Rather than talking about my Tabernacle Choir experiences directly, today, I want to share some thoughts about an indirect Tabernacle Choir experience I had over the weekend. A friend of mine, who's in the choir, invited me to come support him at the Northstar Conference that was held on Friday and Saturday. This friend of mine, along with some others in the choir, experiences SSA (same-sex attraction) and the Conference is held once a year for those who deal with that and other issues along the LGBTQ spectrum. The Conference is also for friends, family, and leaders within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to come learn more about how they can support this segment of LDS population that is sometimes overlooked and misunderstood. While a part of me was, honestly, hesitant to go, I ended up being grateful for the experience. I learned a lot about not just supporting those who have SSA, but I also learned much about how to support others going through ANY hard thing. Here are a few nuggets of doctrine and wisdom that were shared:
**LGBT church members have unique and important gifts to contribute to the building up of Zion. God has given each of us ways to use our talents for His work.
**Love is the fulfillment of the law. When we see others, we should see a reflection of the Savior's love for us, and we should see that, in them. I am he, and he is me.
**Our job is not to fix others, but to support them and love them. Each individual has their own journey. How can we best help them along that journey?
**God allows children to be who they are so that we can increase our own ability to love and accept and be changed in the process.
**God is full of grace and truth. We should be too. We should strive to find the perfect mixture between the two since too much of one, without the other, isn't helpful.
**Even when you're not on the front lines of a crisis or hardship, you can still bear the burden and pull part of the load.
**When viewing healthy relationships, keep in mind mutual acceptance, being true to self, spending quality time, being vulnerable, having open communication, and not expecting the other person to fill personal gaps that you, yourself, need to work on.
**Own your feelings and then deal with them. Develop friendships to meet needs broadly, not specifically.
**You'll never look back on life and say that you hugged too many people! Hugs are an excellent way to show support.
**We don't need to meet some minimum standard of living before the grace of God kicks in. You don't need to "do your best" (what even is that, really?) before God grants His grace. He gives it freely for the taking as we stay on the righteous path.
**Making covenants with God is an act of inviting more grace into our lives. We need that grace to fully keep those covenants!
**Come as you are, but don't expect or be OK with staying that way. God is all about changing us into better people while keeping our unique gifts and talents in-tact.
All in all, I was grateful for what I learned, and grateful I was able to show some support to my friends and to others at the conference who needed support and love as well. The leadership at the conference debuted a touching video--THIS IS WHAT I KNOW--with everyone in that video belonging to the LDS LGBT community. I invite you to take five minutes and watch it.
Until next time, God be with you.
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