Family

I've been thinking a lot lately about families and the importance of them. Mostly because I read this awesome talk that I hope you will all take time to read, too. It's long but it explains so much of why family is important to us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I feel like lately so much of what people focus on when talking about how Mormons feel about family is just the whole proposition 8 thing and how we're against gay marriage. I feel like sometimes my belief in the traditional family is taken the wrong way--that I'm anit-gay or believe that gay people are somehow less than me and therefore don't deserve the benefits of marriage that I enjoy. But my belief in the importance of family goes so far beyond petty feelings like that. Many many good people I have known were gay. Or divorced. Or had a child out of wedlock. Or were the product of a family that wasn't "traditional" in the sense I am referring to. Does that mean I hate them? No. I appreciate the difficulty of what they've gone through and are going through. At the same time, I can't deny that a "traditional" family, one with a mom and a dad, is a central part of God's plan. In fact, it is the WHOLE plan. I appreciate how Sister Beck articulates exactly what the family's role in God's plan is and why it is so important to teach it to the rising generation. If you don't have time to read the whole talk, skip the first page or so and get to where it starts talking about the theology of the family. It changed my whole perspective on God's plan and how I fit into it.

Anyway, I hope it affects you the way it did me.