Thursday, March 13, 2014

Baah Baah Black Sheep...

I never added last Sunday's doodle, so there it is! (left) How's that for an introduction?

Hopefully, if things progress the way I'm requesting, every Sunday will allow for a "Sunday Doodle". I am my own worst enemy and I do love my church calling teaching the 10-11 year old girls. However, I've requested to be released, so my Sundays can be spent listening to more lessons. It's just reason #5,897 of why I'm a pain in the butt Mormon. I don't accept callings willy-nilly. I've even turned some down! And when I was released from a calling I LOVED, I wasn't happy about it and I made sure the bishop knew it. Yet, our bishop still smiles every Sunday and I haven't seemed to drive him into the grave yet. I will miss my ward terribly. I am actually scared to start brand new come July. But that's for another posting.

My friend Mindy gave me this link the other day with this message: I think this is why we've been such good pals from the beginning. We are REAL! Most of these describe me exactly, except for the bearing children part..haha!!  The title of the blog post is "Being a Mormon Misfit and Why it's Totally Okay!" by Kayla Lemmon on her blog, Lemmonythings.com 

The first part of the posting reads as:

When I went to school in Idaho I loved a certain spot in the Rexburg temple in the waiting area of the baptistry. Each time I went there I sat right there–in that same spot– just because of a certain picture.


It was a painting of the Savior holding a little black sheep, right beside the pew in the back. I would stare at it and think about everything that it meant to me. Essentially, it seemed that I was actually the one in the Savior’s arms in that picture.


The misfit.

Now I want to go to the Rexburg Temple to specifically do baptisms and sit in that spot. I also want to acquire that picture for the new house. I'm also planning to incorporate Christ with the black sheep into another religiously themed circle motif. 

More on that Mormon Misfit theme in a second, but since the Rexburg Temple was mentioned, and it is technically Throwback Thursday, here are two pictures of us from 2009 at the Rexburg Temple. Well, most of us. Alexander did not arrive for another 51 weeks (almost a year later).
12/29/09 Rexburg Temple  Rexburg, Idaho

Mikelle age 9...Christian age 6 1/2+ (Mikelle is wearing her Grammy's gloves...that's why her hands look so big)
Getting back to the Mormon Misfit theme, Kayla's blog post lists the items that personally make her a misfit. I can certainly relate. They include her having tattoos (more on that in a minute), working long hours while her husband goes to school (I've done that too...I was working and going to school while Chris was finishing school, then I quit work and went to school full time and bookended my full time scholastic period with having two children), she doesn't have any kids (our first came 3 months shy of not our first anniversary, but our sixth...almost unheard of in the LDS culture...), she can't sew (yeah, my sewing skills stop at sewing on buttons), she questions pretty much everything (guilty! And then guilty again!), and she says she never really fit into Relief Society.

I can relate with that too. Oh, there are times I feel comfortable there and then other times comments from others make my skin crawl. Just a couple of weeks ago, they were asking about problems in the world that destroy the "family". Some obvious answers were given. Then someone said "Piercings and Tattoos". I sighed loudly and my eyes rolled so far back into my head, I probably saw my over-thinking worn-out brain. 

Seriously? Piercings and Tattoos destroy the family? 

Let's put it this way. My parents were your run-of-the-mill Arizona "married in the temple" Mormons, and my dad was a narcissistic physically, verbally, and emotionally abusive BULLY. Not to mention, adulterer. He had nary a tattoo. I'm rather confident that if he had a plethora of tattoos BUT chose NOT to be an abusive narcissistic jackass and actually honor his priesthood and NOT commit adultery and blame everyone else for his own bad choices, our family would have been much closer and not so "destroyed".

Just saying. 

What was that about not fitting in at Relief Society? lol

Yeah, that was one of those times that I didn't feel like I fit in. But I usually don't have a problem speaking up. I just have to hold back sometimes to figure out the best way to do so, but generally, I speak up. Therefore, at least I feel I fit in enough where I feel I can  have a voice.  

Again, I'm afraid to start over when we move. :sigh:

I had a similar discussion earlier this week with a friend who feels judged by those at church. I pointed out a few examples of people in my ward who have come from less than typical straight and narrow paths behind them but have brought so much love and light of Christ into the lives around them.  I said, "You can bring that same light to those around you - with the tattoos."

Kayla Lemmon's blog post ends with the comforting reminder:

As President Monson so sweetly said, the Lord has a specific love for you. Unique, different, beautiful, misfit you.  So, fellow Mormon misfit, come along this journey with me, because we all belong here on this path. Bring your dinners that you often burn to a crisp, bring your lack of love for skirts, bring along your battle scars and wear them as a badge of how far the Lord has brought you, and bring questions and different perspectives that no one has acknowledged before. Come along this journey, black sheep, and find comfort in the arms of the Savior of the world–the original misfit himself.


I couldn't have said it better myself.  Thanks Kayla and Mindy! And thanks to all the other misfits in my life! You know who you are. 







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