{"id":53689,"date":"2026-05-25T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=53689"},"modified":"2026-05-24T19:55:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:55:53","slug":"overcoming-inattention-how-did-you-participate-in-church-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-5-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/overcoming-inattention-how-did-you-participate-in-church-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-5-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Inattention: How Did You Participate in Church (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About) Yesterday, 5\/24?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Is inattention a kind of addiction? If we can\u2019t focus on what we want to, is it because we can\u2019t help focusing on something else? Can we substitute an \u201caddiction\u201d to something positive \u2014 maybe actually thinking about what\u2019s happening through the lens of the gospel?<\/p>\n

Addictions are sometimes physical, leading to urges that show up with physical symptoms. Other times, the addictions are more like compulsions, heavily ingrained habits that are hard to break, even though there isn\u2019t any physical symptom. If the habit is good, should we maybe try to maintain it, even if its like an addiction?<\/p>\n

I think that good habits, even if they are heavily ingrained in how we act, yield good results. I\u2019ve purposely gotten into the habit of using the word \u201cplease\u201d when I\u2019m talking to our Alexa speaker\u2014because I want that habit to pass on to my interactions with actual human beings. I want it to be an ingrained part of how I act. Maybe that\u2019s not as valuable as something that I choose to do in the moment, but I think its certainly better than failing to say \u201cplease\u201d when I should.<\/p>\n

Likewise, I want to cultivate good habits with how I mentally act when listening and experiencing church. I want to train my thoughts to automatically use gospel teachings, perspectives and ways of reacting in my life. I want to approach what happens with humility, seeking to learn something, and not with criticism that those \u2018in charge\u2019 are doing it wrong. I want to be\u00a0inspired and uplifted by how I interpret, how I think about and how I receive what happened in Church.<\/p>\n

So, what are you thinking in reaction to what happens in Church?<\/p>\n

In these posts I am trying to suggest that each of us can have better experiences at Church if we take responsibility for our experiences, and if we are open to learning from what happens by pondering it \u2014 by thinking about it in many different ways. We can choose to learn and benefit from what happens regardless of whether it fits our perception of what is \u201cgood.\u201d Thinking about our reactions and what we understand allows for revelation and for better understanding.<\/p>\n

In this vein, I like the statement that President Hugh B. Brown made in a 1969 BYU devotional, President Hugh B. Brown declared that the Church is \u201cnot so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts.\u201d We should be carefully considering what we hear at Church, regardless of whether what we heard is right or wrong, orthodox or heterodox.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of our thought depends on how we look at it. It is not different from what many artists figure out\u2014they understand that how you see the \u00a0world before you is more important than what you see. You might call it \u2018active listening\u2019 or shifting perspective. It just means that you see differently. And seeing differently reveals a different world.<\/p>\n

In my case, I tend to focus narrowly, thinking about groups of words or sentences, sometimes taking them out of context and thinking about what they say, even if the speaker didn\u2019t intend what I heard. It\u2019s not at all like what we\u2019re taught in school, where the focus is on understanding accurately and completely what the speaker or text says. Its about pulling out useful or inspiring thoughts in spite of what was said.<\/p>\n

So, if you aren\u2019t thinking this way, maybe try it next Sunday, or the next time you are in a class or meeting. If you have already thoughts inspired by what happened at church, what are they? How did you react to what happened in Church yesterday? What did you notice? Did you end up thinking differently? Do you think your reactions were what they should be? Were they looking for what God had to tell you? Did your reactions make things better?<\/p>\n

This is the latest invitation for reactions to local meetings, continuing a series of weekly posts that started with my post<\/a> on September 25th about how we receive what happens in Church meetings\u2014sermons, lessons and anything else\u2014and enter a conversation with them, magnifying what was said or adding what we think. In these posts I\u2019m asking us all to think about how we listen and receive what happens at Church. If we only listen for mistakes, or things that bother us, what does that say about us? Is it most important to criticize others? Or to try to change ourselves?<\/p>\n

The point here is that no matter how poorly prepared the speaker or teacher is, or no matter how what happens triggers us, or is objectively or doctrinally wrong, we can still find elements in what is said and what happens that inspires and edifies us. Even if church meetings aren\u2019t conducted in a way that reaches us, we can take responsibility and find a way to feel the spirit.<\/p>\n

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So please, write down reactions and thoughts to what happened in Church. You might keep your own \u2018spiritual journal\u2019, or, if you like, you can post your reactions below. I\u2019m adding my own reactions and thoughts as a comment to this post \u2014 instead of as a part of this post, because my reactions aren\u2019t any better than anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Let me emphasize that this is NOT a place to criticize what is wrong with church or your fellow congregants. The point is to post what you learned because of what happened at Church or how that led you to think. It\u2019s about the good things we can get out of Church, not the negative things that disturbed or upset us. It doesn\u2019t have to be orthodox, traditional or even on topic.<\/p>\n

If you like, make your response in the format, \u201cThey said or did this, and I said or thought that.\u201d Even the things you dislike the most can be turned into lessons for what the gospel teaches we should do.<\/p>\n

My hope is that these reactions serve as an example of a better way to treat what happens at Church instead of the perennial complaints about speaker or teacher preparation or ability, or complaints that the Church should do things differently.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Is inattention a kind of addiction? If we can\u2019t focus on what we want to, is it because we can\u2019t help focusing on something else? Can we substitute an \u201caddiction\u201d to something positive \u2014 maybe actually thinking about what\u2019s happening through the lens of the gospel? Addictions are sometimes physical, leading to urges that show up with physical symptoms. Other times, the addictions are more like compulsions, heavily ingrained habits that are hard to break, even though there isn\u2019t any physical symptom. If the habit is good, should we maybe try to maintain it, even if its like an addiction? I think that good habits, even if they are heavily ingrained in how we act, yield good results. I\u2019ve purposely gotten into the habit of using the word \u201cplease\u201d when I\u2019m talking to our Alexa speaker\u2014because I want that habit to pass on to my interactions with actual human beings. I want it to be an ingrained part of how I act. Maybe that\u2019s not as valuable as something that I choose to do in the moment, but I think its certainly better than failing to say \u201cplease\u201d when I should. Likewise, I want to cultivate good habits with how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53690,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689\/revisions\/53690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}