Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thought Thursday- Standing as a witness

My very first thought thursday! are you peoples excited??

This first week of school has made me realize how much i have to stand up for what i believe. from the ages 12-18.5 i repeated what is known as the "young women's theme".

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

So when thinking about what to write about today, standing as a witness came to mind immediately. I was in my first day of English 2010 and we had to debate some issues because it's a persuasive essay writing class. My professor took the side, in every issue we debated, that goes against what the {LDS} church teaches. I know that everyone has different views and beliefs. that's fine. He told us that for every issue we write a paper on we will not get to choose which side we write about. That's fine if it's an issue that doesn't matter like "i phone vs droid" or "batman vs spiderman" but if it's making me write about something that i know to be morally wrong like pro abortion or pro gay marriage then i care. I know that it's "just a paper in a class" but would that be "standing as a witness"? I was taught to stand up for what I believe in and i'm learning that it's not nearly as easily done as it is said.

second item. Being an art major, i run into photography, drawings and paintings, that i do not feel comfortable with. I was happy to find that because of a series of extremely inappropriate photographs taken by this one guy last semester in a photo class, this paragraph was put into my syllabusses/syllabi {however you may say/spell the multiple of syllabus} "pornography will not be tolerated". All because {mainly the girls} put up a big stink about them. So, standing as a witness can make changes.
my first semester of college i was in a drawing I class and we had to draw nude models. I've never understood why a model just can't put on a swimsuit. Anyways, i seriously didn't want to do it, but my professor gave us little say in the matter. At 18, i was extremely panicked at the thought of seeing a nude male anatomy. Not that i'm okay with it now still. I said, not kidding, at least 20 prayers that morning that i wouldn't remember any of the drawing session and i don't. Honest to goodness. Looking back on the situation, i wish that i would have been more brave to say i wouldn't do it. If this ever happens to be something i have to encounter again as an art major {i don't think it will because i'm done with drawing and painting} i will not attend the class period.

Mosiah 18:9 "Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life"

I believe those that do choose to stand up for what they believe in will be blessed. Although hard, i know that my testimony of this grows every time i make the choice to stand as a witness of Jesus Christ.

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