Posted by:
freeman
(
)
Date: November 20, 2011 05:53PM
Reading somebody elses post just then on an unrelated matter made me think about when I "blessed" my son a few months ago. I had recently discovered the truth about TSCC, and had shared some of my concerns with my TBM wife. She freaked out and told me she wouldn't allow me to bless him (it was the following weekend - yeah, I know, I could have chose a better moment...). In the end she let me do it on the grounds that to not do it would bring embarassment to the family, seeing as everybody would expect me to.
(side note - OK, she didn't exactly say the reason why not, but I can't think what else could have changed her mind. Also, re-reading what I wrote it does come across like I am / was a little bit henpecked by my wife on this issue. Is it really her responsibility / does she even have the authority to "let me" bless my own son? Everybody knows the PH holder is always right... To be honest, I never argued with her on that point, with more important issues on my mind, so this is how it played out, rightly or wrongly.)
Anyways, I have never felt particularly (read "in any way at all") moved by "the spirit" when it comes to inspired words to say in blessings. I avoid them at all costs to be honest, apart from the two baby blessings I have given. So I spent a couple of hours the night before "writing" my blessing, or at least a few ideas of what I might say. I wracked my brains to think of all the recent baby blessings I have witnessed to see if I could plagiarise any of the good bits. I didn't come up with much, but it was enough to sound convincing.
At the moment of the blessing, however, I could only remember about half of what I had prepared (I knew I should have rehearsed out loud...) and so I had to rely on "the spirit" for some inspiration afterall! The thing is though, "the spirit" wasn't a TBM anymore, he was in the process of investigating Mormonism from a critical perspective, and had just a week earlier rejected it's claims.
So the words (and I paraphrase) "...and I bless you that you might have a keen mind, that you might be able to discover the truth of all things through the use of sound logic and reasoning; that you might not be led astray by those who seek to deceive you. I bless you with great intelligence, that you might learn how to evaluate and interpret evidence, that you will always make wise decisions..." or words to that effect.
At the time I knew exactly what I was talking about, and so unfortunately did my wife, but I do wonder how every other TBM in the room intepreted it. I suspect the ones that were listening (25% at most) thought nothing whatsoever of it.
Has anybody else blessed their child whilst a non-believer? What did you say?