I teach Relief Society once a month and have always wanted Jared to come to my lessons. I invited him to come to my General Studies class to see me teach too, but he couldn't ever come. So, a couple weeks ago, I invited him to RS. He thought that was inappropriate and said no. Being quite the persuader, as Jon taught me I am, I told him all my logical reasons why I thought it would be fine: the sisters would understand, the RS President approved it, I really wanted to share that experience with him, it's not like there has never been a man in RS before.... blah, blah, blah. Against his better judgement he came because I wanted him to so badly. When he arrived, however, the second counselor in the bishopric was not very sensitive about it. He looked at Jared like he was an alien on the wrong planet and then asked him to leave. I felt terrible. I didn't listen to him and then he felt so dumb.
After thinking about it during the day, I learned a whole lot from the experience. Besides the obvious "Boys don't go to Relief Society for a reason..." I reflected on what we learn in the temple. I should have heeded his counsel. Jared was hoping I would learn from it, and I did.
1 comment:
Your bishop's second counselor is a dork, plain and simple. I told my dad (a former bishop's counselor) about this and he was really annoyed. I already knew of it, but he related to me how many times as a Priesthood leader he attended Relief Society meetings, and he frequently helped my mother with her lessons, even once role playing as Satan and Screwtape (dramatizing the Screwtape Letters), and another time as Brigham Young.
Believe me, Priesthood holders attending Relief Society is not a problem. Why would it be? It's not like it's a J.W. spy sneaking into an endowment session or something.
Tell Jared I think he's a stud for going outside of his comfort zone. (The high "S" and "C" levels in his personality profile tell you that he's a play-by-the-rules, don't-rock-the-boat kind of guy.) It's something he will do more and more often once he gets married, so this was good practice.
- Jon
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