What is Important to me and Why

While some of what I'm writing here may seem obvious, I'm presenting it to explain the reasoning behind my outlook. So please bear with me.

We all have priorities in our lives. There are many things to choose from, such as money, work, our heart (spirit), study, social, church, family, sport, entertainment etc. It is interesting that we all have a different amount of interest in each of these things. This set of values and priorities, along with our opinions in them, forms our "religion". Every person on earth has their own religion; as the word "religion" actually refers to a way of life or living. Deeper religion includes viewpoints about life relative to what it all means: Where we came from, why we are here, where we are going after this life is over, how to live and why.

We all turn to others to assist us in working out our religion (whether deliberately or by what we just pick up as ideas). This can be family, friends, associates, the media, educators, professionals, unpaid religious teachers or God himself (the latter being extremely rare). Large amounts of religious ideas just come while growing up. If we never seriously challenge these, they will remain part of our religion for life. Unfortunately many ideas of society are false. They are good sounding ideas that we are mindwashed into believing from youth. Those people who turn to a religious group may make some changes to these and can then reflect the priorities of the group.

Otherwise people reflect the priorities of the society overall. There are instances of people being completely controlled by the group or society, but these are few. In most cases this is a chosen thing of itself, not a product of the religion or society.

My personal religion has made many major changes from that which I was brought up believing. It now runs along a parallel with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (nicknamed "Mormons")(http://www.mormon.org). I therefore believe in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

My religion is no longer about outward actions to appease some feared God. It is about inner feelings of love taught to me by a God that loves me far more than I have yet learned to love him. My priorities are taught to me by him. And my viewpoint of life reflects his in many ways.

This strongly affects my outlook of life and my purpose, making them very different to those of society generally. I believe couples MUST share the same total religious outlook to have a successful marriage; particularly those areas they find deeply significant. While the time we are now living in is virtually the only focus of society, to me it has a much lower focus than eternity. We're here to gain a body and learn what we can for eternal use. While this learning includes all aspects of living, my focus remains on the spiritual, not on the physical.

This doesn't mean that I live as a hermit in a cave pondering my navel and its meaning. I play computer games and enjoy walking in nature. I watch science fiction, romances, some action, some human interest, intelligent, some comedies and religious movies. I also enjoy being out amongst people. But the things that bring me to life are those things of the heart (spirit). And so I seek deep spiritual input. My heroes are people such as Jesus Christ (naturally), Moses, Abraham, Nephi, Joseph Smith, Stephan, Enoch, and Elijah.

When looking for movies to watch I attempt to avoid those containing strong violence, swearing, and sex outside of marriage. Yes, I have often spent an hour searching through a video library only to leave empty handed. I don't keep music that contains swearing or presents sex as a focus. And the only "girly pictures" I keep on my computer are of those fully dressed, and not showing cleavage - generally positive, face focused, smiling/pleasant expression type photos.