Some Thoughts On Family, Marriage, and Empathy

Recently, the LDS Church (which Nikki and I are members of) has come under a certain amount of criticism for its public support of Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition that sought to amend California's constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. I've stayed mostly quiet about the subject, mostly because I feel I cannot speak for the Church. I also cannot speak for opponents of Prop 8, many of whom feel discriminated against because of the very idea of limiting who they can legally marry.

But I can speak for my family. Nikki and I are far from perfect (well, Nikki's doing pretty good, it's me that needs some work), but we have always tried to follow the example of Joshua, who declared, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 1:8). For us, we feel it is our imperative duty to, like Joseph Smith taught, find out the will of the Lord, and then do our best to live our lives in accordance with that will. I believe in the Prophets, past and present. I believe they are the mouthpieces of the Lord on the earth, whether Isaiah, or Nephi, or Brigham Young, or Thomas S. Monson. They are the channel by which the will of the Lord is revealed to us. This conviction has been confirmed to me through diligent study and prayer, by the Spirit of that very same Lord.

That being said, I believe the Lord has revealed His plan by which all of us can progress beyond this life, becoming like Him and finding eternal happiness. This eternal progression is made possible through families. A man and a woman, sealed together by the power of the priesthood and by their love, can have children and build a familial posterity that can extend into the eternities. The Lord has said that his work and his glory is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). In other words, WE are the work and glory of God. I believe our posterity will be like that to us. And I believe, with all my heart, that the family is the single most important unit in the marvelous plan of our Heavenly Father. It is through families that we can eternally progress, living forever in happiness.

So, for my family, I will labor every single day to instill upon my children the value of preparing to build an eternal family. I will work tirelessly to help prepare my daughters to find worthy, good husbands. And I will work equally hard to teach my sons how to respect women, especially the precious souls they will one day beg to marry. I know they will find eternal happiness in their marriages and their families as they seek to follow the plan of our Heavenly Father. I support the principle of marriage between a man and a woman for that very reason.

That being said, I feel a great empathy for those who do not believe the same way I do. I hope that my firm belief in the sanctity of the family is not construed as prejudice against any in the homosexual community. For it is not. I have many friends, acquaintances, and even family members who believe differently than I do, and I find the grand majority of them to be kind, loving, and good people. I respect their beliefs and their decisions, and I hope they will equally respect the decisions of myself and my family. We choose to follow the Lord through what He has revealed to the men we know as His servants. That being said, we will not discriminate, demean, or judge unrighteously. We will strive every day to love and accept anyone, while at the same time staying true to our beliefs and the things we as a family know to be true.

Peace.

Eternal Bliss

Nikki and I were married Jan. 12, 2007 in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a perfect day. It's amazing how you can spend so much time planning something and stress so much about it, but then on the actual day (crunch time) everything goes down without a hitch. I can't even say how thankful I am to wonderful family and friends for making it such a wonderful day.

Nikki and I met at the Riviera in Provo during the summer of 2006. After dating for not TOO long, we got engaged in November and set the date for January. We weren't overly excited about a winter wedding, but when you know something's right there comes a point where you can only wait so long. Was our wedding day cold? YES. Butt cold. It was also the most beautiful and perfect day of our lives (so far).

We were sealed at 11 a.m. that day by the son of Vaughn J. Featherstone, a general authority of the Church. When we were sealed by the power of God's priesthood, we made a covenant with Heavenly Father that we would live our lives in accordance with His commandments, that we would do everything we could to live worthy to return to His presence. His end of the deal was the promise that Nikki, me, and our (future) children would be together for all eternity. We work hard every day to live up to that covenant and have found ourselves growing more and more in love every day as we strive to keep those sacred promises we made that day.

After a VERY cold picture taking party outside the temple, it was just an all-out party. My mom and dad and many other diligent worker bees were tireless in putting together a killer reception for us that included food (which we didn't eat but I heard was awesome) and some sweet dancin'. Then we were whisked away to sunny Park City where we enjoyed the sights and the outlet stores. Finally, a beautiful reception in Nikki's hometown of Burley, ID topped off the wedding experience. Not too bad. Not too bad at all!

Our wedding day... Freaking awesome. I think, however, it's something we'll only do once.

Welcome!

Get ready for some thacktastic times! (This is just a test for me to make sure I'm doing everything right)...

In this wonderful age of electronic things, this is without a doubt the best way to keep people posted on how we're doing. We'll try to post as many pictures and groundbreaking news as we can. Of course, I can get kind of bored at work so who knows when the random hockey or music post will appear. I apologize in advance.

Peace.

Matt and Nikki