I find it amazing the way the world is dividing. Watching it in real time is kind of amazing/terrifying. Something I have found more prevalent lately is the feeling that if I am a religious person, people don't want to hear it or see it. To just keep it to myself. I believe 100% in not pushing my beliefs on others. I will share my beliefs with you if you ask, or if you have questions, but I will not force others to accept what I believe. With that, I hold an expectation to others to give me the same courtesy. Do not make me change or hush my beliefs because they make you uncomfortable. I do believe in God. How sad that the world makes that statement seem so archaic or outlived. What is wrong with holding a belief that helps you through your troubles? That encourages friendship and love and assists in coping with hardships in life? It exists to bring hope. To encourage faith. Not hate. Anyone who says otherwise is only looking to make religion a motion to silence other people. And that, is not God's plan.
More and more, people are believing that to be a teenager means to party or drink or make mistakes. I was a teenager who partied, meaning I went to parties where we played pool and listened to music and watched movies and laughed playing games with each other. We went to lakes and swam and boated and hiked and danced in dancing groups and traveled with my choir group and performed in the school plays and other stuff outside of school. I loved going to concerts and getting dressed up with my friends to meet new people at church dances or new friend parties that didn't actually involve alcohol. I am not weird for this. I am not crazy. I learned to cultivate my brain instead of my addictions. I learned who I am, not who I can't control because of an illegal substance. I learned social skills with my head clear. I learned how to take care of myself abroad and to take care of my friends whenever they needed me. I learned my strengths and my weaknesses.
I'm tired of the world telling me what is "normal" as if to fall into a lifestyle of unhappiness and sadness is "normal". The jokes about being a teenager are plagued with bad decisions and circumstances of regret. The jokes of marriage are all ball and chain oriented. The naggy wife. The man with his mancave. The idea that once you are married, "Game Over". Wrong. At least, not my marriage. The world may tell me that is normal. The world may tell me that is standard. Well I believe in something better.
I am divorced and remarried. I am not perfect. I have never professed to be. I have questioned my faith. I think we all should. The leaders of our church had to in order to know the path they should take. There is nothing wrong with personal journeying. There is nothing wrong with discovering oneself through mistakes either, but to believe that we HAVE to be a certain way because the world proclaims it, is so far off base.
The world is divided currently on the belief regarding homosexual marriage. I am a religious person. I believe that God loves all of us. No matter our sexual orientation. I believe I don't know why some decide to live the way they live. Whether it be their "nature" or their preference decided later in life, I believe in love. I don't believe I can tell a man or a woman who they can or cannot marry. That is not my call. I believe I can tell myself who I can or cannot marry. That is it. God is the judge. Thank goodness I don't have to be. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I feel like I can't tell everyone that or they will be "offended" or they will judge me as a bigot. I feel like people resent and even hate religious posts. They either find them old fashioned, self righteous or judgmental. They see me as a bigot because I stand with a religion that states homosexual relations are immoral. I am not a bigot. The act of homosexuality is a personal decision and personal preference. Again, I am not the judge. God is. And I am so glad because I don't want that stress. I don't want to feel like my job in this world is to "fix" people. To change them. It will not happen. God gave us the beautiful gift of Free Agency. He has to uphold his end of that law. God does not intervene when someone is choosing their life most of the time because it is their God given right to choose how they will live and what they will do. I live by that same law.
I had a friend who does not believe in God say once, "How could a God, if there is one, allow such horrible things to happen to children and good people all over the world?". My answer to that, is because he is God. He is bound to uphold the rules of Free Agency he gave us. If a woman decides to harm her children, we all know how we feel about it, but it doesn't change the fact that she may choose to do it anyway. The same is true for those who choose fast food and weight gain over healthy living and exercise. We make choices every day. There will always be someone somewhere close by to tell us when and where we make "wrong" decisions in our lives. Here's my line: if your choices are not hurting others, then by all means, keep on living your way. I draw the line at cruelty or abuse. But homosexual marriage is not abuse. It is not cruelty. It is love based. It is a choice, one that is not mine to judge.
Love is one of the most amazing gifts we have in this world. I love all my earthly brothers and sisters. Whether they be my religion, no religion or any other. Whether they be white skinned, or any color of the rainbow. Whether they love someone who is religiously sanctioned for them or not.
I believe in God. I believe in love, and I believe in being who we are to the fullest. Not ashamed to be the current underdog. Religion may not be popular. But it is who I am. And I am proud of it.
"He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love" - 1 John 4:8
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