What I Know for Sure

There's been a buzz going around the internet this last week.  A little misquito flitting from blog to blog to facebook to news site.  It all started with this blog post by Josh Weed, where he admits to being Mormon, married and gay.  I loved the posts written by Tara and Mike and loved being part of their discussions. (They are brilliant, thoughtful and married to each other. Talk about a power couple.)  This has caused a lot of thought on my part.  I started a couple different posts, and couldn't quite decide what I wanted to say about this.  And, then I decided to write about what I know for sure.

 
The young women in our church have a theme.  This is repeated every Sunday as they gather for class.  I'm way too old to have had this theme when I was a teen, but because I worked with the young women for almost three years, I memorized it.  I can still recite it. The beginning line says,

We are daughters of our Father in Heaven, who loves us and we love him. 

Which brings me to what I know.  We are literal children of God.  He is our Father.  He loves us. He knows us as only a parent can.  He created our spirits and sent us here to have earthly bodies. 

We are all His children. All of us. Black, white, old and young, Muslim, Christian, straight or gay.  He loves us, each one, individually.  His is a perfect love, the love of a parent. It is unconditional. 

The world would separate us, put us in classes and groups.  Draw lines to push us apart.  It tells us that we are different.  We can't live together.  We must label one another and stick to our own kind.  It sends a message that some are better than others for their wealth, intelligence, or talent.  Look down on those below us, don't associate with those that aren't the same. 

The world is wrong. 

We each have worth.  Infinite and glorious we are because of our heritage.  We are children of a King, and as such, we are royalty. One of the greatest gifts He gave us is free agency.  We have the right to live our lives.  He wants us to be happy and He allows us to search for that happiness however we choose.  He does not want us to belittle each other for our choices.  

And while the world works hard at sorting us and setting up the pecking order, what I know is that we are all children of God.  Beautiful and strong with endless possibilities.  We need to love each other.  We need to respect each other and our God-given rights to choose our own path.  It's okay to disagree.  It's okay that we're different. But, it is not okay to assault one another because of those differences.

  

I believe in God and I believe that he is a God of love. 

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."  -John 13:34