Thursday, July 03, 2008

I found an answer

Today I read a public forum letter in the paper. The person was basically upset and offended that the LDS church is taking such a stand on the moral issue of gay marriage in California but not about things like the war. This person thinks it's hypocritical for the church to "pick and choose" where it asserts it's influence and say it's for moral reasons.
Whatever my views are about gay marriage, this person's assertion helped me to realize that I am glad that the church, my church, would take a stand on a relatively small issue. Of course the church would "say" that what impacts society is the very way we live in our homes, families, and communities. For most of us, there's not a lot we can do about global wars, gas prices, etc. But we can choose to live in a moral, loving, "just be good" way. We can create our families and our homes as a little bit of heaven, and if everyone did this, we would change the world.
It kind of reminded me of the "still small voice," not shouting and protesting, but simple little directions to help us make the right choices and be better people and just be happy.
I'm also glad, or reassured, that the church teaches that these "small" issues matter. Sometimes I get frustrated and scared just from being around people at work, what I see on t.v. etc. Small things seem so threatening because they are things we let in and then something else comes then it gets a little bigger and then there's a problem and then... ? It's like most of us don't have a problem with "thou shalt not kill" but what about swearing or gossip or anger? The small things might not even lead to big things, but think about the people they hurt. Think about what kind of feeling you get even just being around or living in that kind of an environment.

1 comment:

JoAnna said...

I guess I really do talk to myself when I blog. Oh well.
I felt good with the feelings I expressed in this post but was concerned over the weekend that I would offend people. So, I just wanted to clarify that what my concern a few posts ago was about was the church "telling" people we should do something that seemed kind of political rather than letting us figure it out for ourselves. What I realized here was that, given the church's stand, I think it's good that we belong to a church that would make a statement about something they/it(?) find a moral issue. Whether I agree with that stand or not.