The Standard of Truth

I have always loved keeping up on current events. Since my 10^th grade Social Studies class I have made a habit of checking the top local and world news stories almost every day.  I feel doing this has helped shape a bit of who I am today. Over the past year, the two most reoccurring news stories that have really affected me are the fight to redefine marriage and the effects of ISIS. These two issues may seem unrelated to some but for me, they have come together and I will explain why.

I memorized “The Standard of Truth” when I was 15 years old and it has been something that has stuck with me word for word, many years later. The Standard of Truth was written by the prophet Joseph Smith and it reads:

 “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (History of the Church, 4:540).

I feel The Standard of Truth applies to every single one of us in many aspects of our lives today. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world who are living in fear for their lives and experiencing great persecutions due to their religious beliefs. The words “mobs may combine, armies may assemble” have a whole new meaning to me when I hear of the countless stories of radical Islamist groups terrorizing Christians in the Middle East and Northern Africa and the Christians in North Korea who are experiencing crimes against humanity similar to the unthinkable tortures that occurred to the Jews in Auschwitz. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been misplaced and have fled persecution and it is all happening right before our eyes! 

Vatican spokesman Monsieur Silvano Maria Tomassi said while addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, "Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed (annually) because of some relation to their faith every year." 

Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” has seen violence and persecution against Christians unprecedented in recent decades and tells a story of a family in Iraq. This story is not an isolated event but exemplifies what so many Christians are experiencing daily in certain regions of the world. White told of a Father who called him crying wondering if Jesus would still love him after he made the decision to say the words of converting to Islam. ISIS showed up at this father’s door and told him to convert to Islam or all his children would be killed. The father said he couldn’t see his children killed so he said the words the group of radical Islamist men wanted to hear. A few days later, ISIS showed up and spoke directly to the children, 4 of them all being under the age of 15. They were told to say the words of conversion and the children’s responses were, “No, we love Yeshua (Jesus). We have always loved Jesus. We have always followed Jesus and Jesus has always been with us.” ISIS then, beheaded all 4 children. These children were truly converted Christians.

I know these things are hard to read but the fact is, these stories are happening daily. I have so much respect for these Christians who remind me of the believing men, women and children in the Book of Mormon who were taught by Alma and Amulek and were cast into a fire and burned for their beliefs.

 

We are living in similar times as the scripture stories we have known since our youth. Now is the time to stand and do all we can to show our faith in our Heavenly Father’s plan. We may not have to worry about ISIS showing up at our doors to give us an ultimatum of denouncing our Christian beliefs or die but we will face persecutions of our own. We will be persecuted for our beliefs in the importance of keeping the word of wisdom and staying true to our moral values. We will also face great persecution from people on our beliefs in upholding the sanctity of marriage. The question is, will we be strong enough in our convictions and firmly planted in our knowledge of the doctrine of the gospel to withstand the persecutions that surely will come? 

I can only hope the next time we feel too tired or busy to study the scriptures, attend church meetings or serve someone in need that we can remember those people who would do anything to have a safe place to worship and attend religious meetings without facing serious persecutions or death. Many people throughout the world need our prayers and support. It’s time to show our bravery in defending the leaders of our church and the teachings of the scriptures. Persecutions are raging. Calumny and lies are attempting to defame. But in the years to come, the truth of God must go “forth boldly, nobly, and independent.”

Historical Event

We are at a very significant time in our history. On Tuesday, April 28th the Supreme Court of the Unites States of America will hear arguments on the institution of marriage and how it should be defined. The determination will be made on whether or not the states within our nation have the constitutional right to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

I know there is a lot of confusion out there on this issue. Many of you probably have had conversations with colleagues, friends or family members on what this could mean. Some of you may have been able to explain why you believe it is important for marriage to continue to be defined as between a man and a woman while others may be on the fence and not sure why it really matters. We see this division even among members of our own faith.

