Posts by kathryneshields

island of misfit mormons: 12 days of ymf-mas

Welcome to Day 2 of the 12 Days of YMF-Mas! Whether you love the holidays or dread them every year, we’re here to offer you support…

surviving general conference

General Conference can be very challenging and isolating for Mormons on the fringe, Mormons in transition, or Mormons with questions. If you have anxiety, uneasiness, or…

setting aside my seminary scriptures: making peace with my faith transition

When I was fourteen and beginning high school, I got my own set of scriptures. It was a green miniature quad with my name engraved in…

A Skeptic’s Prayer, by Margaret Munk

Is it true
Thou lovest best
Thy meek, unasking children?

Thou hast made us
So diverse, so various,
Yet in the image
Of a Sire
Who filled a universe
With his creative fire.

What father has supposed
His child would grow to manhood
Only hearing and affirming?
What sire could honor such a son?
How could a mind that,
Like a sponge,
Absorbs but never questions,
Doubts,
Or wonders why
Be offspring and apprentice
To a God?

It may be, Lord,
That thou canst never love me
With the calm relief
A father feels
For his obedient child—
The one who’s never any trouble.

But use me
As a bridge
To those more wayward still
Than I.
I cannot give them all the answers;
But they will not ask
The ones who think they can.

Let me speak
To thy lost sheep
As one who,
Understanding how they went astray,
Still loves the Shepherd.