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.

Knowing Our Worth Through Christ

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, learning to become more like Christ is a topic of great importance to me. It's a task each of us continually work towards or away from each day for our entire lives.  Repeatedly in the New Testament we are commanded to be like Christ, but it always seems so overwhelming. How are we supposed to be perfect all the time like Christ was? It's daunting, but it doesn't have to be.

We are commanded to be perfect, even as Christ is perfect. However, the word "perfect" in Greek--which is the language much of the New Testament is written in--can also be translated to mean complete or whole. To be perfect is to make ourselves more complete, which we can only do relying on God throughout our entire lives. What I'd like to talk about is what we can do to get closer to finding our completed self, while recognizing we will not be "perfect" all the time in this life.

It has always stood out to me in the scriptures how many attributes of Christ that we seem to overlook. But if we are supposed to become like Christ, aren't these attributes just as important? What are attributes of Christ? He was kind, he was patient, he was humble. Are not all these things we can do?

Easter Sunday is just around the corner, so today, I was reading about the first Easter Sunday--Christ's resurrection. In John 8, Mary Magdalene comes upon where the Savior had been buried and finds He is no longer there. The story reads, "11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

(John 20:11-18 http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/20?lang=eng)

There are so many beautiful things we can get out of this story, but I'd like to focus on one. As I was reading this, the phrase that stuck out to me was "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

This is powerful. By saying this, Christ reminds Mary that she is a daughter of a perfect God just as much as He is a son of God. Likewise, Christ respects God just as much as Mary and the rest of us have been commanded to do. Christ who was perfect, shows the same respect to God as each of us has been commanded. This is because Christ recognizes His own divinity as well as each of ours. He knows how important He is and all of us are, but he also knows no matter how important to our Father in Heaven we are, we must show respect to Him because He is our Father and because He is perfect and knows each of us perfectly. Jesus Christ knew who He was. This is one attribute of Christ that all of us can work towards without being overwhelmed.

In this story, Mary represents what each of us can discover if we learn how to recognize our divine nature. At first, she did not recognize the Savior. However, when he said simply her name, she knew who He was. She was able to recognize herself in Christ because she knew Him, and heard herself in Him. How beautiful is that?

King Follett Sermon said, "If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves." We are currently seeing the exact opposite of that in this world. People forget God, and as a result they have less self esteem and self confidence because they can't see their own value. However, as people learn more about God, they can have the knowledge of their own worth.

Everyone struggles with self doubt at one time or another, myself included. Some days will be hard and you will wonder if anything you do is worth anything. If we come to know God, we can and will find our own value. What better gift could we have than knowing we are important?

We have all been commanded to be like Christ, but there are so many smaller aspects of His character than we can work on a little every day. We needn't be overwhelmed. I want each and every one of you to know, no matter your life story, situation, or any other aspect of yourself, that you are important. God loves you. You have something that you and no one else can bring to this world. Christ knew that for Himself, and you can know that for yourself. Never forget who you are.