Sacrifice Brings Forth Blessings of Happiness

 Recently I read a blog post by a gentleman who is homosexual, but chose to marry his best friend who happens to be a girl. http://www.joshweed.com/2012/06/club-unicorn-in-which-i-come-out-of.html  Both were aware of his sexual orientation, but both were desirous to have what the other offered in a companion. Both sacrificed some pretty big emotional desires in order to have what they truly wanted. She had to sacrifice the hope of having a husband that desired her physically. He had to give up his desire to have a companion that he was sexually attracted to. They had to decide together that what they really wanted was a friend, a confidant, and a loving spouse who would be a good parent to their children. They found that though they sacrificed their own personal sexual identities they discovered their own physical attraction in their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual attraction.


 I found this quite profound, in that how many of us marry because we are physically attracted but as the years go by we lose anything that could possibly be confused with physical attraction? Yet we still find our spouse attractive, even more attractive, because we have gotten to know them more and we have appreciated what they have brought into the relationship. Our ability to truly love someone didn't come until we learned to sacrifice what we thought we wanted for what would truly make us happy. In other words, What this man and his wife did, was actually go through the trial of their love before they even got married, they both made the greatest gesture of love that they could have possibly given at that point. They literally laid their hearts on the alter and gave it to each other not knowing whether their sacrifice would be accepted, but knowing that they were willing to do all that they could to fulfill their covenant to love God, each other, and bring children into this world so that they could be obedient to the commandments of God.

The scriptures tell us that the natural man is an enemy to God. Each of us has desires that make up our identity. Sexual orientation is only one of those identities. And because of our society it is a huge part of our identity. I personally do not understand homosexuality, it is not a desire that I have had to sacrifice, but I do have other desires that I have to prioritize in order to reconcile with the Laws of Happiness.

I do not believe that our happiness is contingent upon our sexual orientation, but upon our desire to follow God's laws despite our sexual desires. That is the same whether we are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or any other kind of sexual. If that were not so then why would any line be drawn on sexuality at all? And in each of our minds there is a limit to what we would definitely consider acceptable sexual behavior, we might vary in what we call acceptable behavior, but each of us has a limit.

We as a people have been spoon fed that we are God, that we are the ones who determine what is right and what is wrong, what is righteous or unrighteous. This is wrong! God determines what is righteous or unrighteous, what behavior is worthy or unworthy. It is not our job to judge God only to seek understanding according to the level of happiness we desire. If we desire a greater happiness then we will be forced to seek a greater level of obedience to the Plan of Happiness.

I believe that God has established his kingdom here on earth. Through his prophets he has given us guidance and counsel to lead us to be happy. I do not believe that these men have a right to alter the counsels of God, to bow to the whims of society, or to change according to the carnal nature of man. I find that their counsel, quite often, reminds me that I have to change my own nature because of my unrighteous desires.

Each of us have to determine how we will deal with our own unrighteous, or unworthy desires. Mr. Weed chose one option to deal with his. There may not be a lot of options for us to pick from, but when our desire is to please God and serve him, then doing what God has commanded will always bring us a greater measure of happiness than doing what we desire contrary to his commands.

Agency is no small matter. I do believe we fought for our agency before we came to this mortal existence, and I believe we continue to fight for it here. Not everyone of us has a desire to live in the presence of God again. Not all of us would be happy there. So, to force people to live the Plan of Happiness would be contrary to the Law of Happiness itself.

God has revealed that the shedding of blood is no longer required of us to symbolize the atonement, but we are still required to sacrifice our own desires. Maybe that is what you could call a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The ultimate expression of love toward our Savior would be to sacrifice our own desires on the alter and seek to serve our Savior.