"There are so many shades of right and wrong that each of you has to decide where the line will be." James E. Faust
So, I have been questioning things lately...A LOT. There is A LOT of stuff I don't know right now. A LOT. However, there remains A LOT of stuff that I do know. Taking all that bunch of stuff (so poetic today, aren't I) that I don't know and mixing it with all the stuff that I do know was not a good idea. Taking a bit of the stuff I don't know, and mixing it slowly with what I do know is much better.
So, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about where I am and where I am going on this Test o' Life! Yesterday these thoughts flew through my head all silky smooth and eloquent, I knew I should have written then. Right now they are appearing as definite, precise numbers. So here goes, and Emily, if you don't have time to read them all, just read number 4, oh, or maybe 3a...or maybe....
1. It is completely OK to have questions!!! It is not bad. It doesn't mean you are evil or faithless, or that you are committing large sins. It does not mean that those with no questions shouldn't hang out with you because you are going to infect them with some type of disease of doubt or something. Got it? Good.
2. When you question, there are a lot of routes to take to find answers. You will find that there is a blog about every question you could ever ask. There are people on those blogs who relate to you, who have the same questions, who make sense, who share ideas, and who make you feel you are not alone. This is good and bad. This is good for the reasons stated above. This is bad for the reasons stated above.
3. You should always, always turn to God for the answers. Do not put your faith in other people to provide answers for you. I do not need to apologize or constantly defend any of my beliefs. If we believe in different Gods or different spiritual laws...awesome...let's show some respect. Let's also realize that people from different faiths have meaningful relationships with each other all the time.
That being said--here are some things that I believe:
1. God is Real. Satan is Real. These are facts in my life. It may sound juvenile or uneducated to believe this in this day and age. But trust me, I am neither of these things, and I did not come to these conclusions easily.
2. Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strengths.
3. I have within my physical body the powerful spirit of a daughter of God. When I pay more attention to my spiritual self, which is eternal, than to my mortal self, which is temporary, I can always resist the temptations of Satan.
4. You must be honest with yourself and find what truth means to you. I believe there are spiritual laws of truth, just like there are fundamental laws of science. I believe that adherence or rejection to--or belief or disbelief of these laws does not mean that they aren't real. However, no one perfectly keeps all these laws. Thus the need for Jesus Christ.
5. There are so many shades of right and wrong that each of you has to decide where the line will be.
5 comments:
Loved it. Do you ever get the feeling after you learn something that seems so enormous, monumental and then you start to write it down and somehow it boils down to something so simple that to put it down on paper seems almost ridiculous. I call that truth. Ahh, but then to truly accept and apply? Suddenly it's big, enormous and impossible to describe. What else could it be but an Eternal Principle?
Last Christmas I sent out a list like this to everyone I know. I wanted to express my truths, instead of just sending a newsletter. I challenged everyone to write their own list of truths too, if only for themselves.
What I've realized is that our truths list evolves as we continue to learn. Thus, my list could be completely different than last year's. Yours can be completely different in a decade. But you're living your truths right now, and that is defines you as a woman of true integrity.
(and I read the whole thing...thanks!)
One more thing I forgot... problems occur when people attempt to live old truths, refusing to allow themselves the freedom to grow. It's like wearing an old pair of jeans that don't fit anymore.
The Church is a living organism. It's continually shedding cells and growing new ones. This is GOOD. It looks like this is exactly what you're doing too.
D'Arcy... found you in Gustav's Nine Worlds. I just wanted to thank you for this list. It's so simple, isn't it? I'm amazed how complicated some people want to make it, distorting the real relationship. But then, that's what taking God's name in vein really means, isn't it?
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