Not Just for the Fiction Fans

Something that has been on my mind a lot is religion. A few weeks ago Alisha, a friend of ours, invited us to go to her church. She is non-denominational Christian and I love and admire her whole-hardheartedly. It was so fun to experience a new way of worshiping Christ and the message the pastor shared that day was so applicable to everyone in the congregation. The pastor analogized our greatest trials to the giant Goliath and taught that looking towards God is the only way to defeat those giants. I loved the message and it came with me home to ponder and apply; ironically, I feel that religion, in a way, is one of my Goliaths. I believe in my Mormon faith and I love it with all my heart, and yet, I find myself not standing up for it because I don't want to be seen as weird. It's like I am embarrassed to have such strong beliefs.

Well, as my friendship with Alisha is growing, I am discovering that much of what I love about her stems from her unwavering faith in Christ; it adds to her a true and valiant character. With her example, I have realized that I am much like her. Who I am comes largely from what I believe. Also, I feel I need to add that her love and ability to accept me, no matter what I believe, has liberated me to be who I really am. So for that, I want to thank her. I suppose all of us have moments of weaknesses in our lives and moments of turning points. This friendship has brought for me a turning point from a weakness of mine that always nagged at me like Goliath did with young David.

 So with that, I just want to say that I AM Mormon. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; it brings me joy beyond comprehension. I believe in Christ. I undoubtedly believe that I cannot save myself: my salvation comes in and through the Savior, period. I believe that "Adam fell that men might be; and men ARE, [or in other words, exist] that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25). Furthermore, I believe that joy comes from my family which is central to God's plan. The way I see it is most everything I do is based off of that principle. I believe our temples give us ordinances that bind us to our families forever. This is probably my favorite doctrine of the church. I know that my relationship with John is eternal because of the covenants I have made with him and God in the temple. How does this change our relationship? We are constantly nurturing it and improving it because we know it is not just for a short time, our marriage will continue in the afterlife. I really get to be in love with John forever.

It seems as if the world has deemed happily-ever-afters for the fiction fan-club. I find that truly tragic because my happily-ever-after is real and will be never-ending. And of course, I believe this because I am Mormon.