The things people say in church

Have you ever sat in a church meeting and practically rolled your eyes at comments that are made (or even obviously rolled your eyes and then hoped that no one saw it)? We sit and think "I’ll log that away" or "that is absolutely incorrect" or "what in the world did that have to do with the lesson?" I am generally not a person who participates in class unless it's simply reading a quote or sharing a scripture (I'm all about sticking with the doctrine), but every once in a while I just feel the need to share. Usually when I have finished giving my input I think, "that was a stupid comment" or "I sure hope that made sense." I wonder how many people just log it away or are rolling their eyes behind my back.

We attended a bishopric party on Saturday night that included bishopric members from the current bishopric and a few past members (who served with basically the same group of people). The party was actually really fun even though I only know one of the couples well and we stayed much longer than we should have (at least the kids did well at the babysitters' house). We were heading out the door and Paul just had to grab some banana cream pie, when the wife of the previous bishop pulled me aside and asked me about a comment I had made in a lesson she had taught. The weird thing was that I hadn't even remembered making the comment until she reminded me of it. This particular comment was made almost exactly a year ago and she didn't even know who I was at the time because we had just barely moved into the ward (and they moved out of the ward shortly after we moved in, so we don’t know them well). We had a small discussion about the comment I had made again and it made me glad that the comment I had made had been remembered. We all need to remember what it says in Matthew 10:20, "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." We and others in the class may be speaking about our personal life experiences, but when the spirit prompts us to do so, we should speak and remember that it is the Spirit of the Father that is speaking within us.

For all of you who have made these comments because you really felt like you should (and then wondered why), just remember that there may be someone in that room that will remember it more than a year later and that it will have made an impression on them and touched their life. We all have times that we have remembered things that other people have said and at these times there may have been other people in the room rolling their eyes.