When You’re Tempted to Skip Church or Church Activities Because You Don’t Want to go to Church or Church Activities, or You Have Other Things to Do

With my soul have I desired thee in the night;

yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. . .

(Isaiah 26:9)

     When we don’t want to go to church on Sunday or we don’t want to go to activities, we have to have a stronger, deeper desire to keep us going.  Isaiah tells us what that is. 

     With my soul have I desired thee – Isaiah wanted God in his life, and everything he did was because of that.  This works for us too.  The thing that will keep us going to church and church activities is a deep desire to have the Lord and the Spirit in our lives.  Church attendance isn’t about being at a certain place at a certain time, nor is it about seeing the same people every week.  It is about going to a place where you can take the sacrament and remember Christ’s suffering for you and re-promise to keep your baptismal covenant.  That’s the most important part.  It’s about inviting the Holy Ghost to be with you.  It’s about learning what your duty to God is.  Ultimately it’s about wanting God in your life.  When we want God in our lives then we’ll never let worldly activities get in the way of participating in spiritual activities.

     I’ll give you an example from my own life when I was a teenager of desiring the Lord at night.  I was a “band geek” all through high school.  Fall was marching season; I had to go to all the home football games on Friday night with the band, play raucous pep band music in the bleachers to help inspire our football team to greater feats of athletic prowess, and play in the half-time show.  However, occasionally our ward had youth temple trips, and they tended to be scheduled on the same Friday night as our home football games.  Nobody knows how that happened, but it happened, and when it did, I was faced with a choice - I could perform in band OR travel to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  In my mind, temple trips ALWAYS took priority over football games, because after all, being a savior on Mount Zion is more important than a school grade.  Happily, the band director permitted my occasional absence, but if he hadn’t given his permission, I was perfectly willing to sacrifice a good grade in band to go to the temple.

     Going to your Young Men and Young Women activities during the week is another way you can show the Lord that you desire him at night.  It can be a difficult choice to make, since there are so many other things you could be doing (like homework, hanging out at a friend’s house, stalking your crush-of-the-week, or lovingly TP-ing your math teacher’s front yard) but it shows the Lord you want to be with good people and you want to be active in the church.  Sometimes it even comes down to making a choice between going to mutual and doing your homework, but I know that the Lord will help you with your schoolwork if you take a break from it to go to mutual.  Let me tell you how I gained this testimony.

     One particular afternoon after school during my senior year, I spent the whole time wrestling with my calculus homework, and in spite of all my efforts, by the time mutual rolled around it still wasn’t done.  Directly after mutual I had to go to the observatory that night for my astronomy class and I would lose points if I wasn’t there.  I would have to go to bed immediately after coming home from the observatory so that I would be able to get up the next morning for early morning seminary.  I had no idea how I was going to find the time to get my calculus homework done!  Crisis!  Crisis!  (angelic audiences bite their fingernails down to nubbins with nervousness as they look on)  I could skip Young Women and just stay home to work on my homework and then go to the observatory... but there was no way I could be sure that I’d suddenly figure out how to do the problems and finish them all in the next hour.  I decided I’d go to Mutual, then go to the observatory, go to bed early, and then just expect the Lord to bless me somehow.  And that’s what I did.

     The next morning, I was pretty worried when I got to school and went to my calculus class, my first class of the day.   My homework was unfinished.  I still didn’t understand that chapter’s material.  And my calculus teacher was getting ready to start lecturing on the next chapter using his trusty overhead projector.  The teacher turned it on... and then it died.  Its light went out.  My teacher was distraught; he always lectured using his beloved overhead projector, and he couldn’t lecture without it.  (Maybe he was allergic to chalkboards and chalk, I don’t know.)  I instantly realized that this was how the Lord was blessing me for attending mutual.  The Lord chose that day and that moment to allow the overhead projector bulb to go out, to prevent my teacher from lecturing on new material, so that I could have an extra day to finish my homework.  I still consider that a miracle. 

     I seek thee early - Also notice that Isaiah didn’t just want God in his life, he went looking for Him too, searching early.  How can we search for God early?  We can search for Him early in the day if we have early morning seminary and by reading our scriptures in the morning.  We can search for Him early in our lives by learning as young as possible to keep the commandments.  We can search for Him early in our problems by praying for His guidance when we first notice we are starting to have troubles.  We also search for Him when we search for things to do that will serve Him best.  We are promised that if we seek, we will find.

