How Love Wins

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled marriage equality for members of the LGBT community. Over these last few days, my mind has tried to comprehend everything I see around me. I can tell you one thing, I've seen more rainbows than I think anyone has ever seen in a life time now. Many people around me have been wildly celebrating while many others have been incredibly disappointed. I haven't been able to fit myself into one category or the other. On one hand, I recognize that for some people in my life, this is huge. I want to support them in their happiness. At the same time, I want to maintain my beliefs. I believe man and woman are equal counterparts to an even greater whole. They are yin and yang. Two halves that are completely different, but can't exist without the other. After reading through several articles and conversing with people on both sides, I finally have come to a conclusion.

One of the most common phrases I have seen the past few days is "Love won". That's exactly what I want to talk about. Not marriage, not sexuality, not equality. Love.

One quote that I love says "We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." Who among us is "perfect"? Who is there that hasn't failed, hasn't lost sight of who they can become, doesn't have insecurities or shortcomings? Answer: no one! Yet every day people try to discredit others for things that they see as making them "imperfect". Mother Teresa said, "If you judge someone, you have no time to love them." My question is, what does it mean to love?

Fight the New Drug, a non-profit organization to educate people on the harmful effects of pornography, says that love is a "word used to describe selfless devotion". In other words, love is "complete and total respect and care for another individual." Love mean you care. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship of any kind, romantic, friendly, professional, or in a family setting, will know that despite how much you care about someone, you don't always agree with them. But you work through it and you continue to care about them and want what is best for them. You don't try to make them feel bad for your disagreement. That is not selfless. That is not love.

One common reason for a lack of love is labeling. Whether this is Jews and Samaritans, black and white, atheist or religious, male and female, Nephite and Lamanite or even football players and band kids. There's always something that people label. On the blog "A Mormon Woman I Am", an interesting point is brought up about this. The article is specifically about the Court's decision, but she makes one point that I specifically want to bring up. "We're all so caught up in labels. Those of us with one label fight against those who wear a different label. But I see today that none of those labels matter. We all need to peel them away until we see we are all just people. We're just children of God." May I make one slight change and say we are not "just" children of God. We are ALL precious children of God who loves us more than any of us can comprehend. Imagine if everyone remembered this. We are all brothers and sisters of a loving God. Why can't we act like it?

One of my all time favorite tweets is from @slothmormon. "Love won over 2000 years ago when Christ died for us all." Who is a better example of perfect, Christlike love than Jesus Christ? Christ was perfect. He didn't sin. He knew right from wrong perfectly. Yet, His message was always one of hope, a chance to come back to Him. He didn't hate us or isolate us for our shortcomings. He did what He could to help others during His mortal ministry, died for us to give us a way back to perfect happiness that only He can give, and continues to help each of us in our daily struggles. If we truly want to be like Christ, we must be willing to do the same. We must help each other. We can't do that by hating or condemning. 

In the Book of Mormon, Nephi 11:17 says, "I know that [God] loveth His children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." That sums up everything. God loves His children. If He who is perfect can love you with your imperfections, can you not do the same for another imperfect person that He loves just as much? Every single person on the face of this earth are never all going to agree. That's good. Nothing could improve if there weren't people to challenge the status quo. In the end, God can and will make up to us whatever we missed out on in life. In the mean time, we need to love one another. 

Whether you are excited about the Marriage Equality or not, both sides must be able to look past that and just love. Only by doing this, will love be able to continue to win.