
      
      I do not interact at the pause for interactive, but I allow the fascinating numbers to continue. 

                                               

http://omeleto.com/219202/

May your New Year be a  happy one,
Riverwatch

The Nativity

Mother Earth, she is a changing.
Father Moonlight , so silent, stands guard.

Whispers of the Universe are growing louder.

Humanity groans under the weight of its brothers and sisters,
and peace is like a shroud that can only be pierced by love and hope.

A long time ago, a baby was born bringing hope.
For centuries we the western world celebrated his birth and clung to hope
because Mother Earth, she was a changing
while Father Moonlight stood guard,  silently illuminating Mother Earth.

Fifty years ago we were still celebrating divine Hope in public schools and public places.

fineartamerica.com

We colored pictures of Jesus, even if we weren't Christian,
and nobody converted.
Hope like a treatment for all the ills of earth drifted over our needy children,
tugged gently at the hopelessness of powerless children,
and whispered of a Universe filled with wonderful possibilities.

And nobody converted.

We ate cookies and marveled at the Nativity Scene on our school lawn.
And nobody converted,
Hope hung around like an invisible uplifting current,
as we practiced kindness and remembered the worth of poor people for a season.

The rich do not know this,
but the replica of the nativity scene reminds us, the poor people,
that Jesus was born in stark poverty as a sign that he had come to uplift and empower the poor.

The theme of uplifting and impowering the poor runs all through the Bible.  

That theme shows up in the Koran. 

All great religions protect and help the poor and speak of the worth of the poor.  

Bringing  hope. 

Divine solutions.

Saint Francis of Assisi introduced the practice of having replicas of nativity scenes at Christmas some 800 years ago.

When Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope recently, he named himself after this man of Assisi in Italy who introduced replicas of nativity scenes at Christmas.

America, the land of hope, has given up the Nativity.  

We trash the story of Jesus's birth.  

The poor are not forgotten, just demeaned as less valuable.

We help them, not because of who they are, but because of who we are.

Now we see public schools banishing any divine theme of hope 

to give to those kids who tread the halls in despair.

We forego giving hope that touches souls.

We prescibe pills instead.

Lots of pills.

We give shallow presents and Ho Ho Ho at our public institutions.

We prefer mopping up blood in public schools and explaining away hopelessness 

instead of allowing divine soft solutions.

I read on the internet, therefore it must be true, that every teenage shooter in American schools was found to have been on medication for depression.  

Hopelessness fueled by mind-bending drugs.

"Take away the guns!"   "Give higher doses of those pills!"   "Hire more counselors!"

Isaiah 9:6 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

fineartamerica.com

The Nativity.  It is mostly for the hopeless and the poor and the despairing.

But you might like it, too.

Thank you for caring enough to drop by,

Riverwatch, no longer poor

I am so last season.

chron.com

One of my sons came to visit, his smart phone in his hand.

"Here, Mom,  I have to show you something your one and only daughter posted on facebook."


pinterest.com

Oh, my gosh!  I am so pleased!

"Oh, my gosh", I blurt out.  "I am 71 and my daughter finally gets it!"

"Mom!" he replies in a shocked voice.  "This is not about you!  You are history!  This is about HER daughter who just quit college.  You are history."

O M G!!  He said that to me while I am still living!

I am 71 and I am history.

Living History.


Oh My Gosh,  I'm beginning to sound like Hillary.



Cheerio,
thanks for the wave,
Riverwatch

Doubt your doubts?

Recently, in a Mormon World Wide General Conference , one of the highest leaders admonished church members to "Doubt your doubts."

A world-wide message:  "doubt your doubts".

Say what?

I beg to differ.

What we all need to doubt is our certainties.

Have you ever been certain about something?  How did that work out for you?
henrymakow.com


Doubt is uncomfortable.

Certainty is absurd.

Doubt pushes us further into understanding and growth...enlarges our boundaries......is PROGRESS.

