Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Lighten Up On Religion? Pffttt!

I had a conference with the teacher of one of my teenagers today. My son has been slacking in school, and has difficulty focusing. I told his teacher that I believe my son has some attention deficit problems. I believe I do too, so I'm not trying to be critical. The teacher suggested that I have my son run for awhile in the mornings before school. I informed him that my teenagers attend early morning seminary. He said, "Why, is he going to be a Priest?" I said, "No, but all of our teenagers attend early morning seminary. It really gives them a foundation in our religion. Some people try to tell us what Mormons believe, but we already understand what we believe because we study it well." I explained to him that our teenagers attend 4 years of early morning seminary. One year they study Old Testament. One year they study New Testament. One year they study the Book of Mormon, and one year they study Church History and the Doctrine and Covenants. He was aghast at this. He said, "Did you do this?" I said, "Yes, I attended all four years." He said, "Yea, but WHEN did you do it?" I said, "I did it the same as all of our teenagers do it, during the 4 years of High School". He felt so strongly that my son should run before school to get some of his energy out. He said, "You may need to cool it a little and lighten up on religion for awhile.". I tried to impress upon him how important our seminary classes are to us, and suggested that maybe my son could get up just a few minutes earlier to do some exercise. I don't know how you feel, but I think that cutting back on religion when you are trying to grow your child's personality, is counter productive. My children have never complained about early morning seminary. I think they have noticed how studying the scriptures gives them a good spiritual start to their day. Maybe if I were a social Christian, or as my friend JJJ says, a "cafeteria Christian" and wanted to just observe my beliefs, or worship God when it is convenient, or believe only those things that are easy to believe, then I could "lighten up". But as NATE pointed out on another blog, when you really believe in something, you do it. So we will keep pushing our children to attend seminary, and pray for help to get my son to get his act together.

4 comments:

Fromagette said...

Good for you! This counselor obviously doesn't understand seminary's importance, or religion's importance for that matter. I certainly don't regret the 4 years I spent going to our church building at 6:10 in the morning.

Keira said...

i would report his comments to the principal. unfortunately though in today's society the principal would probably just agree with him.

Looney said...

Wow! I am certainly impressed. We have a challenge just to get an hour in class a week on Sunday, and then there is whining when the time is actually spent teaching.

PsychDoctor said...

I would encourage him to exercise in the evenings...It might have some carry over into the morning...