There is a man I greatly respect by the name of Richard Wilkins. He was a lawyer, a professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School and the Assistant Solicitor General of the United States under Rex E. Lee. During this position he argued eight cases before the Supreme Court. This man did many things to defend the family and the importance of marriage but one thing he said years ago at a international conference on the family in Istanbul is something I feel we all need to hear right now, just a few days before very important dialogue goes before the Supreme Court.

Wilkins said, "the family is where little boys and little girls learn to love one another, to serve one another, and to take responsibility for one another. It is where they learn to be strong and caring men and women, where they learn to be contributing citizens. Be careful, he told them, before you discard thousands of years of tradition. Do not do it quickly or without great care. The family is the basic unit of society. It is central to our communities. If our problems are to be solved, they are to be solved in the families of the world. Do not adopt policies that will lead to the disintegration of the families. We must, instead, strengthen them."

I do not need to go into the statistics right now on societies being stronger when children are raised by a mother and father. Right now I will quote the last part of The Family: A Proclamation To The World,

"We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets. We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

I can only hope and pray at this time that the Supreme Court will hear the arguments on the importance of the institution of marriage being defined as between one man and one woman. I am not willing to gamble with destroying the one thing that has kept societies throughout the world continuing on for thousands of years. Civilizations have survived diseases, wars and all sorts of natural disasters but never has a society survived the total breakdown of the family. This is not something to gamble with. I urge all of us to come together in prayer, no matter what our faith, to pray that the institution of the family can be protected a little longer.

In Defense of the Family

Since my trip to the UN to attend the Commission on the Status of Women, I have had a fair amount of people ask me about some of my experiences. I have many stories to share that are about amazing and beautiful people who are doing incredible things in their countries to stand for what is right despite huge pressures from the world. I plan to share some of those stories in the future in hopes of inspiring us to see that there is so much good that can be done by people like you and me. Today however I am going to write about some of the attacks on the family that are occurring besides the very obvious things such as escalating divorce rates, pornography and the legal battles before us on the definitions of marriage. After listening to the most recent conference talks on the importance of family and Sister Oscarson's call to defend the family in the general women's broadcast, I decided I needed to write this post. I have also read a few posts from members questioning what our leaders could be talking about in terms of attacks because they aren't personally seeing any.

I am going to start off by saying that I can assure you when a church leader talks about attacks, those attacks are very real. Something very important to remember as members of The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints is that we are part of a worldwide church. When someone in a general auxiliary is speaking, they are addressing people from Nigeria to New Zealand and from Poland to Provo. What some members are facing in Japan, quite possibly could be different than a member in Great Falls, Montana. Do not discredit a talk given over the pulpit in the Conference Center just because it doesn’t seem to directly affect you.

I have walked the halls of the UN, sat in on countless discussions from panelists from all over the world as well as participated in meetings with Ambassadors from all over the world and their committee affairs members.  I am answering the current questions on what some of the attacks on the family could be and I do this as a mother, woman of the church and someone who has seen firsthand some very serious attacks on the family.

Families play a profound social role. Social science data proves two nearly incontestable conclusions and these are:

(1) Stable families, founded upon marriage, provide significant benefits for men, women and children.
(2) The breakdown of stable marital structures imposes substantial costs upon individuals and society at large.

It has been asked, who is doing the attacking and what is it? Well, the attacking is coming from the top and worldwide.  Here is a little UN 101. Simply put, leaders from all over the world come together to create documents that once signed, become worldwide guiding policy. Countries that don’t follow the rules determined in these documents can face government sanctions. Right now, a document called the “Post 2015 Agenda” is being negotiated and it will guide UN decisions when it comes to policy for the next 15 years. Currently, no mention of the word “family” has been included in the document. This is extremely dangerous to our rights as parents, families and religions. If the family is not protected in this document, our children and your role as a mother and father WILL be affected. This is a direct and real threat to the family.