The Temptation to Think Church Meetings Are an Annoying Interruption in Your Life

Come, my people,

     enter thou into thy chambers,

     and shut thy doors about thee:

      hide thyself as it were for a little moment,

          until the indignation be overpast.

(Isaiah 26:20)

     Sometimes it feels like we have so many church meetings that it seems like they are always interrupting our lives.  (“What?  General Conference is today?  Crud!  I was going to go hunting for new specimens of moss for my collection!  My plans for this weekend are ruined!! *grrrrr*”)  We want to be out in the world.

     Yet if we choose to look at church meetings as a spiritual vacation from the world instead of as an interruption, then they will become more enjoyable.  As the world gets more and more wicked, our attitudes about church meetings will change even further, from looking at it as a spiritual vacation, to looking at it as a spiritual bomb shelter, as we find the world becoming a “nuclear holocaust” of sin.  The above scripture of Isaiah tells us that we are invited to shut ourselves into our church meetings for protection, like the children of Israel in Egypt shut themselves into their houses during the first Passover when the Lord smote the firstborn of the Egyptians.

The Temptation to Drag Your Feet When Going to Church Meetings and Go Unprepared

     The more wicked the world gets, the more it will try to keep us from going to our meetings, so the more determined we’ll have to be to go to them, until the following will happen:

26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,

and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth:

     and, behold, they shall came with speed swiftly:

27    None shall be weary nor stumble among them;

          none shall slumber nor sleep;

               neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,

              nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

(Isaiah 5:26-27)

     This is a cool scripture.  Let me tell you what I visualize when I read this scripture and think about it in the context of going to church. 

     And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them - I visualize there being an announcement made that there is going to be some kind of fireside. 

     [F]rom the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall came with speed swiftly - I visualize all of you coming as fast as you can to it.  It doesn’t matter to you how far you have to travel to get to it; you are determined to go. 

     None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep  - You’re so interested in what is taught that none of you get tired of listening.  I visualize you being so alert and attentive, nobody falling asleep. 

     [N]either shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken  - I imagine you being so eager to come that you completely prepare yourselves and dress appropriately, every tie tied, every shoelace laced up, every button buttoned.

     What happens when we become so determined to learn everything we can about the gospel that we’re willing to go to every single meeting and do anything to be ready for it and get there? 

5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion,

and upon her assemblies,

     a cloud and smoke by day,

     and the shining of a flaming fire by night:

          for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 

6                     And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat,

          and for a place of refuge,

          and for a covert from storm and from rain.

  (Isaiah 4:5-6)

     Notice, not only will the temples (or “tabernacle”, as Isaiah calls them) have the glory of the Lord protecting them, but every dwelling place and every assembly!  In order to express how it will be so obvious that the Lord is with us, Isaiah evoked the story in Exodus of how the Lord indicated his presence among the Israelites by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night over the tabernacle.  “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people”  (Exodus 13:21-22).  That.. is.. so.. cool!  (Michaela ricochets repeatedly off the ceiling and the floor with excitement)

The Temptation to Think You Can Only Learn From A Few People or From Entertaining Speakers and Teachers

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned,

that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:

     he wakeneth morning by morning,

     he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.   

(Isaiah 50:4)

     The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned  - Isaiah says here that the Lord had helped him speak like a pro so that he could especially encourage those that were tired of keeping the commandments.  How did the Lord help Isaiah?  By inspiring him through the Holy Ghost. 

     The Lord does the same thing today to help us.  The Lord calls all kinds of people to be our teachers and tells them that He will make weak things become strong unto them, which shows us that a person doesn’t have to be a great public speaker or a really smart person to teach the gospel; they only have to have the Spirit with them.  The Spirit does the teaching.  This makes it so that all kinds of people can teach the gospel.

     This scripture tells us that the Lord gives our teachers and parents and leaders the words to say that will inspire us when we are weary of keeping the commandments.  If we happen to be weary of going to church on Sunday, the Lord can give the speakers in sacrament meeting specific words to say that will make it completely worthwhile.  Same thing for firesides and church-wide broadcasts.

