This past week or two, as I've read cover-story news articles online and flipped through magazines in waiting rooms, I've come across several articles that stood out to me in their juxtaposition with our topic of discussion in my institute class this week: The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and really left me thinking . . .
Then I came across this article, and realized (having attended school at BYUI :) how common it is across the country for college students to have co-ed roommates.
Another article I read in a magazine was a mother's description of coming to terms with the fact that having only one child really was the best decision she could make - it was too risky, too costly, too busy to have more.
And there are the dime-a-dozen articles, another of which I noticed this week (but didn't read. . . enough already!), about politicians/celebrities who have been unfaithul/immoral.
Finally, tonight I was flipping through a National Geographic (link -viewer discretion advised!) and saw haunting images of Afghan women beaten and abused by their husbands.
On Tuesday at my institute class, Sister Shari Dew described a debate she'd listened to: one "pro-choice" and one pro-life. Any undecided listener, she said, would have sided with the more articulate and persuasive pro-choice debater. Sister Dew made this point: if you seek truth and guidance from the source that is more engaging, more charismatic, more articulate, you could quite easily end up on the wrong side of the fence.
The adversary's power is in his ability to make things inviting, "sensible," and attractive, winning people over little by little until whole societal norms are changed. And when something is "normal," - immoral relationships in the United States, or beating your wife in Afghanistan - people follow the trend without questioning the principles upon which it is founded.
After speaking to groups around the world, describing her beliefs about family and morality, Sister Dew is often approached by women who say "I wish that I'd known that being chaste was an option." That blows my mind.
TRUTH = a knowledge of things as they really are.
False ideas may be deceptively packaged and presented, but what they really are ultimately cannot be disguised, because the consequences still remain from not acting in accordance to truth. As Sister Dew said, "I have never met anyone who was happy because they committed adultery."
The truth: there is a correct way for marriages and families to operate. Truth, stated in the scriptures and so clearly and simply summarized in the Proclamation to the World. Truth, given with prophetic foresight over ten years ago in anticipation of the trends we see now.
Contrast the articles above with just a few of the fundamental truths from the Proclamation to the World:
"Husband and wife have solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children."
"Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to by reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."
"Children are an heritage of the Lord."
My favorite part of the proclamation:
"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, and wholesome recreational activities."
That is not to say that perfect happiness is an instant result of making a correct decision, or that life will be without its sadness. But the bottom line is that His yoke truly is easy and His burden is light when compared to the consequences and pain of choices based on incorrect principles.
Happiness IS possible, when founded upon truth. In a world where heartbreak abounds from choices founded on false ideas of what is normal and what is right, what a blessing it is to have that truth.