Now to tell you about a situation that occurred while we were at the UN with a woman named Kate Gilmore who is the Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA. UNFPA is a very powerful group that has involvement with your children’s curriculum and healthcare.  While we were at the UN a mom in our group asked her a simple question on data collection in our schools in which she responded with this answer:
“….we discovered that for millions and millions of women that marriage is not much better than an arbitrary detention cell; that the kitchen is a torture chamber; that the bedroom is a site for the gravest of human rights violations.  As much as we wish to uphold the responsibility and the burden of parenting to sustain people in that and to preserve the privacy, I am afraid by performance alone, we can neither trust nor leave alone the care of the most vulnerable to anybody who has power over them, whether it be the state, whether it be the church, whether it be the mosque, or the synagogue or unfortunately the family or the marriage.”
 
From this response we can see what the views are on the family from an extremely powerful group within the UN. This was not a pro family/marriage response and these are the types of people who  have influence on what our children are learning.

There are many differing views on education and healthcare. After hearing panelists discus gender neutralization and eugenics, I am not okay with the thought of someone teaching my young and very impressionable child that it is okay to experiment with their bodies or to reverse their gender and have procedures that can permanently alter their biological makeup without the consent of an adult. Having a teenager make that sort of commitment without the counsel of the people who care and love them most is pretty scary.

What happens if one of our children end up pregnant in high school even though we did everything possible to teach her correct principles? Can you imagine her going to an abortion clinic and ending the life of her unborn baby, leaving her alone to deal with all that comes after an abortion emotionally and physically on her own? Do you know the statistics on abortions? The rate of depression and suicide sky rocket in women/girls who go through an abortion. An abortion also puts her future chances of conceiving at risk.  Your daughter can be faced with these issues and countless others without you being able to discuss these life altering things with her. This would happen because a group at the UN decided that the age of consent should be lowered and put a life changing decision in the hands of a child. There will be a time when a mother will have to have consent to attend a gynecological appointment with her daughter. There is a huge push on “Female reproductive rights” which will directly affect the ability for you to parent your young teenage daughters. An attack on the family? I think so.

One of the panels discussed the need to have complete gender neutrality.  The specifics of this is that the ultimate goal would be to completely eliminate gender distinctions. One of the examples given was the need for doctors to treat babies/children neutrally, not as a male or female. No mention would be made as to what sex the child is and it would be up to them to decide on their own as time goes by which they would like to be. It was mentioned that a child's life could be ruined if a healthcare provider mentioned anything that dealt with gender before it had been decided. The fact of the matter is females are generally born with ovaries and males with prostates. Males and females have different growth and developmental milestones and need to be treated as such. I for one want my pediatrician to treat my child according to their biological needs and not some universal gender system.

Another big issue is sterilization. There are women in countries that are dying at home because they refuse to go to a hospital to deliver their baby because they could be sterilized without consent due to government population control. No governmental organization should be allowed the power to take away a woman's right to conceive without their consent or knowledge. Another attack that sickens me is forced abortions. We were told a story about a woman in China who was 7 months pregnant (her story is not an isolated incident). She wasn’t supposed to have another child and because of government pressure on local officials who use terrible tactics on pregnant women, she was taken to the hospital against her will for her child to be forcefully aborted. As if the agony wasn’t enough of having a baby growing inside her inhumanely killed, when she could not pay for the disposal of her perfectly formed and viable baby, they left the baby in a clear bag on the side of her recovery bed for her to carry out on her own. I have never seen an image of a woman so broken in my entire life. Forced sterilization and unconsented abortions are an attack on the family.

When talking about the The Family: A Proclamation to the World, we cannot forget that our leaders are not just speaking to people in the United States. We are a worldwide church with brothers and sisters that NEED our support. The Proclamation was not just given to a certain group in a cultural location, it was given to the world.