Certainty can be a trap.  "The road stops here!"
wallpaperspal.com

Beware our certainties.

I have been certain before and I can tell you Certainty is intoxicating!

It is so harsh to sober up.

It is pitiful to find the apple juice of uncertainty
instead of the Wine of Certainty.
And I am certain about that!



The opposite of faith is not doubt.

The opposite of faith is Certainty.

God has called us to faith.

Only man calls us to certainty.



Oh, the joy ride of intoxicating certainty.
                   torrentsgames.org


Oh, the peek into a struggling religion:  Doubt your doubts, you doubters!
stores.purpleoniondesigns.com





Thanks for whizzing by,
Riverwatch

Multiply and Replenish the Earth

Climate Realism

dailymail.co.uk

Princeton Physicist Dr. Will Happer: 'Policies to slow CO2 emissions are really based on nonsense. We are being led down a false path. 

To call carbon dioxide a pollutant is really Orwellian. 

You are calling something a pollutant that we all produce. Where does that lead us eventually?'

Read more: http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/11/19/scientists-declare-un-climate-summit-goals-irrational-based-on-nonsense-leading-us-down-a-false-path/#ixzz3s2XZmA3u




Cheers,
Riverwatch

Or as we say in nursing, "Step away.  You are standing on his oxygen tube."



flickr.com

Is This a Competition????

Is  This a Competition????


Ordinarily I love compliments but when anybody starts in on how "young" I look , I get very uncomfortable.  They are either blind, or unaware of what I really look like, or putting pressure on me to not be my age!

So when my thirteen year old granddaughter started in with the "you are so young, grandma!" comments, I objected!

I objected so loudly I offended her .

Her indignant reply:  "Well, I only have my other grandparents to compare you with and one of them is all crumpled up in bed and the other is dead!!!!!"

Ok.  We have a winner.

I am a winner.

False victory, false victory, false victory.



Thanks for visiting the blog of an aging person.
I really do appreciate it.

Live long and prosper.
Try not to crumple up.

Good luck,
Riverwatch

The battle against natural aging is one that , eventually, we all will lose.
We are all in this together.





Well, as good old Mom said as I gazed in the mirror,
"It's only skin deep.  You best be practicing kindness and curbing your razor tongue.  Those are the things that last."

PS  Have you noticed my tongue is silky, not sharp?  I hope so.  I have worked hard.  And I have the wrinkles to prove it!






skincareresourcecenter.com

Re-posting "Victory"

Victory.
Internal and External


Get your feet there, and your heart will follow.
Get your heart there, and your feet will follow.
So they say.



My Latino Mormon friend with her abundance of exuberance and straight flowing stream of emotions and reactions, taught me one of her secrets of successful faith .
Of course faith is always successful, but often we do not see that..... ....
..............we see the gap, and not the fruition.


Not so with Fina.  Fina kept a "prayer book".              

"I talk to Jesus about everything, even my dirty oven.  He cares.  He helps me .  He answers my prayers.  I write down my prayer supplications...I BEG Him.....and then I go back and write in the answers to my prayers, when they come.  Try it, Riverwatch.  You will realize, you will see,  how involved He is in your life if you want Him to be."


Not everybody has this kind of faith
                                                  or even wants it!


My wonderful pastor says prayer is not about a list of things you want/need!

But then my pastor was never a Mormon.

My pastor says faith is not about believing,
but is about being in right relationship with  God.

Heck, I believe that.
I also believe nothing will put you in right relationship with God faster than being in a foxhole!








Maybe I have been there.
No helmet.
No gun and bayonet.

"I am not a worm!

HELP ME!"

After Fina's enthusiastic discourse on faith-building, I decided to keep a prayer book, like Fina.

Amazing!
Almost unbelievable.
Prayer after prayer answered.
Sometimes with a No.   A denied request that safeguarded me or others from an unforeseen adverse happening that only became apparent later.

