Why I Fit

Recently I read an article written by a women who felt like she didn't have a place in her ward because she was a young, married women with no children.  She felt like she didn't relate to those around her and they didn't relate to her.  Because of this, she didn't like to be in Relief Society on Sunday and she didn't like the additional meetings at all.  She said she just didn't fit.

I'll admit.  It annoyed me.

You would think if anyone would agree with her, it would be me.  I've spent my whole life as a single female in a church where we constantly talk about marriage and family.  I've had to teach lessons on marriage or raising children as I've served in Young Women and Relief Society.  I've sometimes sat through those lessons on marriage and family with a broken and heavy heart and struggled to hold back the tears.  I've listened as well-intended sisters speculate as to why I'm still single and some who very bluntly tell me what it will take for my marital status to change.  I've attended many additional Relief Society meetings that had to do with families or couples.  But here is why I fit.

I'm a child of God.

That's why we all fit.  We forget sometimes that we are all here, trying to make it back home.  Every Single One of Us!!  We are all in the same spot.  We struggle with daily challenges and really hard things.  Those "hard things" are different for each us, but they are hard and we all have them.  We fit because there are times for each of us when we are doing everything we can but we feel tested and tried and we emerge from those situations stronger and more faithful.  Sometimes, though, we don't.  Sometimes we question and doubt and struggle. Sometimes we can be bitter.  That also helps us fit.  We've all been there.  We are brothers and sisters who can't make it home alone.  We need to help each other and love each other.

The reason I can look out on a congregation of women and feel like I belong is because I do.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ binds us together; the fact that we have the same Father in Heaven binds us together.  Our mortal journey is unique and tailored for each of us, but we are all trying to make it back.  This makes us the same.  This is why we fit!!