Sacrament Meeting - by Warren

There is an hour a week when the family sits together in chairs set up like pews and we pray, sing, take the sacrament, and listen to spiritual messages. It's an important hour for any Latter-day Saint because the entire family is together, and we renew our promises with God.

When Diana was first born, the priorities were simple. We did whatever we could to make her comfortable, entertained, and happy without being too distracting to everyone else. Sometimes this meant walking out of sacrament meeting.



Now Diana is 14 months old, and it's different. She understands more, wants more, moves a lot more, and has some self control.


With many things, she has responded very well to "training." Like, she used to bite when she was angry, but every time she did we gave her an immediate time out in the crib. Now, instead of biting, she blows raspberries. I put "training" in quotation marks because I think the word implies manipulation, as if she was a puppy or something that lacked self-deterministic power. Of course, to some extent that is true at her age. Either way I prefer to think of it as good communication - since we don't talk so well right now, a timeout is the best way we have to communicate that something is bad.

Anyway, back to the point. Inasmuch as Diana is capable, we want her to learn in her youth that sacrament meeting is sweet. Some Jewish traditions let children chew on pages of the Torah dipped in honey. We let her eat bananas, gold fish, and all sorts of things. Sometimes that keeps her happy in sacrament meeting and sometimes not.

We recognize that our relationship with Diana is much more important than any particular technique. But, right now, we have two basic rules for Diana. They have had mixed success, but we realize that we've done her a disservice not being very consistent with her. (In part, by not communicating with each other as well as we thought.) One, if she moves more than an arm's length away from us, we will bring her back as lovingly as we can. And two, if she screams we will immediately bring her out to the hallway and give her an un-fun, thirty second time out in the corner, constantly repeating in word, tone and facial expression, "No shouting."

The truth is, we are still struggling. Sunday at church is hard for Diana. We are less consistent about sleep, food, water, and freedom than the rest of the week. Perhaps, the only thing harder on Diana is being in the car seat. Diana is a great baby and we're very blessed to have her. Some people reading this blog have their hands full with plenty more than our one angelic daughter. How do you handle Sunday sacrament meetings?

Smith Thanksgiving Bonanza 2008

Here's the moment you've all been waiting for: Smith Family Thanksgiving 2008!


Hands down, it was the awesomest thing you've ever seen. We had ribs, salad, water, love, chinese dumplings, green bean casserole, gravy, and some other things that we didn't take pictures of. It was DELICIOUS.

And here's the rest of Thanksgiving in a nutshell:

Until next post...

Church choir, a micocosm of church life. - by Warren

Some say that sports is a microcosm of life. At least as much, church choir is a microcosm of life in a Latter-day Saint congregation. I think that church choir represents some of my favorite dynamics of the LDS church.

There is a choir director. It is often obvious that the choir director is not the best singer or leader and sometimes not even musically inclined. Usually, no one knows why the choir director was chosen - not even the choir director or the person doing the choosing. Despite what may be musical inadequacies, the choir performs much better when they take their noses out of their own books and watch/follow the director.

The choir members are an eclectic bunch. Some sing well, others sing less well, and their self-perceptions are often misleading. No matter what skill level, choir members are accepted and challenged to improve.

When I first started participating church choirs I didn't know that there were different parts. Learning a non-melody part is still difficult for me, but Emily is super patient and an inspiring teacher. We are preparing for a Christmas show and, because Emily is my wife, I'm expected to learn the parts so that others can follow ME! For those of you that have been in choirs with me, you can see the irony. But, I'm working outside my comfort zone and learning.

I now know that parts are a beautiful thing about choir. Many parts aren't very pretty alone. Some are downright weird. But, everyone is united in the hope that the composer knew best and that somehow, their awkward part will fit into a greater whole.

Sometimes, there is a temptation to tell the director what to do or covet another part. A member can mistakenly feel both inadequate and superior. There are problems uniting all those voices, showing up on time (or at all), and following the director.

Through the years, I have learned to love choir, and my congregations. When I was 11-ish I remember, clear as ever, walking home from school and telling myself that when I'm 18, I wouldn't have to go to church anymore. Oh, how things have changed. I guess in some sense I was right, I don't have to. But something changed since then, and I wouldn't ever choose not to participate.

I know that this post can be confusing for someone not familiar with the LDS church. That wasn't my intention. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.