Sometimes, in fact fairly often, my request would be granted in a different way (a better way and a better outcome) than I had requisitioned. Amazing.  It is true He ignores our advice!  I thank Him for that!
Often the answer came as inspiration, my heart and mind having been opened by prayer.

Some prayers remained unanswered for months....even a year or two....while I continued to pray...and then the prayer was miraculously answered.

My faith in being in relationship with God increased.
My ability to see His Hand in my life increased, even when the answer to my prayer was "no".
My conscious awareness of His love and interest increased exponentially.

Gratitude inudated my being.

My knowledge of God increased because I could see He was never "put off" by petty prayers.
In fact if you think about it in the big picture, most of our prayers are probably petty and paltry.
He is our Father.  He knows the End from the Beginning and He has an amazing ability to love us and see our (petty?) concerns as real and significant to us in the here and now.

I wonder if prayer is about Him putting Himself in relationship with us in a manner that is "right" for us?
He knows what we need before we ask, but He still wants us to experience prayer.
In other words, if we don't pray, He is still looking out for us, but we are not allowing Him  to develop relationship with us.
Perhaps He wants to be in relationship with us just as we long to be in relationship with our toddler children.


After a few years I gave up keeping a prayer book.
It was time consuming, and I had proved to myself the efficacy of prayer.

No need for more entries in the book.

The prayer book had made visible to me the fruition of faith.


I had a need for secret prayers,
because there is nothing like finding a person's prayer book to cause a family crisis!

(Face it.  Even now, a couple of thousand years later, reading about those holier-than-thou Pharisees and their street-corner public prayers, we think they need a smack. ) 




Secret or public, internal or external,  in my world the victory belongs to Christ.

Thank you for this visit,
Riverwatch

As my mom always warned, "Be careful what you pray for.  You may get it."

"Thanks. I rode my bicycle here."

Those centenarians!  Even "almost" centenarians.
How dare they have wit when they are so old and frail.

Marj is just  so frail and so brainy.
She says she is sick and tired of thinking so much because "at my age there is nothing to think about but depressing things.  I need to quit thinking!  I don't want to do anything either!!!  But I don't want people to think I am negative."

                      fabulousfaces.com

Ahh.  So you think you are going to outgrow caring how you are viewed?

Here's a clue:  if you care what others think about you when you are 20, you will no doubt stand in front of a mirror at age 100 trying to make it all look better, you will monitor your own language and choice of words and you will groom and you will impulsively apologize from time to time for living so long.

Those folks who don't give a hoot what others think about them when they are 100 probably did not give a hoot what others thought when they were 20.  

Marj had to drive....yes, she is a licensed driver.....to Sav-on to get a prescription refilled.
Standing ....yes, standing....in line she suddenly felt hands or a dog or something on her frail weak leg.  Frightened, she looked down and some woman was rolling her pant-leg down.
"I have no idea how one of my pant legs got rolled up!  I know I dressed, " she told me later.
Marj looked down at the woman.
"Thanks" she said.  "I rode my bicycle here."

                                                                                     skutik.deviantart.com

Thanks for buzzing by,

Riverwatch

The Benefactress

The Benefactress

Or

How To Tell If You Are Old

Vacation was so great and so restful that I climbed aboard the plane for home, happy and energized and without pain.   I am young again!

Upon arriving home, duties and fatigue set in.

My shoulders were aching in spite of having checked my only bag and having jettisoned my carry-on so I could be as free as a bird.
                                                            

                                                                                                                   (Gif Shortener) giphy.com

On land again, reality set in.
The fridge was empty.  Tired or not, I needed to shop.
  

Old age did not totally reappear until I was checking out at Walmart.
I could not find my debit card, having unwittingly left it behind at the gas station.
Dang it.
.  

The line of people behind me at the check-out was getting longer and longer and noodle-like with their bland stares and limp stances.

