Is Being Mormon Becoming Cool?

There was a time in my youth and even shortly after being married when being Mormon was not cool to be. As a member you lived your life in a way that you would not stand out to much even though you already stood out. However, today we are lucky to live in a day in the United States where our children can be glad they too are Mormons.

We live in a time of technology where Mormonism is found all over the place on the internet. One can log into YouTube and view pages and pages of Mormon messages, the church has the Strength of Youth Media messages, First Presidency Messages, Youth, Relief Society and General Conference Sessions are available to listen to, watch, down load, read, CES Devotionals, Christmas, Easter, and Seminary programs are all available to watch online as well. This does not even cover the magazines and additional tools the church has made available to those seeking them.

The First Presidency Message for this month is the Choice to Be Grateful. We are commanded to be grateful in all things. I know for our family this past year has been filled with many trials. The hardest trials have persisted since August. As President Eyring states,

it is not easy to be consistently grateful in all things in the trials of life. Sickness, disappointment, and loss of people we love come at times in our lives. Our sorrows can make it hard to see our blessings and to appreciate the blessings God has in store for us in the future (Eyring, 2011).

The Challenge for us is to remember and count our blessing while we have them. When one loses a major (or minor) blessing in life, suddenly the realization of the lack of gratitude becomes apparent.

There is so much in this world to be grateful about and one of the greatest things is the fact that being Mormon is becoming cool today. I came across another blog post where P.Diddy has quoted Tom Perry by posing “One of the greatest weaknesses in most of us is our lack of faith in ourselves.”

I was then directed to Howard Chua-Eoan’s story posted in the Time Specials called Top 10 Religion Stories 1. Religion of the Year: Mormonism. This is one of the last things I expected to see especially in Time Magazine. While a short paragraph on the church, this short story talks about Mormonism, yes, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is becoming an “innately American religion [and] has become even more a part of the mainstream American fabric.” Also discussed is how our church “has always been the religion of the future — demographically, organizationally, fervently. Well, the future is now, (Chua-Eoan, 2011).

Then we turn to the Gallup Polls.

These results are based on a Dec. 15-18 USA Today/Gallup poll. In 1946, Gallup first asked Americans to name, without prompting, the person they most admire living in any part of the world. Since 1948, Gallup has asked Americans to name separately the Most Admired Man and Most Admired Woman, and has done so each year except in 1967 (when only Most Admired Man was asked) and 1976 (Gallup, 2011).

So what makes this significant? If you look at the list notice who is number 10 in the list….Yes our prophet, President Thomas S Monson. Again something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. My kids really do live in a blessed time where it is cool to have a living prophet on the earth. Not only is it cool for the kids to have a living prophet, but one that is considered to be one of the most admired men in the world.

For our family a simple or minor blessing has been the simple act of eating. For years we have struggled with our youngest and her inability to consistently eat or drink. While frustrating, this has never been a major concern for us. She has been blessed with a permanently placed feeding tube.

However, in August my body decided to go rouge when it came to absorbing, digesting, and accepting food and nutrients. At first we figured this in a time would pass. Here we are now almost into January, and my body is still rogue with its food tolerance choices. The doctors are becoming as frustrated as I am. The kids have gone through several phases by this point. At first they just ignored the fact that mom was not eating, next they decided to try and force me to eat, now they have come to the acceptance that I just can’t on most days even if they do not like it.

The youngest on the other hand has her own method for handling what she sees as a situation gone bad. She keeps insisting that I drink milk as that has always been the rule for her. If she does not eat she has to drink her special milk. So therefore, mom too must drink her milk if not eating and will try and force me to drink milk.

Throughout this time period I too have experienced a range of emotions. At first I was not worried as I knew this would simply pass and I would be fine shortly. However, as time passed and the ability to eat did not return, I realized I did indeed miss the simple blessing of simply feeling hungry and being able to eat when one desired to. During Halloween not eating did not bother me as I had just returned from a week-long stay in the hospital and was still very sick. By Thanksgiving I was annoyed I was not allowed to cook, yet relieved as I was still feeling very week. Then came Christmas and there was some anger and great disappointment due to not really being able to eat.

The blessing in each of these holidays is the fact that I was home with my family. The frustration is that every time I have eaten I got sick afterwards. For Christmas I was blessed with the strength to cook the Christmas dinner everyone else enjoyed and I even enjoyed a few bites here and there.

Although what have we learned through this experience to date? One dropping clothing sizes is really nice in many ways. Eating really is a social event. Holidays are based not only around friends and family, but also around the joys of cooking and eating of food with each other. When one is unable to eat, one needs to strive to find other blessings present. Games and conversation are a brilliant distractor.

Chua-Eoan, H. (2011). Time Specials called Top 10 Religion Stories 1. Religion of the Year: Mormonism. Retrieved December 30, 2011 from http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2101371_2101382,00.html

Eyring, H.B. (2011). The Choice to Be Grateful, Retrieved December 30, 2011 from http://lds.org/liahona/2011/12/the-choice-to-be-grateful?lang=eng