I'm a Mormon

For those of you who love in "I'm a Mormon" campaign areas, you have heard your stakes and wards pushing the mormon.org profiles.  You probably had the special combined RS/EQ meeting where they talked about what the commercials would look like and what you need to be prepared to share with your friends.

Our combined meeting was two Sundays ago (this post has been in my mind since then, just no time to type it out).  So I'm sitting in this combined meeting, by myself with Johnny (Jason was en route to Florida at the time).

They went through all of this research about what people think about Mormons and what they expect to happen when they release these media campaigns.

Then, they show the first video.  About an LDS NFL player who lost his twins at 24 weeks right before he played for the Superbowl.  It was pretty much a lost cause after that.  I was already crying.  Good thing no one was anywhere near the two of us.

Then, they showed the next video.  About an African American woman who teaches in a rough part of town.  Yup, still a goner.

Just about each of the videos and commercials made me cry.  True, I do blame some of that on breastfeeding (I think I'm more hormonal now than I ever was pregnant).  But, wow, they were powerful.

One of the things I've struggled with for a while in the Church is how Jason and I really don't "fit in" with other Mormons.  We've been married almost 7 years.  Everyone who has been married that long, in the church has, at least, a few kids.  Anyone who doesn't have kids is under 25.  Most women in the Church do not work outside the home. I do.  Most men in the Church have a degree.  Jason doesn't.

But this combined meeting showed me something.  There isn't this "Mormon type."  Being Mormon isn't your lifestyle, it's your religion.  Yes, it influences everything I believe and most of my decisions, but how my life looks has nothing to do with being a Mormon.  So, really, my problem has really just been that I'm different from the Mormons around me.  I don't fit in with them.  But I don't have to be one way to be a Mormon.  I just have to believe in the Savior and follow his commandments.

It doesn't matter whether you're married, divorced, single, young, old, black, white, working, unemployed or anything- we can all be Mormons.  It's what we believe.  It's who we are at the core, not what we look like on the outside.

So, I'm a mother to two wonderful boys.
I'm a junior high teacher in a rough part of town.
I'm a wife of a truck driver.
And I'm a Mormon.