Two Degrees off Center
Don’t carry around so much baggage, whether physical, mental, or prejudicial. Leave one hand free to share with your special someone, and allow, even welcome, others the same simple right.
It can take as much or even more courage to seek help for depression, anxiety, or trauma as it does to come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. There is help though, and Rich Keys encourages anyone to seek it by sharing his own struggles and successes.
I offer this original poem in the hope it will help this world and the people in it to take a few deep breaths, let go of the fear and stress from their minds and bodies, and get back to the truth that is the love of a dog and why we call him Man’s Best Friend.
Many of us who grew up in the LDS Church (or any church) remember being taught the simple but important lessons in Primary: Be honest, do the right thing, play nice, and say you’re sorry. We even teach our kids from the womb how to repent.
After all, it’s His name that’s on everything from the temples to the stationary, but having personally experienced both Gethsemane and His own crucifixion, He knows all too well that some things here on earth are best learned by sad experience and not just by a revelation to avoid it.
If the LDS Church really is sincere, if it really proclaims itself to be Jesus Christ’s church and this new ministry movement is more than just an experiment, then it has to do more than put out the welcome mat and proclaim an open-door policy. It has to do more than display a sign in front of its buildings stating “Visitors Welcome.”
No buildings were leveled to the ground, the sun came up like it always does, students studied, teachers taught, no one was struck dumb, the visiting GA’s could drink their favorite soda in the light of day and not hide in the shadows.
God makes commandments. Man makes rules. However, instead of focusing on the actual commandments and letting the Spirit of God guide us in keeping them, many people seem to focus on man-made rules and policies, even when they seem to contradict God’s own commandments.
All of us approach general conference in our own way, based on where we are and what is right for us. That’s between us and God or our higher power. Keep an open mind, and allow yourself the opportunity to discover something you didn’t know before that speaks truth to you. The source may surprise you.