     I can remember once when my parents wanted me to go to a stake adult fireside and I didn’t want to go, but they urged me to go anyway.  I went, but I didn’t expect to get anything from it.  Amazingly, I did get something from it.  One of the speakers said one particular thing - “If you’re not enjoying your calling, you’re not doing it right” - and the Spirit practically hit me over the head, or wakened my ear to hear, so that I would be listening right then to hear it, and that one single thing was just what I needed, and I knew it.  (My calling at that time was to be a primary teacher and I had been hating it, so I was brought to the realization that I needed to do my calling differently.)  That one thing I learned had made my attendance worthwhile to me. [H]e wakeneth morning by morning - If you go to early morning seminary, this can be literally true.  I can’t count the number of times that I went to bed late (like 2 A.M.) after doing oodles of homework, and all I could do was pray that I’d be able to get up on time for seminary.  And you know what?  The Lord really did help me wake up!  I’d be jolted awake into an alert state of mind right when my alarm went off.  (Sometimes the Lord would even jolt me awake a few seconds before my alarm went off in the most inexplicable manner.)  How miraculous was this?  Well, just to give you an idea, ordinarily Mom would have to practically pry me out of bed with a crowbar.

     The phrase “he wakeneth morning by morning” also expresses how studying the scriptures each day awakens righteous desires in us to do good and keep the commandments.  It also awakens our testimonies. [H]e wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned - This phrase suggests that the Spirit also can get points across to us that the teacher doesn’t even mention, so that we learn stuff that people who are very learned in the gospel know.  When the Spirit stamps the principle upon your mind and you start to feel like that principle is the greatest thing ever, then you have really learned it.

     Sometimes it is even about something completely different from what the speaker is talking about.  If you are listening to a talk about tithing and all of a sudden you get the strong feeling that you really need to be nicer to your family, then that is the Spirit telling you what you really need to hear.  This isn’t exclusive to seminary; it can occur in sacrament meetings, firesides, youth conferences, testimony meetings, leadership training meetings, and lessons in Young Men and Young Women. 

     So we see in the above scripture that the Spirit is very much involved.  It is involved in both the teaching, and the hearing.

The Temptation to Space Out During a Lesson Because You’ve Heard Everything a Million Times

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;

line upon line, line upon line;

here a little, and there a little:

(Isaiah 28:10)

     This scripture tells us that Gospel knowledge comes little by little, building upon previous knowledge.  Which means that when we get bored with it we have to find new ways of learning. 

     I’ll tell you a little secret I found that jump-started my ability to learn about the Gospel when church started to bore me.  I dug out a few questions - “Why?” and “How?” - and started using them at every opportunity.  I pretended like I was a little kid again and asked those questions incessantly of myself and others and sometimes even the Lord.  I used them as I read the scriptures and I tried to figure out the answers.  I asked myself things like some of the following:

“Why were Alma and Amulek saved from being burned while Abinadi wasn’t?”

“Why are we ‘nothing’ if we don’t have charity? 

“Why is singing hymns like a prayer to the Lord?” 

“Why will the meek inherit the earth?  How do I know if I am being meek?”

“How do I know if I’m sanctified and holy?”

     These are all tricky questions that seem to defy all attempts to answer them quickly.  But just because they can’t be answered quickly doesn’t mean they can’t be answered at all.  It just takes extra thinking and pondering and searching the scriptures.  Prayer helps too.  These are the kinds of things that the Lord wants us to search out and ask Him about.

     The cool thing about asking yourself the tricky questions is that it gives you something to do during those times when speakers and teachers seem to be particularly uninspired.  I discovered that if I asked myself deep questions about their topic, and then looked it up in the Topical Guide, I could find lots of interesting scriptures to teach me something new.  Then I’d ask myself what a particular phrase meant, and I would be off on another scripture chase.  (Scripture chases like these are never wild goose chases.)  Occasionally I’d look up and listen to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, and if I wasn’t, then I’d dive right back into my private study of the topic.  When I got good at this I found it was possible to pass a few hours absorbed in my scriptures.  I’m not saying this to brag; in fact, I am ashamed to say that I ignored my teachers more than I should have.  That’s when I realized that not only could I do my own little gospel study on the topic, I could also use my study to help the teacher, by sharing my new gospel discoveries and insights with the class.  I also discovered that I could ask those probing questions out loud in Sunday school and Young Women and get everybody’s help with finding an answer.

     Occasionally we may think of a gospel question that is so deep that our efforts to answer it last over years before the answer comes in a blinding flash of enlightenment.  There are also questions that continue to baffle everybody, like the “Creationism vs. Evolution” question of how faith and science blend together - “How did God create man, since man didn’t evolve from an ape?”  Fortunately, we have Isaiah’s promise that the trickiest questions will eventually be answered. 

