Family_Man

I am familular with "boots on the ground". I am one of those boots right now. As for SF, well, if we were, it wouldn't be public without something like wikileaks' help. It was a F15 that crashed. Both pilot and Navigator were "rescued" by rebels. Which is odd because last week the rebels were holding a Brittish SF guy hostage. Anyway, there is NO WAY we will end up in a war with Libya, because our fearless leader told us we wouldn't.

We are not telling you you have no place here. We are tired of your "I don't know what to do" statements. You "acting" like you don't know what you should do smacks to some of us (perhaps many of us) of pity seeking and justifying. Why? Because, you already KNOW the answer. So spirit up and get it started.

I can see why people would tell you that it is not worth the effort, or the risk of falling inactive. I fell into the inactive category, and if it wasn't for a fellow Soldier on my first deployment, I would probably still be inactive. HOWEVER, there was a fellow Soldier who dragged me to church, and then when I had the opportunity I dragged my children to church (my wife still said no). Then a mysterious and marvelous thing took place, and my wife's heart softened towards the church, It still took a few more years, but she did join. I for one could not be happier or luckier. I firmly believe that I was supposed to meet my wife and help her and my kids join the church. I wasn't supposed to go about it the way I did, but Heavenly Father had back up plans in place to ensure we got where we were supposed to be. I am not in your shoes, but if you love your boyfriend, and he loves you, then I would not turn completely away from him. That said, you clearly need to marry or move out and quit having pre marital activities. It sounds like you have the faith needed to start the process, and I would wager with a little work and time, you will find that your testimony and faith are strong enough to support your relationship. You simply have to take the steps required to feed your testimony, and then let your spirit be a tentpole to others in your life.

I was guessing six months before we had forces on the ground in Libya. Looks like I was 179 days off... Story Even though it was only a plane that is "suspected of mechanical failure", we have people on the ground.

You say that it is hard for you to be around males, but what about hosting a women's night? Play some games, eat some good food, get to know people and let them get to know you in a controled enviroment (by controlled, I mean you will have control)

Exactly. Just like I surmised as well, he knew what to do BEFORE he even posted. He just wants us to tell him it is ok to ignore the repentance process.

So somehow we receive salvation simply by existing? But what if someone didn't want salvation? Apparently it doesn't matter, because they are going to get saved no matter what.

It seems like you want to repent. Thats why you posted here instead of actually repenting. I see your point. Not fully repentant? How are you even partially repentant? You keep saying that if you repent than you will ruin your life. Everything good in you is not gone. You can still have good in you even though you made a mistake. Your post here seems to say "The church says there is no good left in me, so why bother" Your wife and you have had your problems? Didn't you just say earlier that you blame no one but yourself? What is the point of saying that you and your wife had your problems? Sounds like you are starting to justify what you did. Yet again, another "pity me" statement. I was a good man, not anymore apparently. Apparently why? Because people are telling you that you need to repent? Here you are insinuating that you deserve "the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." How is this not looking for pity? If you procrastinate the day of your repentsance until it is too late, than this is exactly what will happen, and it will be exactly what you deserve. No maybe about it. However, you don't have to procrastinate the day of your repentance. You could start it today. So you are justifying not repenting because then you will at least "get" your family for this life? But do you really "have" your family? This sin will continue to "harrow up" your mind and soul until you repent. You will be unable to be truly happy "with" your family until you repent. Here you seem to be hoping that other people will agree that you can repent without a full confession to your wife. The fear of taking responsability for your actions seems to be the motivator for your justifying not repenting. So if you don't feel close to Heavenly Father or the Savior, who has moved away from whom? If you felt like you didn't matter before this mistake, than was your testimony and / or faith very strong to begin with? As for burrying your conscience, you are burrying it. Because your conscience is telling you to repent. Here for some odd reason you address suicide. In my experience suicidal talk has two categories; the first being people who need serious mental help or they will kill themselves and the second and overall far more common type is people who are looking for attention and pity (quick, let's see how many people can chastise me with posts about they know someone who talked about suicide and then nothing was done and then the person killed themselves! That way I can tell who reads and comprehends and who skims and guesses) Furthermore in this post you claim that you "can just resign yourself to the terrestrial kingdom", because after all you are a tare. Wow, if this doesn't smack of pity seeking, than nothing does. You are wheat, you are simply wheat that has made a mistake. The way to eternal happiness is to consign yourself to the Celestial Kingdom. I can see why you would assume I didn't rread the entire thread. After all, I didn't post until page 10. I do enjoy your backhanded remarks on me being the brother of the prodigal son, as well as informing me that my church experience is a "graveyard of saints". So because I disagree with you, and because I (and MANY others) have told you the "truth" you so desperatley are seeking, I am wrong? You know the truth of what you should do. You knew it BEFORE you created a thread. So your claim that "I have no idea what to do" is false.

