Is god’s will the same for everyone?

People tend to think God sees things the way they see things -or, at least, approves of how they see things.

Viewing God in our image is a wonderful thing, except when it is terrible.

The world is too diverse and God too merciful, in my view, to had the same will for everyone on the details.

Perhaps at a high level — to live harmoniously with others, yes, but not in the nitty gritty details of every day life…

People tend to think God sees things the way they see things -or, at least, approves of how they see things.

Viewing God in our image is a wonderful thing, except when it is terrible.

Love this. As many people here can attest, it’s a difficult thing to admit that how you’ve been living your life up to this point may not have been the best use of your time (which can also be debated because who’s to say that you would’ve arrived at the same conclusion had you lived another way? But I digress…).

I tried to find it, but haven’t been successful; I swear President Uchtdorf said in one of his talks that personal revelation is good and wonderful, but people run into trouble when they take their part and apply it to the whole. I think most people EVER can be charged as guilty on this one. 😈 Where I’ve arrived at in my journey is that the church does what it needs to so it’ll survive as an organization. That doesn’t mean that I have to keep my path on course with it, and that that fact is ok. It’s more than ok, it’s just life! I do not believe in a One Size Fits All approach to anything.

Dependent on how you define God’s Will, I would say Yes and No. Yes in the sense that everyone is entitled to live authentically and fully. No in the sense that everyone has the same checkpoints. So mostly no.

Conformity: Because different is dangerous.

:clap: Well done.

LH…don’t you think there is some benefit to conformity for the church? I can see it, which is why they push it. Perhaps they’ve just pushed it a bit too far for too long, and it needs balancing…but there is some dangers to differences. Right?

Conformity: Because different is dangerous.

:clap: Well done.

LH…don’t you think there is some benefit to conformity for the church? I can see it, which is why they push it. Perhaps they’ve just pushed it a bit too far for too long, and it needs balancing…but there is some dangers to differences. Right?

I certainly do think that conformity helps you feel part of the tribe – clearly communicating you want to be part of the group.

It is just when it is taken too far (just as the opposite end of the spectrum and nobody having anything in common with others) then it becomes an issue. Also conformity on the exterior does not always equal conversion of the heart.

I think this love affair with conformity is a bit stronger in Utah culture (which also seems to prize passive aggressiveness). I had a BF at BYU who once asked me (what he thought was) a thought-provoking question: In the celestial kingdom, do we all look the same? Such a thought had never even occurred to me, and I laughed it off and said that sounded more like hell than heaven to me. But he was deadly serious, wondering if that was really where our theology pointed.

In that temple movie the couple CK people we see look exactly alike…. 😈

and years later I’d start to get those “wait a sec” moments. How did my spirit look like me in the preexistence?

I suppose this leads to the questions of when do our essences begin and what is the essence of our being? JS taught that the intelligences were eternal in some state – yet they seem to be refined from one state to another through the different steps of the “Plan”. What does my essence look like? I do not think that it would appear the same as my mortal body does. However, 1) I do not really know and 2) I am so used to seeing my face in the mirror that it has come to represent the greater whole of me so I do not mind people assuming that we look like our spirits.