And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things,

a feast of wines on the lees,

of fat things full of marrow,

of wines on the lees well refined. 

(Isaiah 25:6)

     This may be talking about a literal feast, but it is also talking about a spiritual feast, a feast upon the word of God.  It’s an exciting promise that Christ will answer everybody’s questions and expound on everything to fill in all the holes in our knowledge of things of the heavens and of the earth and things under the earth.  The mysteries of God will be revealed.  It will be things that make us feel spiritually fat.  (“a feast of fat things”)  It will be things so intense and intoxicating that it’ll make our heads spin.  (“a feast of wines”)  It will be principles and doctrines that are at the absolute core of the gospel, just like marrow is at the core of our bone, and which give us the strength to do everything good.  (“of fat things full of marrow”)  Isn’t that exciting?!

     How do we know that He will do this?  He’s done it before in the Americas!  “And now it came to pass that when Jesus had told these things he expounded them unto the multitude; and he did expound all things unto them, both great and small. . . .And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory--yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth. . . .And now there cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people”  (3 Nephi 26:1,3,6).

     I repeat, we can expect that if Jesus taught and expounded all things to the people of the Americas after He was resurrected, he will do it again when He comes again.

     You’re probably thinking, “That’s great, but I’d rather not have to wait that long.”  Well, the Lord has deputized another member of the Godhead - the Holy Ghost - to answer our questions during the time that He’s not personally on the earth to do it.  If the temple is the House of God, that also means a member of the Godhead can teach us there.  The temple is still a house of learning, and will never cease to be a house of learning for us as long as we are humble enough to ask the Lord questions, ponder, and listen.

     It may seem like this is an extra benefit, but as time goes on, it will become crucial to us to have it.  The more wicked the world gets, the more it will sap our strength each week, so the more spiritually nourishment we’ll need from the temple and the more strengthening and enlightening our meetings will have to be to counteract the world’s pull.

The Temptation to be Afraid of Speaking and Avoid Bearing Your Testimony, Giving Talks, and Other Opportunities to Participate in Church

O Zion, that bringest good tidings,

     get thee up into the high mountain;

O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings,

lift up thy voice with strength;

lift it up, be not afraid;

say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

(Isaiah 40:9)

     Expressing fear and discomfort and dread of speaking at the beginning of our talks is practically a traditional way of starting out talks.  I remember recall one woman from the ward I grew up in who was so scared to give her talk, she actually fainted at the pulpit and they had to call the paramedics. 

     It is plain here that Isaiah says that we should not be afraid to speak, because we’re bringing the good news of the Gospel.  I sense that the Lord wants us to speak fearlessly, instead of fearfully.  After all, we’re speaking to the people we know, people we’ve grown up with, people who care about us!  If we can’t speak fearlessly to the people we know about the gospel and share our testimonies, how will we ever be able to share the gospel and our testimonies with people we’ve never met before? 

     I used to be afraid of giving talks and afraid of bearing my testimony.  Through most of my teenage years I approached the pulpit with fear and trembling.  But things changed when I started studying the scriptures every single day.  Scripture study made my testimony sprout and grow until I suddenly wanted to bear my testimony in testimony meeting.  I even kind of enjoyed it!  But I still didn’t do it very often; I thought people would get tired of hearing from me.

     When I went out to BYU my first year, testimony meetings were a different experience from what I had been used to.  The members of my student ward were excited to bear their testimonies, instead of reluctant.  Instead of long pauses between testimonies, people would start to line up after the first or second one given.  I was struck by this valor; it gave testimony meeting a new, vital atmosphere, one that fairly crackled with the Spirit.  I discovered that if I wanted to bear my testimony I had to go up early on, otherwise there wouldn’t be time enough at the end.

     I remember there was one boy named Sam who bore his testimony every single testimony meeting, no matter what.  It didn’t matter to Sam that everybody had heard him before, it didn’t matter to him that he bore testimony of the same truths of which other people testified before him, he went up there anyway, and he did it with such joy.  He taught me by his example that bearing my testimony in every single testimony meeting was okay to do.  So I made an effort to follow the example he set.

     As I followed in Sam’s stalwart footsteps, I found that I loved to bear my testimony to my ward.  Doing it felt really comfortable.  Then I found that when I went to visit other wards during fast Sunday, I couldn’t sit there and say nothing.  I had to bear my testimony there too!  So I did, even though I hardly knew anyone there.

