There's a lot we do as Latter-Day Saints that has to be done a certain way - blessing the sacrament, conferring the priesthood, setting someone apart to a new calling, baptism, consecrating oil, temple ordinances, etc. So it's no surprise that we often take that a step farther and pick up phrases that aren't required for what we're doing but we hear so much that they become second nature. Over the past year I've started making a list of things I've found myself saying (or in some cases where I'm only ever observing and not participating, hearing others say) out of habit more than real meaning. None of these are bad to say by any means, or in any way diminish the value of the action being done, but for me personally they just don't add anything. You could use these same phrases in your own worship and mean every word (which is great!), but they've become too rote for me. Below are a few examples of phrases I'm trying to remove from my church
When I was 17, I totaled my car. Though my dad wasn't thrilled about having to get a new car (and a new car payment), he found this really cool classic Dodge Dart at a used car lot. It had been sitting there for years untouched but it was in good condition and he and I both really wanted it. Despite this, we didn't go get it right away. A week went by. Maybe two. Then he finally went to get the car... and it was gone. Despite sitting there for years, just a couple weeks after we found it so did somebody else. Sorry he said, but everything happens for a reason. Maybe we weren't meant to have it. When I was 19, I was walking down the streets of Argentina with my camera in my pocket. I usually kept it in my apartment since I was serving in an area with a lot of crime, which is why we were out walking instead of riding bikes. Hard to ride a bike when someone steals it every other week. But I didn't leave it in my apartment that day. I was visiting a family I had grown