Today the Supreme Court decided that same-sex marriages are now legal in the United States. It made me really sad, because God already defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. No court can change that. Then I realized that you will never know a world where marriage was only between a man and a woman....and that broke my heart.
The world has already changed so much during my lifetime, and I'm only 22 years old. In 1995, when I was just a tot, President Gordon B. Hinckley read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" at a General Relief Society Meeting. I was talking to a lady at work today and she told me she remembers listening to him read this for the very first time. She thought, "duh" about the whole thing. And then President Hinckley got to the paragraph that starts with "WE WARN." Her ears perked up and she began to listen intently as, for the first time, she realized the truths presented in this heaven-inspired proclamation might not always be such a duh. Over the course of my life, I have cleaved to the truths found in The Family Proclamation. And they haven't always been a duh in the world I've grown up in.
Your life is going to be different than mine (for so many reasons). Today it occurred to me that I won't be able to raise you like my parents raised me, because the world will not be the same. Not only has the very definition of marriage and family been worldly-redefined (remember, it was not redefined according to God. And He's the boss.) but the world is also much more violent and dishonest. Are you going to be able to ride your bike around the block by yourself all day long on summer days? Will you and your BFF be allowed to skip to the park down the street without supervision? Whose house are you going to be allowed to play at? Are sleepovers even an option? Your daddy and I have a LOT to discuss (...I mean, after I meet him. I guess meeting him is the necessary 1st step in your earthly existence.)
But don't you worry, little babies, even though the world I grew up in and the world you will one day grow up in took another step apart today, I promise to teach you about who you really are and whose you really are. This world is getting darker, but you will be a light. Always choose the choice that will add light to your life. The world will be a better place because of you.
Love,
Momma
"Why not watch R rated movies? Because it is a world I choose not to live in. Sure, you can find bad language, etc., in the everyday world, but when you have a choice about which/what world to live in--which world you create--do you reproduce the worst of the world around you or the best of the world around you?"
-Unknown, found in a note at work
P.S., Here is a great article about living in this crazy world: Loving Others and Living with Differences
P.P.S. Love everyone. Be you.
