Lately I’ve been getting messages from people explaining to me why their friend or family member has decided to leave the LDS Church. They write with their hearts broken, unable to find the words to convince them to give it another look. It seems like every time, the root of the problem revolves around one or all of these 5 reasons provided below.
1. Being Offended
Can you imagine what a tragedy it is that so many people stay home from church, withdraw from activities, and many times leave the church because they’ve been offended. It’s almost unfathomable to me that a person would ever let someone else keep them from worshiping God. We’ve all been offended. There are people out there that have no clue. They say and do things that can hurt your feelings, make you mad, and make you never want to come back. They are no doubt oblivious and you are left wondering sometimes, “why would I want to be around this person” or “why would I want to come to church with these people?” Well guess what, we have the power to choose whether to be offended or not. In addition, if we’re offended in one place, we’ll no doubt be offended in another.
If you find yourself being offended often, then ask yourself an honest question; “Do I get offended often in other aspects of my life?” You’ll probably notice that it’s people in general that bug you, not just Mormons. Unless you just bolt yourself inside your house and buy a golden retriever, no matter where you go, you’re going to run into people that bug. Weird people are everywhere…in every church. Look at this fact as an opportunity to be Christ-like and forgive those people that are not being very nice to you…but don’t leave the Church because of it. How sad it would be to know at the end of your life that you deprived your kids, your friends, and everyone else within the Church…not to mention the Lord all the blessings of your presence at Church because of one oblivious person, and your choice to be offended.