"I've had to add you to my inactive list."

Helpful?

Encouraging?

Hurtful?

Offensive?

I don't know how the message was meant to be received, but I'm not sure it was helpful or encouraging to have someone knock on my door and tell that my name was added to the inactive list for Relief Society.  Luckily, I didn't find it incredibly hurtful or offensive.  I considered the source, I considered the truth, and I decided to leave it at that.

I love Relief Society.  I've spent more time serving in callings with the Relief Society than any other organization of the Church.  I'm an advocate of the spiritual and temporal blessings it can bring to the women who participate purposefully.  I love the lessons and the insights that are shared or that I discover during the lessons.  I love the diversity of the sisters there.  There are friends with backgrounds and stories there who you never meet if you don't attend.

Anyone who knows how my church attendance has bounced around for the last year or so, has never really asked why.  It's no one's responsibility but my own to get me and my children to church.  But, I do see and hear how others view my spotty attendance as laziness.  And, with my visitor's information, I saw and heard how I was a missing check mark on an attendance roll rather than a missing sister in Relief Society.

I never would have guess that my name would have been on any "inactive list."  I never anticipated the feeling of scraping up my mental, emotional, and physical stamina from off the floor to try and get myself out the door to church every week.  Add in the way little flu bugs pass around a family to my struggle to gather my senses on a daily basis and you'll find a partly inactive family.  Sometimes I make it there, with or without my juvenile entourage, and sometimes I don't.

But, I'll try again next time, just like I did every other time.

I believe.

I believe in the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and hope to align myself with that gospel.

I believe that God directs His church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through direct revelation given to the living prophet.

I believe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by a prophet who holds all of the keys of the priesthood.

I believe that the prophet and apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are human, but that God will not allow any one of them to lead His Church in error.

I believe that the priesthood of God is on the earth and is fully available to all mankind.

I believe that all worthy males can hold priesthood keys and administer in the capacity God calls them to.

I believe that women, through the priesthood, lead in their homes and callings.

I believe that women act through the priesthood when they worthily serve in callings God called them to do.

I believe that through covenants, women have every blessing a worthy male priesthood-holder has.

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I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.

I believe that individuals with heterosexual or same-sex attractions can choose to live lives that make all blessings and covenants available to them.

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I believe that when official members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints choose to believe, act, or encourage others in doctrine and principles that are not in accordance with God's revealed gospel they should not represent themselves as "official members" any longer.

I believe that priesthood leaders have the responsibility to direct the affairs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as God has called them to do.

I believe that priesthood leaders hold a burden of responsibility when they have to work through difficult situations with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who believe, act, or encourage others in doctrine and principles that are not in accordance with God's revealed gospel.

I believe that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who become dis-fellowshipped, excommunicated, or remove their own names from the records of the Church are loved sons and daughters of God.

I believe that God is waiting with open arms for all of His children to work through their sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings and to return to Him through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

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I believe that my feelings, beliefs, values, and testimony can define me and I hope that they do.

I believe that my testimony and beliefs are mine and their purpose is not in personal opposition of others beliefs, values, and desires.

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I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father, who loves me, and I love Him.  I will stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places as I strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice & Accountability
Good Works
Integrity
Virtue

I believe as I come to accept and act upon these values I will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

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As a female member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I do not wish to be represented or affiliate with any organization other than the Church itself.  I do not want to be counted in a tally of "us vs. them."  I only hope to represent myself in a way that will eternally affiliate me with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as I believe that is the only way I can achieve my eternal goal of living with my Father in Heaven and my family in the eternities.  There is no other organization on the earth that can so fully fulfill my every desire and happiness as the Lord's gospel, as revealed through prophets in these latter days.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.