I Shouldn't Have Eaten Those 10 Cookies,,,(and all that cookie dough)!

The writing bug has over taken me in the middle of a batch of cookies. I honestly feel the need to write.

I've been thinking a lot about how a person I know from high school whose father has passed away. That really bums me out for her. I'm not even close with her and wasn't super close in high school. It makes me reflect on my own parents mortality and how we're all here on this earth for whatever amount of time God sees fit for us to learn what we need to learn.

I feel the need to express my gratitude for my faith. There are a lot of misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), and I've decided to stop living in fear of expressing my beliefs because of those misconceptions and what people might say about me. Mostly, I feel a heartfelt gratitude to a loving Heavenly Father who shows His infinite love for us through providing family units. I'm one of the lucky ones. I have parents and siblings who love me, a husband and two beautiful daughters whom I love and love me in return. I'm so very blessed. I'm so blessed to know that my family, through the blessings of the temple is an eternal family. What is bound on earth is bound in heaven. I just need to be worthy of those blessing.

God is bound by His own laws--we were given free agency and because of that we are free to act for ourselves and not be acted upon. Because of this agency (it all started with the Fall of Adam in the garden)people make fantastic choices and really horrible choices. That's why some of God's children suffer and experience pain--not at His hand, but at the hand of those who misuse the gift of agency.

I believe that family is unit is sacred and ordained of God. I believe the ideal family is a mother and father who love and honor each other. Plain and simple. I'm not going to mince my words on this one.

I'm usually very cautious about expressing such personal beliefs. Not anymore. I have just as much right to my beliefs and the right to freely express them without the fear of retaliation or condemnation just as much as the next person.

Whoever reads this, I know that God lives! I do not have to visit an empty tomb in Jerusalem to know that Jesus is the Christ and that He rose from the grave a resurrected and perfected Being. I'm thankful for my membership Christ's church--He leads it. I know these things to be true because of personal study, reflection, and the soft whisperings of the Holy Ghost. I invite all to find out for themselves because sharing the most important thing in my life (outside of my family) is the knowledge I have of the truthfulness of the restored gospel on the face of this earth. I'm blessed to have found it---it is my sincere hope you will find it too.