Contention

After Relief Society yesterday my mother was feeling very unsettled. I sat next to her and listened to the same lesson. I even contributed to the discussion (when finally called upon), but my mother (who is a gentle person and unused to, for instance, assertiveness) disagreed so violently with what the teacher was trying to say that she left the meeting buzzing with her own opinions (and the scripture references to back them up).

I would describe the teacher as intelligent, educated, well put-together, and independent-spirited. She has either the self-control or the natural metabolism to stay quite thin, she maintains brilliant posture, and she clips her gray hair short. She wears well-cut and -woven clothes and speaks with perhaps two decades experience of teaching middle-school. I do admire her, as I would any successful woman.

The teacher ended her comments with a catch-all cease fire, almost-but-not-quite apologizing for the feeling of disagreement her questions engendered. She knew that her question caused controversy and she wished either to acknowledge a superior opponent without admitting incorrectness, or to take credit for the current of a discussion she may or may not have intended. I am finally uncertain how she felt about my comment or my mothers' opinions.

My mother knows the bible from her dedicated years in various penultimate churches. She believes whole-heartedly in the simplicity and truth of the gospel and she knows humility inside-out. She doesn't have the sophisticated, high-heeled philosophies of women who have experienced much of the world (that's not a euphemism), but she has a keen eye for when she's being hogwashed at church.

Finding fault with your church lessons can lead to negative consequences, but so can believing everything you hear. I believe that's why God gave us discernment and peacemaking. And mothers.