The Most Important Part

That's a dangerous title; when you have so many things that are important it is probably not useful to try and rank them.

For the purposes of this series of posts, though, there is a point, in that you have to feel it.

I feel like I have mostly completed going over where the gospel is logical and it is good. I had thought about spending some time on the good things about various commandments, and I still might, but there is still a point where the logic does not work if the feelings do not engage.

I am reading quite a bit about grief now. It is a common that painful things at least temporarily damage faith: God should not have let this happen!

These posts went over that too.

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2024/02/agency.html

There can be good reasons to not go to church, and I do not intend to judge any of them. There can especially be specific environments where attending wounds the soul. It would be placing an unfair burden on the wounded to fix what is wrong there.

That's not what I am talking about.

This is again something that happens very naturally but is wrong.

Sometimes we don't seem to know what is good about righteous living, so we concentrate on fear of wickedness. 

(This is why I was thinking of extolling some of the commandments.)

In a case like this, it may be hard to feel the presence of God, or His love or approbation or any of the things that keep one going.

Fear does not tend to help you feel the Spirit.

I am going to refer to a book that I did not think was very good: Pia Mellody's Facing Codependence. I don't think it was actually about codependence, which was probably it's biggest weakness.

I read it, though, because someone I knew mentioned something she had learned from it: when a parent does not allow a child to have imperfections, it impedes their building a relationship with God.

We have to approach God in imperfection -- it's the way we exist -- and Earthly parental patterns can easily overlay our Heavenly ones.

Honestly, I am not sure exactly how I -- with my father as he is -- was able to build a good relationship with my Heavenly Father. It's kind of amazing.

I can only explain it in that He does reach out for us, and we can reach back.

So even if you have no desire to go to church, I hope you do desire a personal relationship with God. That relationship needs to be developed and preserved and obtained.

I know its value.

I know it is possible.

Individual paths may vary, but it can start with a desire, and with a question.

Related posts:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2024/02/just-talking.html 

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2024/03/changing-things-up-scripture-study.html