How Lucky We Really Are

There are times when I marvel just how blessed we are to live in a time when we have a living prophet on the face of this Earth. While a majority of the people on this Earth wonder around confused from one worldly concept to the other, we as Latter-day Saints know that we have the gospel of Jesus Christ restored and that the truth is found therein.

I'm saying this to boast. To appear puffed up. To say I am better then anyone else. I do think that knowing this gives us great responsibilities to share it with others and to put it into practice in our own life.

Knowing that the Savior is at the head of the church and that we have a prophet. That the same organization that existed when the Savior was on the Earth now has been restored and the same power of the priesthood is what is directing this work, this is what sustains me and gives me hope when my own imperfections and doubts make me question.

It also tells me who I need to listen to and whose direction I need to follow.

We know through what the Lord has told us the reasons why acting on homosexual urges is wrong. We know its not because the love between two men can't be as real as between a man and women. We know it can be. But we know the real eternal consequences of it also. We know about our Father's plan for us. We know that two men can't be sealed together. Our eternal example is our Heavenly Father AND Mother. It involves children. Of course their are some exceptions to the rules but the Family Proclamation spells it out as clear as it can be possibly spelled out. As Latter-day Saints we know this. We know its NOT a civil rights issue, we know its not to oppress or take away the rights of others. We also realize that people have their agency, that agency isn't free and that there are consequences to makeing choices both right and wrong.

We do understand, especially those of us who struggle. He know how hard it is. We can feel the pain. BUT we have more truth and so we are expected to act on it.

When I read things like "the church has softened up on the gay issue," or "the church has progressed since the 1970's" I wonder what the people mean by that? Are they saying that the Church was wrong back then? If the church "got it wrong" back then are they saying that those who followed the prophet back then were following wrong direction? I wonder what else they think the church was wrong about then and what they think the church is wrong about now?

I think what a lot of people misunderstand is that it is perfectly possible for the revelation and knowledge given at one era, dispensation, generation or so forth to be different then that of today. Each time frame is different. The Lord only reveals what is needed at any given time. The Lord goes by his own time frame and to him it makes perfect sense. To us we don't see the eternal scheme of things and may think that something is lacking or out of touch. That we know better then the Lord or that the Prophet has it wrong.

The Lord for instance didn't immediately tell the world he was going to flood the earth. He told Noah to tell the people to repent, it wasn't until after they refused that he told Noah to build an arc. The Lord doesn't often reveal his reasons for things. He just gives us commandments to follow and if we follow those commandments then we become worthy for additional revelations on a topic if there is more revelation to be given. If not we need to stay worthy to what we have. When we are faithful to the prophet we also know we have the safety of the Lords yoke which he says is lighter then the worlds.

There is a difference between praying to know the truth of something and constantly second guessing those the Lord has set apart and who he uses as his servants to run His church. Following and obeying the Prophet isn't being a blind sheep anymore then those who followed Moses out of Israel or Nephi to the promise land. Of course none of those who followed these prophets had an easy course but they also had the Lord behind them.