Primary, what else is there?

This past Sunday Allison and I took primary off. The primary presidency gave put these cards at the beginning of the year that let you take one Sunday off to go to your regular meetings and they would cover you. It’s one of the nice things they do for you. It was the first time I’ve been to Elder’s quorum and Sunday school since last December. I forgot how nice it was to go. It’s not very often I just get to sit back and listen to intelligent adults talk. I almost never hear a deep discussion on anything, if it’s not between Allison and me. I don’t get out much and work gives me nothing. We don’t hang out with our friends that often, so yeah, this was the first time in a very long time I actually heard the gospel in a class setting.

When I was younger, I hated Sunday school. The teachers were boring and they really never discussed things I didn’t already know. Now, it’s a little different. It’s a hundred times better than being with five-year-olds. It’s still a little boring. Most of the topics are that deep and amazing, but adults have opinions. Opinions that are their own. Opinions that they can clearly state and are passionate about. This is something I’ve been missing. I never voice my opinions in church; I don’t like talking in large groups, so Sunday school will never know what I know.

What I’m getting at here is that I love grown up interaction. I even got to talk to people between classes! I haven’t had time to do that forever. I got to sit next to one of my friends other than my wife. I was able to listen to engaging ideas of the gospel that might challenge me to do some more studying to see if people’s ideas are correct. (Yeah I never take anything at face value at church, doesn’t matter who says.) It was so nice. I miss being out of primary. I miss the little social interaction I use to get at church. Church has lost most of its meaning since they put me in primary. I feel like I’m there to babysit some people’s kids. I feel like I get nothing out of church, especially after seeing what I’ve been missing this past year. I don’t have the social aspect of it or the religious part. It’s a three hour waste of time for me. They need to change how the primary teachers work.

They need to make it possible that each teacher gets one Sunday a month or every two months where they go to their meetings. That’s not too much to ask. If any other primary teacher feels like I do, I’m sorry. It’s not right how the primary program works. I feel like I’m not really part of the ward when I’m in primary. They need to make it possible for people like me able to go to Elders quorum sometimes. It would be nice to meet some people in my quorum.

Extreme Mormon's in Primary

Sitting through Primary every week can be a difficult task. As many people know I'm not a big fan of kids. I like my nieces and nephews, but past that I don't really like kids. So, every Sunday I try to help teach primary with Allison (I try, but I don't do a great job at it). One thing I've noticed is that some people in the Primary are a little to extreme when it comes to their beliefs about church and what we should be teaching the primary children. Then there are some people that I feel understand that we are not their main source for gospel teachings and shouldn't force their own opinions on these kids.

I don't know how to deal with the extreme Mormon views. In my opinion they take the commandments to a whole other level. I feel it's important to teach kids right versus wrong, but I feel the need to give them the tools to make correct choices, not tell them one thing is better than another.

A few weeks ago we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom in Sharing Time. If you know me, you know I really have a hard time with this one. I feel most people don't interpret it correctly and focus on the wrong parts. I was really worried when this lesson started. It could have been a down out slug-fest of misinformation if done by certain people in the Primary. To my surprise it was done really well. They talked about not drinking alcohol and eating good foods. I was amazed how they didn't bring up caffeine. Especially since most Mormons eat tons of it but refuse to drink it. It's my personal opinion if you have a problem with caffeine you shouldn't eat chocolate ever. Some chocolates have as much caffeine as Coke. The lesson was well done that week.

A couple of weeks ago we had a lesson on our bodies. This lesson mas done amazingly. They talked about how we need to dress modestly, but didn't tell kids what type of close were modest. Instead they handed out pictures to color of little boys and girls. They told them to talk them home and discuss with their parent what they felt modest clothing was. They emphasis that this was a topic for them and their parents to decide on. Then they talked a little about what the Strenght of the Youth said, but always making sure the children knew to ask their parents what was correct.

Then this week we had a lesson on keeping our mind clean. This one should have been easier than the last too. Most of the kids in our sharing time don't have to worry about this. The oldest kids are six. Yet, the extreme view point came out. This lesson was done by a different person the the other lessons. She talked about how her kids couldn't watch some kids show because they dressed to immodestly. I asked Allison what that meant to her later and she thought the person was talking about nudity. I was like, I don't think so, because she refereed to kids shows on kid networks. To say the least I can, this person said a few other things that were way beyond the mark. If my children came home and said my primary teacher said this, I'd would tell them that they were wrong and full of crap. I just wanted to walk out of that sharing time and take my class because I really felt she was filling their heads with mis-truths and half-lies. I doubt anyone would feel the same way as me. They probably think that her lesson was fine, even though she was using scare tactics to get the kids to not think bad thoughts, which is impossible, because our minds will think bad thoughts no matter what. It's more of what do we do when they enter our mind versus we're unclean if we have a bad thought.

This post has gone on a little longer than I wanted. What I'm trying to say is if you have kids be careful. Primary might be filling their heads with half truths and opinions as doctrine. I'm not saying all Primary teacher's are bad, I think most are really good. They are doing this for free which I think is amazing. It's the extreme Mormons you have to worry about. The ones that homeschool their kids because they don't want them around non-lds influences (kids). (Not all homeschooling is bad either.)