Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Primary Kids and Testimony Meetings -- Not like before 1980


Where do LDS Church Primary kids learn to publicly share their testimonies?
Sadly, it looks like for most kids it is mostly only by watching what adults do in a fast and testimony meeting.
When I grew up, you had ample opportunities in a small stage to do so in a junior Sunday School meeting every single month on Fast Sunday.
Not so, since the block time meeting schedule arrived in 1980.
On May 5, 2013, a kid, about age 6, was the first to stand up in my ward's fast and testimony meeting.
He didn't know the procedure, or any formula -- he just talked for 45 seconds explaining how the Holy Ghost prompted him not to open his sister's diary to read it -- and how good he felt about following that feeling.
Yes, it was cute, but it illustrates the shortfall with young church members in training.
Perhaps in my youth there were too many chances for kids to bare testimonies. Now there are certainly far less as the church pendulum of change always seems to swing too far the opposite direction.
Again, we're not talking doctrine here, just policy, that could be changed.
At times, the Brethren appear to want to discourage young kids from standing up in fast and testimony meeting. But, at least these kids go from the heart and don't give a travel log or long, overblown discourse too.
Yes, the church is teaching its under age-12 youth better in most all areas than when I grew up. The big shortfall may lie in testimony sharing.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

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