A Response to another man's Blog:

I read an interesting article on another man's blog the other day. It was interesting to see. I just wanted to write out my response here. What I believe, so that I will not leave you in any doubt as to how I feel:

I believe in Love. Not romantic, love, but pure love. Like, charity, the pure love of Christ. I believe in loving the person, even if I hate their actions. I believe that every person on Earth is a child of God, and has the same rights to be here as I do. I believe that they have the same rights to make right and wrong choices as I do, and to discover for themselves through prayer, and action what those choices are. I believe that I can and will be happier if I look to God to help me make those decisions. I believe that life is easier if I don't sweat the small things, and I am happier if I don't take myself so seriously. I believe in eating meat, but I also believe that if someone wants to choose not to eat meat then they should still be loved.

One of the blessings of living in this land of the free is that I am free to believe what I believe, and you are free to believe what you believe. I make choices for me. I don't let other people take that agency away from me, but I give it freely to God. Because it is all that I can give to Him.

I know that God loves his children. He gives us challenges to help us grow, and he won't give us any that we can't handle. We may not be able to handle many of our challenges on our own, but with His help, we can.

I believe in the Atonement through Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered so that I may be made pure again. I believe I would be a fool to ignore this sacrifice. I have much room for improvement, but I believe that through true and complete repentance I may progress towards perfection.

I believe in modern day revelation. Earlier today I had the chance to listen to the prophet of our day speak. He spoke about Christmas, and holding Christ at the center of our celebrations. I believe he is an inspired man, and that he receives revelations from God to help us, today, in our time.

I believe that his predecessors are all true prophets too. I believe that Joseph Smith truly did see God and His Son, Jesus Christ in that sacred grove of trees, and that the Book of Mormon is a true, and inspired text.

I believe that if I make good choices, and submit to my Father in Heaven's will for me I will be happier than I would be if I tried to force my own will in the way of His.

Finally, I just want to reiterate that I believe in love. I am not perfect (and though I believe this principle with all my heart, I am still working on executing it as expertly as my Savior did), but I believe in love. I believe that God loves me, and that He loves every person I come into contact with. If He loves them, then that must mean that it is okay for me to love them too. If He loves them, then I need to love them too. So as we reach the end of the year, I make a resolution to love better. I resolve to judge less, and to give of myself more freely to others. It doesn't matter what a person is, or does, they are still a child of God, and I resolve to love them as such.

With hopes for success in my new resolution,

PenningJade