Yet the woman right behind me in line was a happy camper.
About 35 or so, she was smiling kindly as she watched me fumble.
. 

"I have a goal that I started this year", she said to me.

If she hadn't been so filled with light and bright and good will, I might have said acidly, "Good For You!".
Instead I, being goal oriented myself, said, "Oh."

"Yes", she said.  "My goal is to buy groceries for people."   I looked at her.
Is she rich?                          
If she is rich  what is she doing at Walmart?

"Well, good luck with that goal, " and I turned back to my own dilemma, this time accidently spilling the contents of my purse on the floor and having to bend down to retrieve everything,   

I was old.
I was pathetic.

This woman behind me said with deep respect,
"Wouldn't it be great if somebody paid for all your groceries and you never had to pay for them yourself ever again?"

I just looked up at her kind and smiling face.  I don't multi-task very well anymore but a thought of "that's heaven" flitted through my brain.
But I was busy looking for change to pay for the Arrowhead bottle of water I had half finished.


dailymail.co.uk

A hasty plan was made with the surely new cashier, that my groceries would be "suspended" and held for me to return with my debit card.  

I started walking away without my cart of groceries and the bright young woman ran after me.

 "I'm paying for your groceries so you need to come back and take them."

I started to protest, even argue and she shushed me.
"This would bring so much pleasure to me, how can you deny me?"

So I was lead back to receive my cart by a smiling young woman.
"To whom do I say thank you?" I asked.
She extended her hand for me to shake. "Jen".
"Thank you, Jen."

I walked away,  a person of worth.

When I unloaded my groceries into my car and climbed in, there was my debit card on the seat.

I started to cry.
The tears clued me in that God  had visited me with an earth angel to take away my  feeling of being unequal to the most-favored-people on earth, to let me know I belong because I am His.
I felt honored and loved.
I felt upheld by God.

It was never about the groceries.

And I remembered Pastor's most recent sermon:

"There are those who give of their abundance and there are those who give of their very sustenance."

Pastor's voice became trembly as he tried to describe the feelings he experienced recently in Russia 

when Christians there gave of their very sustenance to sustain him.

There is the giving from abundance that helps make the world go round.
And that is good.

Then there is the giving that defies reason,
         that is even better because the love and honor build you up,
                                    both giver and receiver .

I would thank Jen again, but somehow you can seldom do that for earth angels.
They appear and disappear so rapidly.
So.....thank you, God, for Jen and all other earth angels flitting about our world.



Riverwatch

Miss and Stick

Miss and Stick Talks  ("I know this church is TRUE!")
or 
Memories & Tales of Mormon Sacrament Meetings

Trust me when I tell you that Mormon Sacrament Meetings are by and large, b o r i n g.
Most Mormons will admit that but then some go on to remind you that "Endure to the End" is as much about Sacrament Meeting as about anything.

Since once upon a time I was a Mormon, I should know.  Looking around at the bored people in Mormon Sacrament Meeting, I used to think, "If this is the true church, why are they all so unhappy?  Why do they look so unhappy?  Do they not believe this church is true?"

It is so boring that many activities take place among the audience.
Kids, of course, are eating cheerios and coloring and marking in books, playing with Daddy's car keys, sorting through Mommy's purse.
alphamom.com

Teenage girls are playing with their own long hair,
over and over and over and over running their fingers through their own hair
and tossing their head seductively for the crowd.             








Teenage boys are eyeing the girls and snickering and tossing tiny objects at the unsuspecting.




Old folks are day dreaming or nodding off.

Mom's are writing out their grocery lists,


 or are making multiple trips to the hall way to get a break "for the sake of the babies".

Dad's are stoic.  Usually.  Rarely somebody comes unglued and somebody's kid gets marched out of the Sanctuary in a huff.
There is of course texting from adults and teenagers.

But my all-time favorite activity going on in the crowd was from a teenage girl named Lucy who was so completely bored she wrote a book in Sacrament Meeting!  
My teenage children alerted me to the book activity.  "It is a scream, Mom".

