Self Discovery

The world of the internet is fascinating. Pre-internet, I lived in a little bubble that no one penetrated very easily. Now, a good portion of my life is spent in front of my computer reading and researching. I use an internet version of holy writ due to the speed at which I can reach answers to questions I might have about passages, or, in some cases, all I find are more questions. Some of those questions I find perplexing, even after an exhaustive study of the scriptures.

I have found that there are many people out there on the net that oppose my beliefs who are ready and willing to provide me with answers to my questions. I admit that they can be convincing the way they mingle their own philosophies with the written Word. For a short time, I began to wonder about my own beliefs due to these influences and then I found a tremendously helpful resource - www.fairlds.org. Everything I had wondered about, and more, was answered through my research on that site.

This is the main thing that I learned as I combined the information from the opposition (for there must be in all things), the information from the resources on LDS.Org and from the great defenders at FairLDS.com- it is this: When the opposition thinks they are learned (educated), they think they are wise and their pride distorts all their ability to think critically about the basis for their arguments. I was about to say that their rhetoric is borderline absurd, but I have to put it on the side of the absurd, their ramblings are not borderline.

To those who oppose, I have only one observation from my 34 years as a Latter-day Saint: I have never in all those years been offered a class at Sunday School, Seminary, or Institute that discusses ways in which a particular church organization is wrong or misled. Why would those who teach the truth need to criticize others? This type of behavior is not dissimilar to my 5-year-old tattling on my 3-year-old in an attempt to get the 3-year-old in trouble when in fact it was my 5-year-old who required the punishment because she was in the wrong.

It puzzles me how so many "Christians" are focused on attempting to prove that the LDS Church is such when I believe their lives would be better spent feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and lifting the hands which hang down. Stop trying to prove your faith with your words; only works prove faith. What will you who oppose say to Him who knows when He asks what you did with your life? That you spent your time ranting about 13 million of His children when you could have been serving them? Get out and serve, we do! http://www.lds.org/humanitarianservices/0,19749,6208,00.html