I have a 16-year-old brother, and despite the general
populace’s feelings on teenage boys I think he’s pretty great. The more I get to know him, the better I like
him, and I have a feeling it’s going to be like that for the rest of our lives.
I’m bringing him up because the other day he shared his
feelings about my family’s church on Facebook.
It was incredible. The little kid
that grew up wearing only brand-name clothing and playing sports and fitting in
with his peers took a chance to share his love for Christ. In public.
Where his male friends could see.
So I decided to take a chance too.
I’m going to warn you right now; if you aren’t interested in
reading my feelings about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons),
skip this post. If you’re even a bit
curious to know why a level-headed, always-questioning, independent woman like
me is a Mormon, then please give it a chance.
The church has become a kind of refuge for me. I don’t need to tell you that the world can
be pretty crappy at times. Friends pass
away, spouses lose jobs, babies are miscarried, soldiers die far away from
their families – life is really really hard.
However, a belief in a loving God gives me hope. I know that life will not be perfect because
people are imperfect, and the physical world is imperfect, but I believe that
God’s love is perfect. Sometimes it is
in His plan to aid us, and sometimes it isn’t, but since I can’t see the bigger
picture it’s not my place to judge.
Believing in God helps me to feel comfort when things really suck,
because I believe that in the garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered all of our
pains and afflictions, and if we turn to Him during our trials He can truly
empathize with us. Just praying to Him
and telling Him my troubles has often been the best source of comfort I've received.
I love my church because it encourages not only a very
personal relationship with God, but also a very personal understanding of the
gospel. The Mormon church encourages its
members to test its doctrine so that the members can receive their own
testimonies. I know a big issue people
have with organized religion is “blind following,” but honestly I don’t feel
that my church encourages that at all. I’m
the type of person that double-checks and researches everything I have
questions about. Sometimes if I say
something I’m not sure is right, I’ll even double-check and correct
myself. The Mormon church encourages
that. The leaders talk all the time
about how they want the members to go to college and educate themselves. They beg us to question and learn things for ourselves. Members in the church are given teaching
positions in the church so that they can dig deeper and learn more about why we
do the things that we do. We’re
conservative and may seem old-fashioned, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t
question.
I love how much my church emphasizes the importance of
family. I come from a rather large
family – nine kids. Growing up seemed so terrible at the
time. Your siblings were always copying
you or following you around or stealing your stuff or telling on you…I was not
a fan. Now that we’re all growing up
though, I honestly love every minute of spending time with my family. If my parents had not emphasized the importance
of family, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them like I do now (I probably would
have estranged most of them long ago).
On top of that, my religion really emphasizes the importance of
marriage. It’s emphasized so much that
people often mock us for marrying young and having families early. When my parents got married my mother was
19. My dad was still in college. From meeting to marriage they had about four
months together. After being married for
a year my mum got pregnant (and the family joke is she never stopped being
pregnant for the next 20 years). It
seems like a recipe for disaster, but it wasn’t. My parents may not be perfect for each other,
but they know that family is important, they love each other, and they stick together even when times are super hard. I honestly believe that if we weren’t members
of the Mormon church, my family would be nothing like it is today.
I’ve definitely had doubts about my church before, and I’m
willing to bet I’ll have doubts again – that’s how Satan works. He takes a good thing and makes you doubt it
and worry about it until you’re not sure it’s a good thing anymore. What I do know without any doubt is that the
most joyful moments of my life have been directly caused by my membership in
this church.
I believe that other churches do have truth to them, and I
know so many amazing people who are not members of the church that I think are
still getting into heaven, but I believe the Mormon church is the only one that
perfectly matches the church that Christ set up while He was on the earth. I’ve studied the bible and paid close attention
to how the church was run; Christ’s church had delegation among church members,
non-paid clergy, missionaries, tithing, fasting, baptism, breaking of bread,
temple work, and many, many other things that the Mormon church also has.
I have felt the love of our modern-day prophet, Thomas S.
Monson, and the other church leaders. I
know that they do everything in their power to not only bless the people in the
church, but the people outside of the church as well through welfare services
and disaster-response. They strive to be the hands of Christ on this world, just as we all should.
I love being a Mormon.
Sure, we’re not perfect people.
We can be stupid and cruel and ignorant just like anyone else, and I’m
very sorry if something I said ever turned you off from the church. We’re trying our best though. We try to live like Christ: loving others,
lifting them up, bettering ourselves, and trying to make the world a better place.
If you have any questions about the church, ask a friend who’s
a member (like me!), a local missionary pair, or visit either of these
websites: lds.org, mormon.org.
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