August 12, 2007 Lesson by Sondra Soderborg: SWK #15 We Should Be A Reverent People

Here is the handout Sondra passed out. It nicely outlines the main points of her lesson:

“We Should Be a Reverent People”

SWK #15

Reverence is “a feeling or attitude of deep respect love, and awe.” It is devotion to God. “It is one of the highest qualities of the soul,” because it involves “true faith in God and in his righteousness.” “True reverence involves happiness, as well as love, respect gratitude, and godly fear.”

Pres. Kimball considered reverence a way of life. There is a story in the manual of a time when he was visiting a meetinghouse. In the restroom, he threw away paper towels that were on the floor and cleaned the sink.

This example indicates that reverence is more than a feeling—it is practical, active, and confident.

Those are words that provide an approach to reverence that I want to focus on. It’s only been a few months since we had a sacrament meeting on reverence, and I’ve been thinking about reverence in our ward since then. One of the things Bishop Soderborg asked is that each of us take a more active role in creating a reverent environment in our Sunday meetings, and particularly in sacrament meeting. Our demographics create particular challenges for our ward.

Parents of young children:

• We’ve seen it all before—get past shame (flipping)
• Don’t be embarrassed if you need help
• Be practical and considerate in your choice of seats. If you know that for a certain week (months or years) that you’ll be taking children out, choose a seat that minimizes the disruption
• Don’t bring sick children to church--even though church is where we belong, we have to consider the whole community.
• Please take out disruptive kids quickly. Briefly try to comfort, but don’t wait if it isn’t working. Recently, I couldn’t hear the speaker when there was a particular roar of children, even though I was sitting in the fifth row back.
• Plan ahead: ask for someone to sit by you to help, like one of the youth or a person without young children to attend to. Ask someone to keep on eye on things, so that they’re prepared to step in when you need them. You can ask on your way in; it doesn’t need to be one more item on your list of things to do.

Parents of older kids:

• Continue to expect reverent behaviors

Anyone with free hands:

• Be confident about stepping forward to help. Do it in a spirit of love. You’ll have fun.
• Look around to see who might need support in that meeting—is there a parent alone with their children? Plan ahead helps with the self-consciousness of the moment.

Everyone:

• Arrive on time
• Visit outside the chapel (“The chapel is not dedicated to pharisaical piety where are found long faces, stiff formalities, or cold and barren silences, yet reverence for holy places, sacred purposes, and divine personages should always be found there.