     I discovered a funny thing.  I discovered that I wasn’t being asked to give talks anymore.  It puzzled me, so I asked my mom about it, and she told me that she had noticed that if she bore her testimony often she wasn’t asked to give talks in sacrament meeting either.  She told me she suspected that bishoprics choose people to speak who they hadn’t heard from at the pulpit in a while.  This made perfect sense to me; if you don’t speak on your own impetus, you have to be asked.

     Then I really started thinking, and I realized several surprising things.  I realized that bearing my testimony gave me more freedom than giving a talk, because there was no given time limit; it could be as short and sweet as I wanted, and no one would ever think I was wimping out.  Thirdly, I realized another cool thing about bearing testimony, compared to giving a talk is that there is no assigned topic; the inspiration of the Spirit determines it.

     Whenever I don’t know what to say, I start with the following things, using strong “I know” statements:

1. 1)A testimony of the living Christ and the Atonement A testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel
   

2. 2)A testimony of Joseph Smith and the current prophet
   

3. 3) A testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Bible  
   

4. 4)If I think of something to say in addition by the time I get to the fourth thing, I continue, but if I can’t think of anything else, I end my testimony.  It’s that simple.
   

I also discovered a really interesting thing after bearing testimony so often—when I talked to members of other faiths about the gospel, I was totally comfortable bearing testimony to them.  It felt completely natural, because it was something I’d said so often.  It didn’t feel cheesy, it didn’t feel like jumping off the high dive, it came out all by itself in the right place.

     CALL TO ACTION!!  (Michaela blows a deafening trumpet blast) It’s time for us to be more enthusiastic about bearing testimony and speaking of the gospel in church fearlessly!  In the last part of Doctrine & Covenants 38:30 it says, “if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”  How can we best prepare to bear testimony or give a talk in church?  Doctrine & Covenants says  “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man”  (D&C 84:85, emphasis added).  Truman G. Madsen has noted that we all know the part about not taking thought beforehand what to say; the part that everybody misses, but which is absolutely essential for this promise to be fulfilled, is the part that says we should treasure up in our minds continually the words of life.  I know by experience that if you put your brain to work thinking about the gospel every free moment you have, you will always know what to say.  Also, if you put your mind to work drawing parallels between the gospel and whatever you’re working on, whether it is factoring polynomials, or doing pushups in gym class, or washing the dishes or conjugating Spanish verbs, you will always know what to say about the gospel.  You will know what to say for talks.  Of all the gospel-related thoughts bubbling around in your brain, the ones that are most applicable will pop out of your mouth easily.

     Here is what happens when you become enthusiastic about bearing testimony and speaking in church:

And I will give children to be their princes,

and babes shall rule over them. 

(Isaiah 3:4)

     Isaiah envisioned that you youth - he calls you “children” and “babes” - would become such faithful, righteous, enthusiastic testimony bearers that you’d be teaching your teachers and parents, just like Nephi became a teacher and ruler to his older brothers, both by his good example, and by his words.

     Another thing Isaiah prophesied would happen when you bear your testimony fearlessly is the following:  

1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come,

and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

2     For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

     and gross darkness the people:

but the LORD shall arise upon thee,

and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

3                     And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,

          and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

(Isaiah 60:1-3)

     [B]ut the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee - Your faces will shine with the Spirit, just like Abinadi’s face shone when he was calling King Noah and his wicked priests to repentance!  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising - Can you imagine?  Kings will be attracted to the gospel because of the brightness of your testimonies!

     So what have we learned from Isaiah about attending our church meetings?

1) We go to church meetings and activities because we want the Lord in our life.

2. 2)Church is a spiritual vacation from the world, and a shield too.
   

3. 3)Someday we will become so determined to go to our meetings that nothing will stop us from being completely prepared for them, there on time, and alert to learn
   

4. 4)The Lord will make it obvious to everyone that He is with us, whether at home, at church, or at the temple.
   

5. 5)The Lord can give our teachers the words to say, words that teach us important truths, and even how to say them.
   

6. 6)The Lord can help us get something from whatever church meeting we attend.
   

7. 7)The Lord can even teach us things the teacher never mentions.
   

8. 8)There’s always more to learn in the gospel.
   

9. 9)The Lord will someday answer all our gospel questions and more.
   

10. 10)We shouldn’t be afraid to speak about the gospel in church.
    

11. 11)When we are not afraid to speak about the gospel, we will teach everybody around us how to be righteous.  All kinds of people will be attracted to the gospel by the light of our testimonies that we bear.