Hi, I'm Meridith

I am an Artist. I Just got married at the young age of 21. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I am quite young to have just gotten married, and now at the age of 21, I am learning how to be a Wife and run a home I am also preparing to be a Mother, but that better not happen for a few years!

Kids are my future, but for now Art is my calling and purpose. I draw and paint. I'm actually pretty shy about my work, so I have never posted pictures. It's what I go to school for, but I don't know how far it will take me since my carrer will me "Mom". When I dream of where I want my Art life to lead, I see myself painting the life and works of Christ. It actually makes me really emotional inside when I think about it. Like, maybe I can touch people through my work somehow. I just don't know if I could paint Christ. I mean, I don't want to make Him look like a 'man'. I want Him to look like the God that He is. I feel like I need more 'training', even though my husband disagrees.

Speaking of, my husbands name is Donnie. I love him more then I realized I had capacity to love a person. I didn't believe in soul mates, not till I fell for him, which is quite the story in itself.

Family: I have divorced parents, who both do a great job filling their rolls as my Mom and Dad. I have an older sister age 23, two younger brothers ages16 and 14. I love them also, even though they can really get under my skin (as siblings do). I couldn’t have married into a more loving excepting wonderful group of people. My Kids are going to have awesome Grandparents!

Why I am a Mormon

The simple answer would be, because I know the teachings of this church are true. I learned this for myself at age 20. That's when I was converted. Although I grew up LDS my testimony of Christ was weak. My family life didn't really match up with the teachings of the church. Home was supposed to be a place of peace and harmony. Our home was, to put it bluntly, more like World War lll. In spite of my home life, I identified with the fact that we were a traditional family unit. I blocked out the bad a focused on the good, which ended up hurting me. At age 16 my parents got a divorce. My world shattered and my testimony withered. Without going into detail, I will just say that I became a lost sheep. I didn't want much to do with religion. In my time away from Christ I thought I was happy, but I wasn't. I was lying to myself. At age 20, I took a really close look at my life. I realized that I wasn't living a good life; I also knew that if I were to change it was going to be extremely hard. I came to the conclusion that the only reason I would ever change is if Jesus really was the Christ and if that was the case, I needed to change and be like Him. At first I looked at other churches. Yet, I continually had this draw to re-investigate the LDS church. So I did. I met with the missionaries and started at square one. They taught me as if I was a child. This was exactly what I personally needed. One day things just clicked. The spirit testified to me that this church had the fullness of the gospel. That Christ did pay for my sins, that I could be forgiven, and that God loved me because I was his child. My life changed drastically. My boyfriend at the time ended up talking to the missionaries too. He was baptized a little over a year ago. That boyfriend is now my Husband. He is such strength to me, the change we made was hard, but I will never say it wasn't worth it, because it was - more than I can put in words. I asked -I got my answer.

Personal Stories

How can we develop greater harmony in our homes?

Good Communication. For myself that means, no yelling. Children live what they learn, so this is a hard habit for me to quit. Beyond that good communication means listening more than me talk. Learn to seek to understand the other person before trying to be understood. It means making sure that everyone is on the same page. So many of the dumb little fights we had in my childhood family were the pure result of miscommunications.

How does making right choices help us make more right choices?

Sometimes the best way for me to understand something is to look at the inverse situation. Once you say yes to, oh let’s say smoking, it's much easier to say yes the second time, and then the third, etc. It is the same way with making a good choice. The next time you still have strength from the time before. If you continue the 'right choice' trend, your choices become a habit. Soon making the right choice comes as instinct.

What is hope and what do you hope for?

Hope is the anticipation that good will come. That's what I see hope as, of course hope dosn't make things happen. I hoped for sixteen years that my parents would mend their marriage and instead a month after turning sixteen I found out that they were splitting up. But at almost 22 years old, I can look back and say the good came. Although I now had to houses there was no storm in either. They became homes to me. I had hope, but I didn't know Gods plan. He knows what is best in this life for us.

Now my hope is different. I hope that I can stand up to the challenges that i have been given in this life. I hope my best is enough, and I hope that whatever God has in store, good will come in the end.

How I live my faith

I live my religion one day at a time. It’s not easy, but I have peace when I do. I could never live the life I do if I didn’t pray every Morning, and every Night. I also pray sporadically throughout the day when I need some extra strength. The second key is scripture study. I study a minimum of once a day. I receive most of the answers to my life’s questions there. I pray and often, God answers me when I’m reading. The scriptures have become my ‘life manual’. The last step in keeping my life close to God is Sunday worship. Church is the medicine that gets me through the next six days of the week. I LOVE church! I love the family that a congregation becomes. I love the acceptance I feel there. I love the lessons and the spirit that can be felt. I love the rest that I get on that day. To do nothing after church but the things I wish I had time to do on the other days of the week. For example, e-mail my Grandma, or read that book I’ve been meaning to read for months, or take a walk with my husband. (I am also a sucker for Sunday naps…) It takes work to stay close to Christ. It takes work to live like Him. It’s hard to know what the Fathers will is in my life, it takes patience as I wait for answers to my prayers. It takes self-control to live the commandments and not fall into temptation. But it’s possible and worth it! The closer I get to God, the better my habits become. Baby steps, that’s how I live my religion.

Can a husband and wife be together forever? Do Mormons believe that families will live together in heaven?

Amanda answered...

YES!!! This is one of my favorite parts of the gospel. I believe that my family will live together in heaven. I will know my family as my family members. My husband is my husband for now and for all eternity. My children are my children here on earth and for all eternity. I know that if something happened to one of us that I will see them again. I love this about the church. Before joining, I always had a question about this concept and when taking the discussions from the missionaries this came up. Makes me love the church more and more.
Daniel answered...

When married by earthly power and the authority of man, our vows are "Until death do you part."

We believe that families can be together forever as part of our Heavenly Father's Great Plan of Happiness. His Work and His Glory is to bring to pass the exaltation and eternal life of man. He wants us to be even as He is and to return home to live with Him again.

Through the ordinances of his Holy Temples, God's son's and daughter's are able to make covenants. Through the power of His Holy Priesthood, be sealed together for all of time and eternity as Husband and Wife, parents and children.

Families were designed and instituted by God with the intent that they be forever. The love we feel in this life does not need to be cut off when we die. Those who have already died are not lost us forever. God has mercifully made a way by which all who would accept these saving ordinances can do so, living or dead.

We perform these ordinances for those who have in the past died so that they may have the opportunity of accepting them on the other side if they so choose to do so.

What are some things that tell you there is a God?

Mark answered...

Everything around us testifies of a God who created all things. The complexity of life points toward an Intelligent Being who designed it, organized it and brought it to existence. The probability that everything around us may have arisen by mere chance is infinitely small, and the idea of a Supreme Creator is the only one that can make sense of all the beauty and complexity of nature including ourselves. And yet, these still do not prove the existence of God in the same sense that scientific concepts are proven. It is really impossible to prove the existence of God in the same, logical way used in science (the scientific method). That is why we say that we believe that there is a God, even if we have not seen him - this is called faith. I have not personally seen God, but my inner self tells me that he exists. Ultimately, it comes down to individual choice. We decide based on what we see and feel, on what the surroundings tell us, whether God exists or not. I choose to believe that there is a God, and this choice is one of my most important freedoms.