The disintegration of the family has led to broken homes with youth growing up with absolutely no role models to strengthen them and help them learn what it means to be a good respectful man or woman. When you hear stories of the staggering statistics of rapes that are occurring in African and underdeveloped countries, do you realize that our sweet young women who are working on their personal progress are a part of those statistics? The family unit has been society’s method throughout the ages as the place boys learn to be brothers, sons, men and fathers and girls to be sisters, daughters, women and mothers. People throughout the world are needed to rise up and work alongside each other and do what they can to strengthen the future generation of the children they are rearing and that strength unquestionably comes from a natural family as described in the Proclamation to the World.

I am here to tell you that the attack on the family is very real. It is calculated and well-orchestrated. I witnessed the plans to destroy the very connection that our bodies have with our spirits. Satan knows that the process of attacking the very nature of our being, will bring about ultimate destruction. Attacking the family and our eternal connection to who we were before we came to this earth is Satan’s way of pulling people as far away from our Father in Heaven as possible. The fight between gender equality doesn’t have to destroy the beautiful roles that a man and woman can fulfill within a family. The power within a family unit is unmatched when both the husband and wife fulfill their roles in a complimentary way.

I am very well aware that not all family situations are ideal. There are mothers and fathers out there who are raising their children on their own due to things such as divorce, death or mental illness. Many out there are struggling with infertility and not able to have children of their own despite their desires to have a family of their own but all of us are sons and daughters, brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles and part of a family. We have the ability to strengthen the people around us!

This post is my way of saying I will stand and defend what I hold most dear and sacred, which is my family. I will not sit on the sidelines when I hear leaders who I know are called of God, call us to battle. Just like the women and children in the Book of Mormon who took up arms and fought alongside their men, I too will do all that I can to preserve the basic doctrine of the gospel because I have seen the armies coming and they are not hiding in the hills.

"If the door opens, walk through."

I have recently returned home from attending the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York City. This week was life changing in so many ways. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be walking the halls of the UN and meeting with Ambassadors and Delegates from all over the world I would have looked at them in complete shock. This is a true testament that Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us. I want to share with you how I ended up at the UN.

 

Last October I was enjoying a general conference weekend with my family. I cherish this time of instruction. I always love all the talks given during conference but there are always a few that really speak to me and I know that I needed to hear those messages at that time in my life. In this particular conference the talk "The Lord Has a Plan for us!"  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/the-lord-has-a-plan-for-us?lang=eng After listening to this talk and then re-reading it multiple times, I knew that Heavenly Father wanted me to hear that talk.

A very short time later my sister called me to tell me about a girl she came in contact with that was planning a trip to the United Nations. She told me about how this wonderful woman had gone the previous year and knew she had to go back and bring an army of women with her to be an influence of the importance of motherhood and families. As soon as I heard those words I told her I was in. I honestly didn't know how I was going to do it but I knew I had to. We were right in the middle of a very busy and stressful time for our family and I felt like I was hardly managing everything that we had going on.

Over the next few months I did the best I could to study and really learn about what goes on at the UN, current events and policies that were affecting the family as well as immersed myself in the doctrine of the church on the family. At times I felt so inadequate and wondered how I would ever be able to go to a place that was run by people with far more education and experience than I could possibly have. I decided that I would do all I could on my end and eliminated things from my life that were just wasting my time and not helping me become a better person. As the time drew near for me to leave for my trip I had an experience where I knew that I was enough. I knew that I was supposed to attend the UN at this time and despite the timing being about the worst possible time for us, I went. Although I knew I was not attending with a doctorate degree from a prestigious university or many years of political or NGO experience, I had the gift of the Holy Ghost and that knowledge was far more comforting than any amount of secular education could bring me. I knew I would need to rely on the knowledge, peace, discernment and remembrance that the Holy Ghost could give me throughout the entire trip.

