Speaking in church

Having done just about everything I could think of to discourage our bishopric from inviting me to speak in church again, I was really surprised when one  of the counselors still found it possible to ask Carolyn and me to speak.  We talked yesterday and they haven't called us yet to talk about our membership so I can only assume we didn't say anything terrible.

Actually, I think both of our talks went well.  We certainly got a lot of comments and pleasant feedback from many members of the congregation.  I actually enjoyed the experience.  I usually do if (1) I have enough time and resources to write the talk, and (2) the subject matter is something I know something about or at least feel comfortable discussing with others.  This probably couldn't have been better.  (1) We were asked on August 15 to speak on August 29 giving us a full two weeks to prepare during which we had no major distractions.  And (2) my assigned topic was "Dealing with Adversity" and Carolyn's was "Provident Living".

Carolyn is almost a textbook example of provident living, her family has lived providently since she was born, and the Church has a website called provident living just in case she needed more ideas.  I would never want to get into a no-win argument with someone about whether he or I have dealt with the most adversity but I do feel like I've dealt with enough that I can speak with some confidence and experience.

The problem I had is that Dealing with Adversity is, as I explained to the congregation, the Universal Condition.  Virtually all the books,  plays, and movies deal with adversity or deal with people who are dealing with adversity.  My problem was staying within the time limits of our talks while still saying something meaningful.  I prepared what High Councillors call an "accordion" speech because it can be expanded or contracted as necessary.  I could have spoken as long as 20 minutes but had only 12 minutes.  I cheated and ran over 3 or 4 minutes but still had to cut out 5 to 6 minutes of the talk.