A Lesson I Learned From Mom

Years ago mom and I attended Relief Society in a small branch of the Church. The lesson was about Bishops, and it quickly turned into an opportunity for the few sisters in the branch to complain about past Bishops the had known. It was a real eye opener for me, since I had always been taught that finding fault with church leaders was one of the first steps towards apostacy.
On the way home that day mom and I talked about what we had heard. We laughed a bit, philosophised some more, and realized that we were very fortunate to have always lived in wards served by wonderful bishops. Then mom told me a story which I will never forget.
She told me that she had been a ward Relief Society President when the Church established the new budget program. Before this time each organization had their own budget and earned their own money. In those days Relief Societies had yearly bazaars to earn money. They were exciting events and often made a great deal of money. Our ward had just completed it's anual bazaar not long before the new budget program was announced, and they had a lot of money in their bank account. The new program instructed each organization to give their money to the Stake President. From then on, all money would come from a general church fund, through the Stakes to the Bishops, who would then administer the money to each organization. Mom said she and her councilors were livid! After all, it was their money, they earned it, and they knew how to best put it to use. To add to mom's dilemma, at that time our Stake President was Uncle Ray, mom's brother-in-law. He was a great Stake President, but being close to someone sometimes makes it harder to work under their authority.
Mom said she stewed about the issue all Sunday afternoon and Monday. Then she remembered something she had been taught years before. Simply put, it was that finding fault with our church leaders is the first step on the road to apostacy. So Tuesday morning she took her bank book down to the bank, closed out the Relief Society account, and gave all of the money to the Bishop. Then she said she forgot all about it.
Years later, mom said she was watching a talk show on TV. They were interviewing a rather famous woman, one who had been a member of our church but left it and became very vocal about the issue of Women's liberation and the Equal Rights Amendment. You may not remember that issue, but it was a big deal for awhile. Not that there is anything wrong with equal rights for everyone, but they were very militant and had taken things way out of hand. Anyway, this woman, Sonia Johnson, was talking about when she had first decided she couldn't follow the leaders of the church anymore. She said it happened when the church established the new budget program and took away all of the Relief Society's money. Mom told me it hit her like a ton of bricks, and at that moment she knew if she had not followed the brethren's council she would have ended up just like Sonia Johnson.