My good side.

I saw my dad bring back a whole stack of hymnbooks to mend today. Something we’ve always been doing. For some reason, that struck me and made me think. My dad, he’s a businessman, a manager – someone in a high position. He quietly brings hymnbooks home to mend every Sunday.

In our family, we spend so much time together. We pray and read the scriptures. Mom is telling Shuan about her life and my grandparents right now. And how she nearly had a miscarriage with him when my grandfather was dying. How cool it is that we can just talk about things like that. My parents counsel me based on what they have learnt about life and the gospel.

Mom and I serve together in the Young Women. We talk about how we can adapt to Rachel’s special needs; how to get her to trust us and to open up; how do we get Tiffany to grow into a mature, responsible Young Woman, and how to help Melody who is struggling to be active even though both of her member parents aren’t.

She told me last week to clean my room because today’s lesson was about Home environment, and making a house of order. She didn’t want me to feel like the lesson was meant to guilt trip me. Isn’t it great?

*sigh* The gospel - where would we be without it? The typical Chinese family who cares for nothing but money and family honor? (Mom is crying now – she’s telling Shuan about what Granddad told her the last time she saw him) Maybe we’d be involved in drinking and gambling. I for one would probably pregnant right now.

Church isn’t something we do only on Sunday. Like Dad says about responsibility, being a Latter-day Saint is a state of mind. It encompasses everything I do and say. My language, the clothes I wear, the things I think about people. It’s a culture, a way of life.

That’s why sharing the gospel is so hard sometimes. It brings us SO much joy! It does! And I’m just dying to do touch everyone on their foreheads if they could just see how much truth we have.

At the same time, it’s a huge sacrifice. I was born into this religion. It’s not like I’ve ever made a major switch so it’s hard for me to imagine someone else doing it. Of course, there are things that I have had to give up when I decided I truly wanted to live my religion. It’s not like I didn’t have to decide for myself that this is where I want to be. It’s not just blindly following my family traditions.

If you know me enough, you’d know that I’m a rebel. I question everything my parents do and say; everything they teach me. This is the one thing that I know they are right about.

We make sacrifices. We give up worldly things and it isn’t always easy.

It’s SO worth it though. You have no idea!

This is my good side. The cheesy, prudish, but the good side: the side that just LOVES my family, and God. And the side of me that just wants to do everything right. Even if it means being the only one in a one piece on the beach in Waikiki, or if I sound stupid using replacement cuss words, or if I miss Small Ville because I don’t watch TV on Sunday or getting teased by my cousins for not drinking or gambling.

Whether or not you think what I believe in is true, or whether all the little goody-two-shoes things I do are necessary, you have to admit, it sure does a heck lot of good in my life.