Jane_Doe

Ok, sharing time then! For LDS perspective, "How do I know what is True?" is one of the best questions a person can ask. Obviously people have a bunch of different views on God, and conflicting views cannot all be correct. There is ultimately only one Truth. To investigate things and find out what it True, we have a few tools: - Scriptures - Study / Investigate / thinking things through - Prayer / asking God / listening to His answer <<- This is the most important tool that should guide all others. So a person should first pray, then read scriptures and study things out, and then again ask God "is [insert X] your Truth?". And then of course, listen for the answer (it'd be silly to leave that part out!). Speaking for myself: I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first and foremost because this is where God tells me His Truth is. Secondly, because the ideas/values taught here most match my own study of scripture and just thinking things through. Continuing revelation, the big-picture Plan of Salvation, and emphasis on individual choice are each huge hitters for me, that I find missing elsewhere. I'm not an LDS Christian because of loving the culture or pressure from friends (I actually had a lot of culture clashes for many years). I'm here because this is where I find Truth. Now that being said, I also do love studying other faiths and talking to people from all walks of life! I'm a huge inter-faith nerd.

You approach here is SO outside of Christ's ways or basic sense. I'm not going to waste my time on such responses anymore.

I agree that lifestyle & general ethics is a big deal here. One reason my husband and I work so well that, despite having different faiths, we have the same choices on lifestyle & ethics. Both value God & family, complete loyalty it marriage (not even porn), hard work etheric, frugal money management, agree on Word of Wisdom stuff (even though his motivation is totally secular), etc. On some areas (like Sunday is for God & family, not working!) he's actually a much 'better' Mormon than I am.

Say you're a soccer coach for 5 year olds. Your team meets together once a week (Saturday mornings) for a 30 minute game. The 5 year olds are... well 5. They pick their noses, and do a bunch of silly kid things, simply because they are 5. Heck, they can't even read yet. One of the kids on your team happens to have homosexual parents. What do you do? My answer is to best love that child, which means showing them kindness and respecting the innocent love they feel towards their parents-- NEVER trash talk their family in front of the kid. Love the kid, encourage their soccer skills, taking turn skills, and all the other things a soccer coach does. You'd rather ignore the kid, and (as the soccer coach) lecture the parents on how they need to abandon their sinful life. Dude, that's not the focus of the OP here, nor is it an effective way to share the Gospel. All you're going to do is have the parents withdraw the kid from your soccer team. Yes, ideally their parents will come closer to God and follow His Plan, but that's not accomplished by a random lecture from the kid's soccer coach.

You and I are talking on two very different subjects here. The OP was about interacting with kids with homosexual parents. Hence my focus was on best working with these kids- serving them the best Christ-like manner we can. A child can't make their parents stop sinning (whatever the sin is) and we should never place that burden on their shoulders. Your focus is on telling the adults to get their act together. That's a completely different subject than "how do I best work with this kid?" Yes, it would be great if all adults got their act together and abandoned all sins-- no denying that. But that's not working with the kid.

Pardon me, but i'm not going to mix up A) working with a kid that wasn't didn't choose their parents sins or what house to grow up in, and B) a adult that does have a choice in the relationships they have.

I was not responding to Wade at all. Man, I wish all misunderstandings were that easy to fix up!

Again, my focus was on kids, which was the focus of the OP here. Will people please keep trying to change the topic.

The OP here was about kids.. Hence my urging for sensitivity.

*That* is a great question. Might I suggest you take it to the ultimate source of Truth (God) and ask Him?

@anatess2, my position was simply urging for that basic sensitivity of not going up to a kid and saying "you're family isn't real!". Rather, we should be sensitive to the real love the child feels for their parental figures, even sinful parental figures. No this isn't remotely radical position, and I think majority people would agree with it. But I felt it still needed to be reiterated.

If we're talking about speaking with a child, we need to be sensitive to the fact that they do love these adults, and frequently don't understand any errors the adults are making. Going up to a kid and spurting out "your family isn't real!" isn't going to explain to them God's Plan. It's just going to cause hurt.

LDS lady married to an inactive Evangelical dude here. We are extremely happy together. Still-- Marriage is HARD. Adding another layer of differences in there makes it harder. Interfaith marriage is a LOT of work. I would advise caution about proceeding, along with a lot of extra conversations & reflections (self and together). You must 100% respect, love each other, and support each other AS THEY ARE-- not as a possible future *if* they change their minds. My marriage is happy, and I know other interfaith couples that are happy. I also know lots of couples that have split over these issues and/or had changes of faith. So proceed with caution.

Awesome. You sound about the same age as me, and I've heard the junk line of "well if you'd lived together before this wouldn't happen...". It's total junk and I wanted to make sure that you weren't believe it.

I would in no way compare Outer Darkness or any of the degrees of glory to Catholic purgatory. For starters, Catholic purgatory is viewed as a temporary abode, not a final destination. Outer Darkness is the final abode for those who commit the unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit).

