Milk before meat

MR says: Well-written essay on the importance of considering spiritual maturity.

Our family joined the Church the summer when I was fourteen, my brother was ten, and my sister was six. We grew up in Connecticut as a churchgoing family, but after church was over at 10:15 on Sunday morning, we were free to do what we wanted with the rest of the day. In the spring and fall, we usually spent the rest of the day at soccer games for my brother, Ethan. Spring soccer ended that year before we set our baptism date, before we understood the finer parts of becoming a Mormon, before we knew about how Mormons kept the sabbath day holy. At the end of the spring season, Ethan signed up to join the traveling team in the fall.

By the time August came to an end, my mom realized that she was facing a problem. We were fresh from the waters of baptism and still felt like we could do everything right in terms of living the gospel. Should she let Ethan honor his commitment to the team, or should she encourage him to keep the sabbath day holy as much as possible? Full of a convert’s zeal, she had her opinions, and she marched Ethan into the Bishop’s office to have him validate her opinion.

Read the rest of this story at segullah.org/blog/