While our group of almost 30 women who came from all over the continent were there, we had the opportunity to spend time and learn from a woman by the name of Susan Roylance. This woman is a hero when it comes to defending the family. She has written multiple books and very important resource materials that are being used by government officials throughout the world when dealing with policies that affect the family. In one of our meetings she made a comment that will stay with me forever. Susan made the comment to us, "If the door opens, walk through." I truly believe that is the first step in someone being able to make a difference in their life and the life others whether that difference be locally or globally. Heavenly Father opens doors all around us, it is up to us to take the step of walking through that door to see what He has in store for us.  

Here we go!

I have started this blog for a few reasons. I would say I am a pretty average and normal member of society but I think so many of us have hopes and dreams of making an impact on this world at different points of our lives and I have learned recently from attending a conference at the United Nations that there is so much power to be found in every single one of us. We all just don't realize how powerful we can be and I hope that something in the things I share can spark something within you to give you the courage and confidence to rise up and make a difference no matter how small we feel our actions may be. 

To start off I am going to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a mother to 3 wonderful children who I would choose to hang out with over anyone else in the world, any day. I think they are THAT cool! I am a wife to a very supportive husband that stands by me in everything. We have been married for 13 years and within those 13 years, we have survived being the general contractors for 4 of our own homes! After building our first home from the ground up and doing just about everything, I had considered starting a blog about all of our house building processes and our countless Do It Yourself projects but thought, "Who would really want to follow a blog about DIY stuff??" HAHA, probably should have started that bandwagon considering we were the king and queen of doing projects ourselves :)

I was raised on the beautiful prairies of Southern Alberta, Canada not far from the Canadian Rockies. I grew up in a small community and had a childhood that I wouldn't change for anything. My dad was a farmer and owned a furniture business in a nearby city while my mom stayed home and raised 5 children. We spent our summers exploring, making forts in nearby trees, riding 4-wheelers and woke up early each day in the summer to do chores so we could make it in time for the community pool to open and swam our summers away. I was able to just be a kid. I try so hard to find a balance in my own family life for my children to have the opportunities to excel in their extra curricular activities but at the same time carve out time for them to explore, create and be adventurous. I posted a video at the end of this post that shows the feelings I have every time I go home :)

I moved to the U.S. my senior year of high school. I attended Utah State University where I earned a Communications degree with an emphasis in PR. I am a country girl who loves to travel, trail run, re-create spaces in my home, read, listen to music and spend time with my family. A few random facts about me are that my mind is full of a lot of crazy facts and info. An example of this is that I can still to this day give you a full account of the events that led up to World War I and World War II that stems back to my high school social studies class. I can crush most people in a game of "name that tune" for country music from the late 80's to now (I usually have the name of the song and artist by the first few notes of a song) Crazy I know, but the songs don't leave my mind! I also clogged, took Irish dancing and played quite a few sports in high school.

I have worked for a builder over the last 5 1/2 years and helped hundreds of people go through the color selection process of their homes. I love being creative!

I have walked the streets of Rome and explored the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Sang "The Hills are Alive" from the Sound of Music in the countryside of Salzburg, Austria and have spent many summers hiking and exploring Glacier National Park, Montana (while listening to John Denver of course!)
My 4 dream vacations are:
-   Scotland and Ireland (I would be playing Celtic music on my iPod anytime I was in the countryside, no joke)
-   The Maritime Provinces in Canada
-   Bora Bora or Fiji
-   Nashville Tennessee (I would seriously be just as happy walking the streets and listening to some good ol' country music as I would be swaying in a hammock on a beach)

I typically can't watch a movie more than once two shows I can watch over and over are "Secondhand Lions"  and "Remember the Titans"

I truly love life. That is not to say life has been perfect by any means. I have had my share of ups and downs and know there are plenty more of those to come throughout the course of my life but I know that is what life is all about. The most important thing I want you to know about me is that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a Mormon and it has brought be so much direction and joy in my life. I know that I am who I am today and can accomplish the things to come because of my faith.