NONE of your problems are caused because you didn't live fornicate before marriage. And NONE of your issues would have been solved/avoided if you had fornicated before marriage. Don't let anyone sell you the lie that you are like a shoe that needs to be "tried on" before making a commitment to.

The Father. Hence "Dear Heavenly Father..." That is because Christ is our Exemplar and Mediator. He's the one who lived on this Earth and who's visual example we're supposed to be following. By addressing it directly to Heavenly Father. I would not agree with these statements at all. Let us stick to saying what we believe rather than what we think someone else believes. It's just like Christ's, says so in scripture. Does it matter? Christ can speak for the Father as well. Define "worship" as you're using it here. I don't have the problems you're having here. There's two different persons, united in will/goodness/glory/etc.

The focus here is not on the parents behavior, but on the love a child feels and being sensitive to that.

Speaking as someone who's been there-- Right now you're not remotely thinking straight @Petty3. The life-sucking fog that is depression is what you're seeing. What you're missing is your beautiful worth as a daughter of God. You need MAJOR professional help RIGHT NOW. It's not a matter of whether or not you want it, it's the fact that you NEED it. Make an emergency appointment RIGHT NOW. You need to be seen for help multiple times a week, not once a month. Got to the hospital ER right now. You NEED it.

Love this comment. A child, especially a young one, isn't in the position to judge the righteousness of their parent's lives. And a child can indeed bond with many different adults --- mom, dad, grandparents, aunts/uncles, stepparents, foster/adopted parents, etc. My husband grew up with three parental figures-- his mom, his dad (they were divorced) and his dad's long term girlfriend. As a kid he didn't understand that his mom & dad were divorced because of abuse, nor that his dad and the longterm/cohabitating girlfriend weren't married and had major issues. He just understood who was going to be there to hold him when he was upset, who cheered him on, and who would listen when he needed to talk-- in other words who showed him love. Was the situation ideal with God's Plan? Not remotely!! But his parents sins didn't mean he didn't/doesn't love them.

God alone makes that call, not strangers on the internet. We have no way of knowing/judging how much of God's Truth you're willing to accept with you heart, mind, and might.

I think an important distinction needs to be made here between those we love, and those we are directly sealed/seal-able to in the Lord's eyes. "Family" is a label that can applied to both definitions, but there may be different folks in each category. For example: my husband and his best friend have been close-buddies for decades. This best friend was the Best Man at our wedding, he's "Uncle John" to my daughter, etc. He is totally loved and family under that definition. But he's not someone we're sealed directly too. Though of course we are all siblings in Christ. A different example: some parents are abusive to their kids. This wrecks their relationship with the kid: there is no love there left, and sometimes no contact at all for the sake of safety. This is still family in the fact that the sealing is there (definition #2), but not the love. Of course the parent's sinful behavior also wrecks their relationship with God. Now timing this back to homosexual relationships: no, this is not a valid seal-able relationship. It goes against God's will. That's obvious. But what should also be obvious is that these people do care for each other. And especially for children raised in these households: both of these folks are parental figures, and the kid feels that love/devotion to them. We should never forget that or how important a child's love is. Yes, stand for Truth, but also too be sensitive, especially when working with minor children.

Excellent questions. This has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm a person who likes to take care of things myself/with-my-hubby. I don't like asking for help if it's something I can do myself- which is most things. I've worked hard to make that be most things, and being able to run day-to-day without outside help. To me that is a matter of being self reliant and following God's command of being a good steward over my jurisdiction. But lately... life has been very hard. A string of continually bad luck involving ambulances, broken cars, medical stuff, relationship drama, parenting challenges, etc has left me on my butt. And on many days I'm not even able to get up that much. And I've had to ask for a lot of help. Some big things (2 AM please-drive-person-to-ER) and many smaller things (my daughter needs to go to preschool and I can't take her). It's not something I'm naturally comfortable with. And the fact that I don't even know what my own capabilities will be in 12 hours is... very frustrating. So yeah... I've been thinking on this subject a lot lately. What is true self-reliance? Well... let's start with the easier question "what is self-reliance not?". It's not being able to always always do everything yourself-- that idea is laughable. It's not "I'm never never going to have problems" or "I'm never not going to need help". I want to say something like "it's being willing and able to walk when you can walk, and to build what strength you can there". I want to include a part about knowing yourself. I want to include a part about having the humility to ask for help when you really do need it. And then the awareness of knowing when it's something you can do yourself vs when having help would make things much better. Also about being willing to grow/exercise to increase your strength. We're not meant to go through things alone, and I don't think that's "self reliance" at all. Rather it's... I shall have to ponder on the best way of phrasing this more.

Do we worry about the right things? Usually not. Now I am in no way a fan of "you better come to God right now or it'll be fire & brimstone" mentality. Note, I'm not saying this is the the mentality you're supporting, it's just one I've seen and it really irks me. Relationships should be built on love not fear. Especially the most important relationship we'll ever have: with God. Now am I a fan of growing good love-based relationships sooner rather than later? Totally- let us start right now bringing more joy and love into life.

In other words: us humans are creatures of habit? Well that is a million percent true!