As I've mentioned countless times before, I live in Utah amongst countless Mormons. And hurrah! I, too, am a Mormon. On the other hand, my entire life, I have felt like I wasn't like everybody else. I know the church is true and I do my best to live my morals, but I have a different stance on many opinions and views than a lot of my LDS peers. A friend of mine shared this article on Facebook and I instantly read the entire article to my husband, getting slightly teary-eyed during parts of it, and celebrating in my head. I'm not alone, here. I thought I'd share this article on my blog because it really is one of the best.





I do want to stress that this post is not written by me. The content is not mine. I simply shared this post because it resonated with my soul & I wanted to share it to my readers as well as ponder back on it for my reference.

Liz, the author of this article mentioned some similar hardships that I share with people here in Utah. She said, "..over the years, I've found a way to carve out my own space in the Church. It's an ongoing process, but I thought I'd share some of my tools - a practical guide to how to carve out your own space of belonging. Some of these tools may work for you, some of them may not. Spirituality is so personal. But if you sometimes sit in sacrament meeting and wonder what the hell you're doing there, know that I've been there, and sometimes I'm still there, but remembering the following things help me to keep perspective."





1. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you - just what you think of you, and what God thinks of you.

This is probably the biggest guiding principle in my life. And it's completely impossible to truly remember and live by all the time. But it's really what everything else in this list comes down to, and when you can remember it, it's empowering. So what if the Relief Society President thinks you're immodest? She's not in charge of your eternal salvation. And even if she or other leaders have a hand in your eternal judgement, God's judgement will override any of that.





2. Personal revelation is more important than anything else.

In our Church, we speak often about the importance of obedience, of faith in the Church, of following the counsel of leaders even when we don't understand it. And there is value in those things...we can grow and learn from doing those things. But there may be times that your own conscience may dictate otherwise. Those are painful moments, and it can be really really difficult to trust that you're doing the right thing in following your own heart. And maybe sometimes it's NOT the right thing to follow your own heart. But your responsibility as a human being is to take everything you are told to the Lord. And if your own personal revelation says something contrary to what leaders of the Church may say, trust it. I'm not talking about things like commandments. Personal revelation will NOT be contrary to the commandments. I'm talking about things like leader's opinions on the Big Bang, or the best way to be a parent, or what legislation should be passed. I honor and sustain the men and women called to lead this Church, but recognize that it is not meet that we are commanded in all things, and that sometimes something that seems like revelation for the entire Church may not be when you seek confirmation of it. Others may judge you for your interpretation by statements by leaders, but those who pass judgement are not in charge of your eternal salvation, so it doesn't matter what they think.





3. You have permission to leave if your pain exceeds your nourishment.

I mean this on a short-term basis, although I think it can apply long-term. But since the point of this post is to help people stay active if they want to, I'm mostly focusing on short-term. It's inevitable that someone will say something in one of your meetings someday that rubs you the wrong way. You may never have a day when you go to Church and 100% agree with everyone around you. Most of the time you can just shift your focus, listen to the Spirit, dig into your scriptures on your own, find some way to help you stay grounded. But sometimes the sheer effort of doing that distracts from the actual nourishment you can be receiving. So if you need to step out for a few minutes, for the rest of the meeting, or for the rest of the day, give yourself permission to do that. Take your worship into your own hands. It's almost always best to stay. But if you're not getting anything out of Church, put yourself in a situation where you ARE being spiritually nourished.



