Easter Bunnies and God - Really?

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. "

~ John 13:34

Something I have learned pretty intensely in the last few years is the multitude of ways in which words can be misconstrued to mean anything. Reaching outside of the standard scriptures and books of the LDS faith I would often run into scriptures that were very familiar to me and yet they were being interpreted so different, almost the polar opposite of what I was raised to believe. So I wondered; what is it about religion and more importantly, the organized part of it, that demands one be more right than another? Why is it that there is always some need to be better, to be first, to be right and why does everyone else have to be wrong for your religion to be right?

In my journey these past few years I have asked so many questions of so many other religions and what I have come to understand in my own heart is that God, Allah, or whatever it is that someone else may worship is as equally as important to that person as the God I grew up learning about and loving. I have met devout Catholics, Muslims, Hebrews, Buddhists, etc, and what they all hold in common is a pure dedication to their religions, their own beliefs and they too have received a personal witness to their truths. Yes, there are some other religions as equally dedicated to theirs being the only right one but what I wonder is, Is this what God intended all along?

Think about every war that has ever been fought and whether or not it came about because of religious intolerance. Why is it that millions of people must suffer and die for what MEN do to be more right than other men.

This Easter I woke up more free from intolerance than I ever have before and while I was contemplating the message that would matter to me I realized it was love, the kind of love that reaches beyond a specific faith and sees the good in all. The unbiased realization that the moment you are in matters most and being kind to EVERYONE is the gospel the Savior intended all along.

I understand now what this kind of love is. I didn't learn it from the temple, or in all the lessons I sat through or taught for all those years I did go to church. I learned it while looking into the eyes of a young child so engrossed in the joy of the moment that you saw love in it's purest form within her eyes. She gave a gift today to our family as she wondered through Grandma Joy's house searching for Easter eggs. She brought back the JOY of a Young child as she opened her little eggs and shared without being asked with all in the room. Her heart holds no malice, her love is unconditional. It's time and society that will eventually take away these gifts she holds so dear. She will never be Mormon. She will always be a child of God and what is such a great gift is that my daughter will teach her to be  even more of a  caring and loving person as will M, her Dad and her mother. The Mormon church holds no monopoly on this kind of love. In fact, it has been my experience to have felt quite the opposite.

So hears to B and to the love she brought this morning to our Easter Brunch. Too M - my wonderful sista, who brought back the ZOOBERT and the JOY that makes Easter and the Saviors request to love one another about the greatest commandment ever given. Yes, that one, the one that speaks about loving one another and all that its means.

I have a wonderful family that was brought together by parents who did their best to give us the world. It may not have been the world that we got but we did getwas each other and now, for the first time in a long time, being together isn't about honoring a faith but more about a family. I know she's (JOY) smiling and glad the pitter patter of excited feet are once again racing around finding hidden Easter eggs and teaching us about what the Savior's love is all about.

Now ask me how excited I am about next Easter when there are 2 more sets of those little feet to teach us even more! Lovin' the journey!!!!