I'm Mormon and I Show it

"Mormons are weird."
"My friend is Mormon, and she can't do anything fun."
"I don't know how Mormons do it with all those kids and no coffee!"

Ok, I have never actually heard that last one, but I'm sure someone, somewhere has said it!   I have heard the other two though.  I will admit, some of us are weird, but I can guarantee that we have plenty of fun!

I will concede that we are different.  We don't drink alcohol.  We don't use tobacco or drugs.  We refrain from premarital sexual relations.  We are modest with our bodies, language and actions.  And we spend roughly one-tenth of our weekend waking hours at church. 

The list could probably go from there, but that's a good place to start.  Doing those things (or not doing those things) certainly sets us apart from the crowd here on earth. It opens up a wide variety of joke material for Saturday Night Live comedians.  It is not easy to do in the world we live in.  So....why do we do it?

In the Old Testament, there were people--male or female--known as Nazarites.   These were people who took a voluntary vow to separate his life for the service of the Lord, or to live consecrated to Him.  Sometimes this vow was for their entire life, sometimes only for a determined amount of time.  In order to be a bona fide Nazarite, there were three main vows that you lived by:

1.  You did not drink wine.  Not even vinegars or other drinks made from the fruit of the vine. Nor did you eat the fruit of the vine.
2.  You did not cut the hair on your head for the duration of your devotion.
3.  You did not go near a deceased person, even if that person was a family member.

Now, reading those rules, I would say that sounds a little bit strange.  Maybe a little bit strange like a Mormon man in an early morning carpool refusing that cup of coffee on a cold morning because he does not drink coffee. Or a young woman who wears a prom dress with a cardigan over it to maintain her modesty. Or that young couple that does not live together or do anything more than kiss until they are married.

We are encouraged from an early age to "be in the world, but not of the world."  The Nazarites led their peculiar life because they were "separating themselves from the world" to be in service to the Lord.  We separate ourselves that same way.  We choose, at baptism, to life a life following the Lord.  We decide that we will be different from the world by the way we behave and the activities in which we do or do not participate. 

We do this, because we know that the Lord will bless us for following Him.  I like when it is explained as "an outward expression of an inward devotion."  We are devoted to the Lord, and we are not afraid to show it.
I'm a Mormon.  I know it.  I live it.  I love it. (Anne M. Dibb)