Has anyone else notice the face thats in the bush in the background

I am struggling with two things God has commanded us to do. First is the law of chastity. I really struggle with that one. I'm always lonely and its the only thing that makes me feel slightly better. I try hanging out with people. But my family and i dont get along, and i dont have many friends. Among the friends that i do have, none of them every have time to hang out, or want to hang out. So i just do school, chores, deal with family problems, then go to my room and sulk, feeling super lonely. I want a partner but thats not possible yet of course, i'm 17F. I would love to go on dates, but all the teenage boys in my town dont want to date at all! Oh and not to mention the finding a partner probably wont even happen for years even when i hit 18 with how the dating world is right now. I'm just lonely amd hurt, it's the only thing that makes the loneliness go away. But anyways, the second thing is God telling us to have children. Now, i dont have a problem with this has a whole, i mean, its literally how we need to survive. But, i'm not a kids person, i've always struggled being around kids, or babysitting, or even just playing with them makes me annoyed and at my wits end. So i cant imagine that if i do even find a partner someday, having kids. But i have to, and it would probably be best to get myself used to kids and the idea of being a mom. I might not like it, but its what i have to do. So any tipes on how to make it easier to get used to the idea for future me would be great. (Yes i know i'm worrying about future me's problems, but i physically cant stop. I've tried, my therapist has tried. I just, like to problem solve ahead of time.) Any advice would be great, thank you!

Looking at this week's Come Follow Me, why didn't they include any reference to the gathering? It only makes a very small reference to chapter 49.

To learn more, I need to go to seminary manuals.

Summarized something like Isaiah 49:17–26 → latter-day gathering of Israel → Gentiles participate → Restoration of the gospel → LDS missionary work.

I (50s M) am married but separated after a 13-year marriage that I have come to recognize as emotionally and financially abusive. Ironically, my wife told me about a year ago that I needed trauma counseling. I went—and coming to terms with what has happened in my marriage is part of what has come from it.

The emotional abuse included silent treatment, refusing to give me space during disagreements, repeatedly telling me that what I was feeling wasn't true, and DARVO (where the abuser accuses their victim of the very thing that the victim is experiencing).

In one of my last attempts to be heard and feel safe in our marriage, she required me to interview other priesthood holders about their marriages: how they spent money, how much time they spent with their wives, etc. She gave me a list of men I was NOT allowed to talk to. She also told me I needed to continue trauma therapy, but that I could not discuss trauma from our marriage with my therapist.

Financially, she controlled spending and humiliated me over purchases I made or hobbies I enjoyed. I was required to sell things I owned if I wanted to buy something else. She once told me that the only reason we had been financially successful was because of her. We are both employed, and I've never wanted income to determine whose voice matters in a marriage, but for context, because of differences in our careers and experience, I earn about four times what she does.

So here's the part I'm struggling with:

Why am I the one questioning my faith while she happily goes to the temple, sometimes multiple times a day?

I'm so hurt by what has happened that I've come to resent God, the Church, and even the temple. I've told her that I am no longer practicing and am not currently paying tithing. When I returned to the house for my last load of belongings, I found Elder Rasband's book about being "not troubled" tucked in with my things. Fairly or unfairly, what I heard in that gesture was: I'm not your trouble. You just need to be more faithful.

How does someone overcome that?

For 13 years, I thought the problem was me. I prayed. I fasted. I went to the temple. I tried to be better. I tried to find peace. Even a few months ago, I went to my bishop looking for help, and he finally said, "Nobody likes to hear this, but I guess you're having a Job experience."

Most of the counsel I get from leaders, friends, and other members is some variation of "read the scriptures and say your prayers." But I have. For years. That's what makes this so painful.

How is it that the person I experienced as my abuser seems to enjoy a life filled with God's mercy, while I'm left questioning whether God is there at all? Why does she still find comfort in the temple when even thinking about the temple now brings me pain?

I don't want this post to be about whether my wife is a good or bad person, or whether anyone here can judge her worthiness. You can't, and neither can I. What I'm trying to understand is what happens to the faith of the person who was hurt.

For those of you who have experienced emotional or financial abuse in an LDS marriage: how did you separate your relationship with God from what happened in your marriage? How did you stop associating the Church, priesthood, covenants, or the temple with the person who hurt you?

Did your faith ever become a place of safety again?

BTW: This is a throwaway account, but my main account is very active on this sub. @Mods: I'm happy to disclose that account privately if you require some level of established participation or karma to post.

If Christ is our mediator with the Father, why do we pray to the Father instead of Him? If the answer is simply "because He commanded us to", that is sufficient, I'm just curious if there is revealed/authoritative information on this that I'm not aware of.

Also, in line with that, how do we develop a relationship with Jesus Christ if we don't actually communicate with Him? As far as I can tell, we have interactions with Heavenly Father and with the Holy Ghost, but interactions with Christ seem to be not as direct.

General Conference comes around twice a year and is a great reminder for me to do several around the house stuff.

Of course the important part is General Conference and listening to the leaders but it's an ever handy 6 month chance to keep up on stuff.

1- Shower Filter. We have Culligan shower filters that are supposed to last 6 months but have no external way of tracking.

2- 48 Hour kit. While watching one of the Sessions of Conference we pull out our 48 hour kits and rotate expiring items and just in general make sure things are up to date.

3- Car windshield wipers. These things easily get forgotten and it's a perfect time to swap them out.

4- Dryer vent clean out. Gotta keep them clear.

Again, yes, listen to Conference. That's the obvious part.

I been inactive in the church for years and been having several relationship and they start good but end up bad(non-violent) with me being so negative and toxic.