So what was the book about?  A simple log on "testimonies" given at the microphone by speakers.
Once a month there is open microphone for testimony bearing so all the audience gets a chance to be brave and go to the microphone.....
but testimony bearing is a commandment so usually even the assigned talks given by members during any Mormon Sacrament Meeting during the month contain some iota of testimony-bearing.  
           


Lucy was cataloging them all.  Her book was divided by subtitles.

She kept tract of the "testimony of self" (like a selfie) that was mostly a brag.  This was the largest section of the book.  BORING.

The next largest section of the hand written book was the section on testimony on one's own parents: "I was born of goodly parents".....and while that all sounds cool, the  proof of the goodly parents is in the pudding and guess who the pudding is?!  Yep.  another selfie.    BORING.

Lucy had a subsection on testimonies that were sang!!  Only two of those, but teenagers come alert for that kind of surprise warbling  entertainment.   NOT BORING.






There was a section on demanders and haters bearing witness against their own deviant children.  (Before judging those parents harshly, please remember if you don't bear witness against the disobedient, people may think they were actually trained that way by secret acts of parents.)  BASICALLY BORING unless it contains new raw material.

There was a section on testifying that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.  Lots of those. BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING.



Many testimonies by little kids, 

"I know this church is true. I love my mom and dad."   

She recorded whether the mom or dad was standing beside the kid at the microphone, bent over whispering the words to say!  CUTE, BUT MORE BORING THAN CUTE.



There was a sizable section on personal miracles, especially about a son or daughter's miraculous experiences on a "mission currently taking place".

Worth listening to.

                                       

A large section on testifying to ones own pioneer heritage and who all "in authority"or super-important one is related to .  BORING.



A section named:  Travel Logs              

BORING BEYOND BELIEF.





There was also a small section on testimonies of Christ.  NOT BORING BUT BRIEF.

What a book!

***********************

Of course some testimonies do stick to a person, for whatever reason.

I remember two.
Forty -two years of being a Mormon and I remember two testimonies, now that I have been an ex-Mormon for 9 years.

One man who had screwed up so badly he made the local newspaper news, stood up at the microphone and confessed his sins.  I remember not at all what he said, though I do remember he cried as he opened the door on skeletons in the closet and confessed everything, not just the "newsworthy" stuff.
I remember  it was so quiet during his confession you could have heard a pin drop.
That experience taught me two things:

1.  We are strengthened by the confessions of other people's weaknesses.
Thank God we are not the worst screw-ups in the world!

2.  We are all voyeurs into other people's lives because that is how we learn.
Monkey see, monkey do...monkey see, monkey don't do....is the gift of the jungle.  That is how we learn from infancy.

We are honed to look at the lives and antics of others through eons of evolution.
Trust it.  That kind of education  has served us well!









The other testimony I remember was from a woman speaking about her heritage and she cited a "good heritage" and a "bad heritage".......and the "bad heritage testimony" stuck.
Her great-great-aunt had left "the only true church on the face of the earth" and that legacy, that heritage, had affected hundreds who came after her and "they also rejected the only true church on the face of the earth."   I was a young mother when I heard that testimony and for some reason it  "stuck" with me and I wondered about that great-great aunt and how courageous she must have been and why was she being trashed on?

Who knew I would eventually be an old woman who helped others out of Mormonism just by my example!
The thought of my own future legacy was a driving factor in my summoning the courage to exit Mormonism.


Have you thought about what your legacy is going to be?



Thanks for pausing here at this blog,
Riverwatch

Pilgrimage

"....I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God,
                                  around the ancient tower,

and I have been circling for a thousand years,

and I still don't know if I am a falcon,
                                                 or a storm,
                                                        or a great song....."
                              by Ranier M. Rilke





I'm having a good time, 
and I hope you are having a good time, too.

Riverwatch