dont know what made me think of this

someone commented on one of my posts a while back about how she went to her bishop for guidance regarding being single and he quoted this scripture: isaiah 4:1- And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

even the foot notes for this verse refers to the stigma of being unmarried. the bitter divorcee in me screams: "stigma? what the hell do you mean? am i LESS because i am not married?!" , but the tiny, molly mormon in me whispers "they are talking about a specific time in the old testament when there were a bunch of wars going on. doesnt mean today. it doesnt mean US. we are good. dont worry."
do the men in the church get a little freaked out by this scripture? do they worry that they are going to have to deal with seven women because of the scarcity of righteous(i use that term loosely)brethren? it might account for the deer in the headlights look on just about every single guy at any given sa activity. just thinking out loud here.
i continued on the scripture chase, reading the footnotes for the scriptures that were footnoted for isaiah 4:1. it talks about the scarcity of men due to war and the filth(isa 4:4) of the women that needs to be cleansed. there is no footnote for the word filth . i am no scripture scholar(zen, blain, help me out here?), but i am pretty sure they are not talking about a literal lack of hygiene. even back then there were harlots and such, but FILTH is a pretty strong word which implies serious sin. we are told to liken the scriptures unto ourselves and that they never are outdated. they can be applied to our current day and situation. filthy women in todays world? check. i dont claim perfection, nor do i stand in judgment, but COME ON. exotic dancing and prostitution as jobs to pay for college? sure! dressing our young daughters in revealing clothes and painting their faces as if they were grown women? yep, got that. teenage girls publicly acting as a lesbians to gain attention and turn boys on? got that too. do these things count as filth?
if we can take isaiah literally, do i want to deal with six other women clutching to my man? probably not. this could lead to a whole big discussion on the higher law of polygamy and i dont want to go there. i just want a nice guy to myself. maybe this is heavenly permission to give up on that ridiculous notion.

uh oh getting sucked in

the sa program is coming to my little town. a year ago there wasnt even have a singles ward, now they are the rumblings of establishing the "middle singles" scene through activities such as family home evening, temple nights, and other non-dance type stuff. because of my calling, i am visible and ,as you may have noticed, have a big mouth so i am being asked to get involved. to "help". no official callings. there were some hints on a stake level, but i made it known i did NOT want to be involved like that. so far, so good. i figure this is my come uppance. i have complained enough and now here is an opportunity to possibly make some effective changes in what i consider and totally ineffective program. what changes do you think should be made? give me some ideas so i am prepared! thanks in advance.

perspective

i was late to sacrament meeting on sunday so i decided to sit in the foyer and clean out the messenger bag i used for church while i listened to the talks. i love it when i can multitask like that at church. i am sure someone has cleaned out their purse in the chapel, but i wouldnt do it. seems irreverent and a little tacky, but thats just me. i am not calling anyone to repentance. believe me.
there are 4 wards that use our building, so listening to the talks became difficult as the previous wards third hour came to a close and people were gathering their families to go home. it got impossible when the relief society president came out with her screaming two year old and two additional women came out to deal with their misbehaving kids.

all of these women are my friends, so we started chatting. as we bemoaned the unfortunate decline of the "spare the rod, spoil the child" philosophy we noticed the elders walking down the hall. one of the women commented on how cute they were, but followed up with how young they look. we all kind of giggled, but it opened up a discussion on how your perspective changes on something that is essentially unchanging. for the most part, missionaries are 19-21 and thats how its been for decades, but how those young men are viewed drastically changes over time.

when i was a young girl, having the missionaries over for dinner was a blast. they were the best playmates ever. they ate like they had two hollow legs and would just rough house(way before the more recent guidelines that prohibit such things)and act goofy until they had to go home and make curfew. once you graduate from primary into young women these elders morph into demigod like status. they are so cute and so funny and so cool and you just cant wait until you can date and marry your own rm. beehive, mia maid(you can date!), then laurel, when dating a returned missionary can be a reality. now they are potential husbands so you are sizing them up as breeding stock and providers. this phase will last for a few months to a few years. maybe you go to byu for your mrs degree, maybe you meet your eternal companion at fhe in your singles ward. there are so many ways it can happen, but it usually ends with your standing in a receiving line and your closest friends and family eating those chalky pastel mints and drinking ice water out of a punch bowl. then, if you have a real testimony, you give birth to your own little missionary nine months later. the perspective shifts to raising the next generation of missionaries.

now? perspective is a funny thing. the girls from my laurel class are sending out their sons on missions. one just welcomed hers back. technically, i am old enough to be the mother of a returned missionary, yet i shamelessly flirt with them via my blog. in my defense, jake started it, but...