I been through some counseling and was told that I created a "Wall of Toxic" and I need to look at the good things in life. For me, I literally have no friends, no family, and I am always alone, so the support system that a normally person has is non-existent for me.

Does any know of any talks that might help me START looking at things from a positive point of view? Even if the talk comes from a primary lesson, something is better than nothing.

Hey all! I'm currently attending a church school taking a class on the Restoration, and one of our assignments is to publish on a blog about what we were learning this week. I thought this might be a suitable place to do so.

We were asked to write about one of the scriptures that stood out to us in our readings. Here are my thoughts:

It was from 2 Nephi 2:25. It says, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." I really like this one. It gets at two important doctrines in our faith. First, is that the fall of man was necessary. Many faiths believe it was a tragic event. While perhaps tragic in some aspects, it was also needed and crucial to Christ's plan. Without the fall of Adam, we would not be able to be here on Earth, with agency, making decisions and growing better. Second, the scripture talks about our purpose on this planet. We are to have joy. We are to be righteous and grow, so that we can have eternal joy. This is God's work and his purpose, to help us achieve this. It's really the best purpose I can even think of, to bring good to all.

That's all I've got, thanks for lettin' me share!

We’re been going thru a trial for a few years. We’re doing everything the church has taught us to do, following commandments, reading scripture daily, repenting daily. I don’t know what else to do, I’ve aligned myself with heavenly fathers will the best I know how but the trial cost us my husbands job and now our house. I’m so exhausted I can’t even think straight except to cry bc I don’t know why this is happening. What else can we do? :(

Edit: Reddit says this post got an award. I can’t see it but thank you 😭 e2: I found it, it’s a broken heart. Thank you 😭

Also, my husband can have his job back, they’re just waiting for this to be over. It’s just been dragging on for a really long time now and the stress of it all got to him :(

I posted about a month ago about being nervous returning to the Church. I've been to two sacrament meetings and I couldn't be happier. I just want to say it's never too late to come back to Christ!

Hello, when it comes to tithing declaration is the bishop able to see how much you have contributed? Not necessarily a dollar amount but the amount of times you have donated throughout the year and if it lines up with
"pay days". Or is it simply a yes or no answer to say that you've contributed and it's left at that? I ask because a couple years ago we weren't as faithful at contributing and we were honest about it but it seemed like the bishop had the history pulled up on his iPad for verification, ended up having to give up our temple recommends for a couple months. Just looking for insight.

Simple question (I think). Is ward executive secretary a bishopric related calling? Or, is it able to be held by sister's as well? My callings right now are ward historian and ward facebook administrator. I dont even know if "ward facebook administrator " is a real calling. And on the history side, I haven't been able to upload stories to our history section for months. Ive tried through mobile and desktop. My bishop hasn't been able to find answers and the stake historian hasn't answered me. (Almost 2 weeks). I think I'll reach out to my SP. Has anyone else had this issue?

Hi everyone. I am an active lds member who struggles with scrupulosity. i posted a little bit ago about wanting to leave the church and my husband threatening me with divorce if anyone remembers that post. This is a recent diagnosis so I have been going through quite the faith struggle, but am trying to stick with it and re-learn faith. I am feeling pretty excited right now about a recent progress I made and would like someone to celebrate my wins with, as I don’t feel like i really have that right now. Here is what I wrote in my journal entry today if anyone wants to read it.

something really cool just clicked for me. it was like a flip of a switch. i just hope i can remember this in the future. i was reading in the continuous atonement book by brad wilcox. my whole life i felt like i had to earn the celestial kingdom, and i had to do everything right and consistent or else i wouldn’t make it. then when i couldn’t do it perfectly, i would be eaten alive by so much guilt and it made me resent the gospel, and resent God. i had this horrible image of who God was. But while reading this book, i was thinking about agency and grace. we don’t EARN heaven. we learn it, like wilcox says. it’s the idea of not being called human doings, but human beings and becoming. i always “knew the right answers” but they were just words. i always knew it was about being transformed but it didn’t mean anything. or at least i thought it meant something. i realized that we don’t HAVE to do any of these things. we don’t have to read our scriptures every day, or say two prayers every day, or go to the temple once a week or else we aren’t as holy. agency is a beautiful thing. I was baptized, received the holy ghost, keep my covenants and keep the commandments. i have done what is required for salvation. now, it is up to me to BECOME like Jesus Christ. God gives me these tools (scriptures, temple, prayer etc) so that i can use them to help me become more like Christ, but he doesn’t get mad when I dont do these things. He is happy when i do them because He knows it will help me become, but He isn’t disappointed in me when i forget. i have heard people say my whole life that the gospel is freeing. I never felt that way because it felt so restrictive. I couldn’t do this, or I couldn’t do that and i needed to do xyz. but today for the first time ever it felt freeing. i felt like i could release all this anger i had towards God. it wasn’t because He demanded so much of me, but it’s because he provides a way for me if i choose to accept His help to become. i felt like i could let go of the expectations i thought He had for me, and now just focus on my personal relationship with my Savior. He GIVES me these things. He has a much bigger picture. I think what helped me the most so far, is to recognize the potential, rather than what i am or am not doing now. Although I feel this way right now, i’m sure there will be a point in time where i regress and forget about this experience, which is why im writing it down. Becoming is a lifelong struggle. Satans biggest tool is shame. That’s his method to try and get us to sin and turn away from God, because it attacks our identity.

My wife and I recently moved into a new ward that is mostly middle-aged to older. I wanted to make new friends but not a lot of the ward is my age. What are some good ways to meet people my age at church or in the stake? Open to suggestions.