Entering a "debate" where it starts out "OK, I will bits. I will play creationists advocate" usually indicates that there is a comical (or at least less than serious) bit of comentary following. Not to mention when the post ends with "I hope that those who read this will see the humor I tried to inject" would further indicate that the preceding post was on the humorous side. I guess we can see that some people are either not too good at reading, or are so devoted to their side that the meer questioning of their arguement makes them upset.

Although it is hard, dual religion marriages and families can work. It sounds like this is worth it to you. I would aproach your boyfriend about the possability of marriage, maybe he would realize that you are too important to him to lose?

So is the point of your thread to dredge up arguments? Ok, I will bite. I will play creationists advocate. Let us start with an amazing claim "The time scales are too vast. But we know a lot about how they evolve by catching varying stages of formation and piecing together what happens between" So you are telling me we can't get to the next closest planet, but we can glimpse differing galaxies and GUESS (you said piece, which would seem like an educated guess) how they connect? This same principle applies to macroevolution? So we take a bunch of fossils that are apparently from such a long and vast timespan that we can't possibly comprehend it, and then we say well, I guess these fit like this. Seems concrete, doesn't it? I guess that over billions of years, spanning eons when things we can not even fathom were occuring we crawled out of ooze and then one day said "you know, I think I can explain the entire story of how we came to be. Random chance and accidents!" This would seem absurd in a different scenario; for instance let's say we wondered how large buildings like the pyramids were built. So we look at a child playing with legos, and go, hmm, well it applies there, so the pyramids MUST have been built by giant toddlers, because small lego pyramids are built by normal toddlers. Just because something fits somewhere, it doesn't fit everywhere. Let's turn the clock back for a second, well more like several billion years. Just how did life start? One day, no discernable life, and the next, life. How? Why don't new simple lifeforms continue to randomly populate our world? How come no matter how hard scientists try, they are unable to generate life from nothing? I guess the claim that "This is why you find the Creationists completely disengaged in the actual science of macroevolution and make the claim that it hasn’t been adequately explained. If you dissect their claim, what they are really saying is ‘We haven’t read any books on it (there are many), read any of the papers, engaged in the actual debate, examined the evidence, however, based on our ignorance of the arguments we say it’s a problem and so it is." is undoubtedly true. Evolutionists HAVE explained the origion of life. Wait, no, they haven't. Instead they have more guesses. Hm, well, back to the theoretical chalkboard I guess. I hope that those who read this will see the humor I tried to inject. The truth is that I believe in Creation, but I also belive that evolution has occured, just maybe not on the same scale that most evolutionists think it has. Who is to say what Heavenly Father used to get us here? I guess we could sum it up with what my Mission President would always tell me "That is not necessary for your salvation. Take care of the things that are, and you can ask the Creator yourself someday"

What about the issue of home / visiting teachers? They will be unable to be assigned. They can bring an amazing spirit into most homes they enter.

To begin, let me explain how I can relate. I was born into the church, served a mission and attended a single's ward where despite my not being real sociable, I attended regularly. Than I met my wife, who was a divorced mother of 3 and a nonmember. Worse, she was adamant that she would never join the church. We moved in together, and suprise suprise my church attendance decreased until it stopped altogether. It took many years and many miracles, but eventually my wife was able to see why the church was a good aspect to have in our lives, and now she and all of our children (except the youngest) is a member, and the two of us are sealed for time and eternity. If your boyfriend is as amazing as you say he is, then you need to do one of two things. Either get married or move out. You know that your church attendance is going to bless you and your children. If you demonstrate your faith to your boyfriend, it could have a profound effect on him. Now I am not sure how either of you feel about getting married, but if you did then you would at least be able to stay with him while going back to church. As we are directed in the scriptures, we can either carry our burdens ourselves or have the Lord help us. And when we chose to have Him help us, He will take them away from us.

So you say that God will FORCE salvation upon everyone? That seems odd, considering how much emphasis God puts into free will. It seems like the only thing He forces upon us is death and ressurection. As for being born, we all CHOSE to come here, whereas 1/3 of the host of heaven chose a different route.

Thats the first step towrds your conversion to a fan of the only worthwhile AFC West team, helping a Bronco fan out. Next up, Tebowitis...

