I'm 59 years old. Since I was about 14 or so I've known and interacted with a constant stream of people who became disaffected with the Church and who self-destructed and then returned. Some where not members of my church and returned to their own, others were LDS and returned there.
It hit me recently that the people I've been the closest to the entire time, and the reality of my experience, has been people returning to the gospel. Over and over again I dealt with people who were on the healing end, the returning end.
I've never really dealt with people on the outgoing side, other than from a distance.
I've realized that has skewed my perspective of the entire process of people losing faith or questioning God and the Church.
I don't have any answers. All I've ever really seen or interacted with people after they had crashed and burned and had been touched and were returning and being renewed. I don't know about those who don't return or much about the downward trajectory. The only tools I have are patience and love and I suspect those are not enough for every situation, so I am without advice to give or share.
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