Moving Forward Anyway

I am in awe after reviewing my lists of posts and seeing how many views they have received. Due to your continuing support this blog has reached 2150 views. I've been writing this blog for about a year now and wow the journey we have gone on together. As I look at the different posts I see a lot of ideas repeated and reminders of just how cyclical life is. Just as soon as we think we've got a principle conquered it shows up again in a whole new form and we start again. Patience has shown up quite often, a reminder to look for tender mercies, being grateful and maintaining hope just to name a few, all things necessary to keeping the faith and keep moving forward.

Lately I've had something different on my mind, well a whole bunch of something new, but it really all comes down to forgiveness, the Atonement, the temple and that the prophets have a reason and it isn't because they are bigots. Serving in the temple yesterday I realized something in initiatory, we have been given all the blessings we need to be successful in this journey. Heavenly Father blesses us in the temple to be able to face the trials and challenges by strengthening our bodies to match the needs of a temporal world. Heavenly Father has not left us defenseless. The media world is in uproar that the church has lost its way and is destroying the lives of children and many have come forth denouncing the church for being bigots and going against the very principles we preach. I don't believe that is the case, yet no argument I provide will change your mind, what I can say is I know that Heavenly Father loves all His children and that our Savior Jesus Christ is the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, He entered a garden and bore our pains and sins, He understands the hurt this life can cause, He understands the paradoxes and confusion, it is not new to Him. He knows we have a limited mindset, yet He does not think less of us, He simply has more empathy. The doctrine of family is based on a man and a woman coming together in bonds of marriage and bringing children into this world, for only a man and a woman have the correct parts to create a child. This power of procreation is an eternal gift and blessing and only those in this union can progress in the next life and continue having spirit children. The plan of salvation isn't just about individual families, it is about the many spirit children on the other side of the veil waiting to come to this life and receive bodies, they are dammed if they never receive a body. Heavenly Father wants all of His spirit children to receive bodies and have the opportunity to become like him. This doctrine isn't about hate or discrimination nor is it about setting out to hurt others, it is about eternal truth. I love people of any denomination or life choice and I say that honestly for I know that God loves them, He created them and gave them agency and hopes so much that we will each use it to return to Him. My heart aches for those who are lost in confusion or misunderstanding or who feel so far from the divine grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

There is no such thing as relative truth, there is eternal truth and none of us are perfect. We all fall short of the glory of God and we all need Christ's help to become clean. I know there are a myriad of sins out there and a myriad of ways we can mess up, I have seen up close and personal just how fall we souls can fall and just how deep our Saviour dives to save us, we are never too far away from his grasp, we have never gone too far for His help in our lives. Each soul can change and become different. We don't have to be what we were yesterday and we don't have to stay where we are today, our Father is more willing to forgive than we give Him credit for, the debt is already paid and He knows our hearts, we lived with Him before we came to this life, He knew then and knows now the struggles we will face, He knows we will fall short and He is excitedly waiting to take us in His arms and make the hurt and pain go away. We truly can become clean and purity of intent is the place to start.

I don't know how these two ideas go together, but I know this knowledge can change lives. So often we think this life is just about being fair and if something isn't fair to make it so. Life isn't about fair, it is about understanding that it isn't and moving forward anyway and doing the best we can with what we have. Sometimes we feel unfairly targeted or feel that we face things that no one else can understand, they might not, but that doesn't give us cause to mope, it gives us cause to learn what we can do and be whatever it is we are the best that we can.