Day 19: What are your views on religion?

Here's another question that I think is kind of lame... at least for this blog. If you're reading this blog, then you more than likely already know how I feel about religion.

BUT (yes Hayley, you read that correctly), if for some reason you don't know how I feel about religion, let me tell you.

I have always said that "anyone who says they believe something and stays true to it has my respect." That is still true. You don't have to believe the same things as me - you are your own person and have the right to choose what you will and will not believe. I claim the right to do the same. Many people scoff and scorn at the idea of "organized religion"- for various reasons. That's fine if you're one of those people - that's your prerogative I suppose. However, I don't feel that way at all.

All of my feelings on religion come from my own personal experiences. I am truly and wholly grateful for religion in my life. I can't even begin to describe how much it means to me and how much it has done for me. I am a deeply spiritual person by nature, and were it not for my religion, that part of who I am would be extremely deprived and empty feeling. But let me just say this - without getting too much into what I personally believe: The main reason that I am pro-religion is this - religion, in general, preaches LOVE, tolerance, peace, and selflessness. What about any of those things is bad? Nothing. With religion, people are taught to serve God and their fellow men - to take the focus off of themselves and love and help the people around them. Religion says, do what's right, have morals, have faith and hope and happiness. It says, rely on your God and acknowledge that everything you have comes from Him - be grateful. Religion teaches about life after death and eternal perspectives. My religion holds that families can be eternal - that we will be together in the eternities after this life. Religion gives me hope, strength, and light. It gives me perspective and helps me not only want to continually be a better person, but to actually change into a better person. It helps me stay and feel virtuous, clean, and pure. I love who I am because of religion. I love the perspective I have because of it and I love knowing (yes, I said KNOWING) that God, my maker and first and foremost, my Heavenly Father, loves me perfectly. That he's aware of me, specifically, and my heart - my needs, my desires, my faith, my works, my struggles, my fears. I love knowing that when times are hard for me (and they have been hard often), things will get better.

I don't know how people who don't have religion think or feel about those types of things or in hard situations, because I've never been on the other side. And I have no desire to. I love my beliefs - they mean EVERYTHING to me. And I know it's been the times when my faith has struggled the most, that I've felt the most empty in my life. I don't like feeling empty - I like the peace and joy and love I feel when I feel close to God. You can tell me that I'm just making it all up - I guess that makes me a seriously crazy person. Pretty much I think I'd call that schizophrenia, since I constantly talk to the Father I supposedly made up. You can tell me I just believe this stuff because I want to live in some sort of dream world where everything can be happy and I don't have to face reality. I'll disagree with you every time. I feel more in touch with the reality of life and hard times than you could ever imagine. And thank God that I have had God to get me through. I never would have been able to get through and be in a good place had I tried to rely solely on myself.

And that my friends, is why I believe. It is why I think religion is good. And I don't just think that my religion is good, though of course I believe it has the most truth. I also think other religions are good because of the way they teach people to treat others and to conduct their lives. Now, unfortunately people aren't perfect. They mess up all the time. Some would call those of us who make mistakes hypocrites. That's fine - go ahead. I guess I am a hypocrite sometimes, because I make tons of mistakes. But I always feel awful for them and try to correct them - because I really do believe in what I preach. And I try more and more everyday to practice those things more perfectly. I fall short most of the time, and that's why I'm glad I believe in forgiveness. And religion.