I am sure you do, as I am a die hard Broncos fan, while you root for the San Diego Super Farses (lame I know, but it is midnight here) I am having issues registering this account. The Registration email never came to me, so when I sign in it says that the area is for members only. Then I open a new window and it says my username as well as guest in different places. Can you fix this for me?

Well, joining the Church actually IMPROVES your chances of meeting your ETERNAL companion. Of course, you could do it the hard way like I did and marry then convert a non member. Stop psyching yourself out and say a prayer.

Well, you can worry about the negative what ifs, or you can enjoy the positive what ifs. If I were in your shoes, I would bet on Heavenly Father, because He always leads us towards salvation, while Satan always leads us towrds damnation.

But I haven't been on here for a long time, didn't remember my password and the forgot my password option wouldn't work, so here I am again. My old username was Relentless. I am sealed to the most amazing woman that has ever existed (sorry, but it is true). I have four wonderful children (3 step and 1 natural) and have had the pleasure of seeing my nonmember wife and children all join the church. I am a Soldier with the Colorado National Guard, and am currently deployed to Afghanistan. This is my second deployment, and when I have more time, I will post the amazing conversion story that transpired last time I was deployed. I tend to be opinionated, and often those opinions are judged as harsh. I do not mean to offend anyone, I simply have mouth-moves-faster-than-brain disorder (or in this case, I would guess fingers?)

My wife went through a VERY trying time right before her baptism, to the point where the day of, she wanted to call it off. She went trhough with it, and afterwards told me she has never felt so wonderful and close to Heavenly Father as when she came up out of the water. Needless to say, she never looked back and doesn't regret her decision. I am willing to bet you will feel the same, and will find yourself WANTING to get confirmed as soon as possible. On a side note, it seems like the Adversary ALWAYS works his hardest right before we make our next step. Almost as if he believes we will stop moving forward and settle down into the comfort of our current life. Little does he know we are smart enough to see this, and avoid his traps.

I hope you do not take this too harshly, but stop blaming your problems on your "mental issues". We all have issues and burdens to bear, and each can seem insurmountable to us, or appear heavier than those of our peers. At one time you knew the Church was true. I suspect you still do. I also suspect that you have been trying to "become an atheist" in order to stop feeling the deep nagging of your inner self that you NEED to get back into the Church. As for the fakeness of members, so what. Everywhere you go you deal with fake people. I find it interesting that you decide to post about people being fake in an online forum, where people can be fake very easily due to the relative anonyminity provided by typing responses behind a computer. Bottom line is this, you already KNOW the answers, what you NEED is the courage to do something about it.

So if God wills us to be perfect, but we are not, who is to blame? If we intentionally defy God's will, then can Jesus still perfect us? The way I look at salvation is this, Jesus paid the price to buy each one of us a gift. He wrapped it up, and gave it to each and every one of us. The gift is there, wether we chose to accept it or not. Just like all gifts, we can decide to take it and use it everyday. Or we can take it and set it on a shelf, perhaps under a pile and ignore it. Or we can turn down the gift entirely. No matter what we do, the gift is bought and paid for, it is right there. Salvation is the same, we can accept it and make use of it, or not. As for levels, we are told that there are differing "levels" because people will utilize the gift of salvation to different extents in their lives. I guess a different way of saying it would be this; The Savior is going to buy you a house, and better still he will let you chose the size/style. You can get a 8000 square foot mansion; a 1500 square foot split level or a loft apartment. He takes you to the apartment first, and if you decide it is good enough, He takes you no further. It is not that He doesn't want to take you further, it is that you don't want to go, so your actions prevent Him from bringing you to the next house. Then the split level and finally the mansion. In both scenarios, the capacity for the best possible outcome is there. It is our ability or lack thereof to utilize that capacity that causes "levels" of seperation.

Good. I am Army National Guard, 2nd deployment, this time to Afghanistan. Hope no one shoots at me.

Yes, yes it could have been. Actually, it probablly was. So you were excommunicated, and don't feel like most of the Church made you happy or was pleasant, largely due to "fakeness"? I assume you mean people being fake? Because if you mean the beliefs are fake, then there is a whole different set of issues to tackle.

I would agree to an extent. There are some teenagers and preteens that seem to be disrespectful solely because they think it is entertaining. There are young men and women that believe (much like many of us used to) that we know more and better than adults, and therefore they are not worthy of our respect. As for why many parents are being less strict, I would say that a shift in popular culture, one which says be a friend first and a parent second. This culture justifies bad behavior from children because the parents say "Well, at least I know what they are doing". While I doubt very much many of the posters on these boards fall into this category, we apear to be a shrinking population in the US, if not the world. What branch are you?