Dare to be Mormon.

I grew up in a small town in Southern Utah.  Good old Cedar City.  While not everyone there is Mormon everyone there fully understood what a Mormon was.  I never had to explain or defend my religion.  I remember the 1st time I was asked what a Mormon was and why I believed it.  Sadly I was so nervous I really didn't answer it to well.  Then once we were asked by our neighbors in Seattle to come to a BBQ.  They always had neighborhood party's on Sunday and we never attended.  While Ryan and I discussed what we should do we felt that we should go and get to know our neighbors.  While we were there some knew we were Mormons but not all did.  One guy yelled.  "where's the beer what are we a bunch of Mormons."  I instantly started to hide behind Ryan not knowing what was going to happen and was scared of what I would get asked.  My sweet husband held up his Root beer and said. "nope us Mormons got our drink we are all good."  It eased the tension so much and I learned to not be afraid to answer how I feel.  And more often then not it always turns out positive.  I was so grateful for my Husband and all the strength he gives me to never be afraid to share my testimony.  Now that we live in TX we are in the bible belt.  There are many many many churches just not a lot of Mormon ones.  All the sporting activities (non school related) have games on Sunday and for a boy that is really really hard.  My oldest had his chance to "Dare to be a Mormon" the other day and I couldn't be more proud of him.  He LOVES the game lacrosse and he's really good at it.  Sadly we haven't been able to find a league that doesn't have games on Sunday.  All of his friends signed up for the latest league and they were begging him to join.  I was standing with in ear shot of him while this was going on and my sweet boy said. "I can't that's the day we go to church."  And the boy said.  "Isn't church like only a hr?  I'm sure it wont always be at your church time."  To which Trevor replied no my church is 3 hrs.  The conversation went on and on and Trevor never faltered he never begged me to join and I could see the heartbreak in his eyes.  Like I said he LOVES Lacrosse.  All of these boys are in the same boy scout group, they sleep over all the time and Trevor is always the lone man out.Sadly the kids that are his age that are Mormon are not all that nice to him. So I don't blame him for feeling frustrated.   I thought for sure he would beg me because it's just one more thing that he can't join in doing with his friends. But he never asked me once.  He just said "I wish it wasn't on Sundays Mom."   This kid has such a great heart.  Yes he does LOTS and LOTS of stupid stuff.  And he doesn't have the best execution of things.  Oh man he likes to test me.  But when you break that tough shell away you see a pretty amazing kid.  When he came home I showed him this video that I saw a while ago.  We both were crying.  I told him I understand how hard that had to have been and how proud of him I was.  I always tell my kids "I don't care what you want to be in life,  I don't care about the little mistakes you make,  I only care that you will be true to who you are, stand up for what you believe, be respectful and honest people.  http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#dare-to-stand-alone  The link doesn't take to you the actual video. So it's name is Dare to stand alone.

How I adore my children.  What great examples they are to me.