Waking up this morning to the horrific news of the bombings in Belgium was heartbreaking. Hearing that three of the people injured were from Utah (one from my same town) and were missionaries for the LDS Church serving in Belgium was even more devastating. As a mother of a daughter who is currently away serving an LDS mission it was far too easy for me to imagine what the mothers of those missionaries must be feeling today. It made me sick to even think about. I cannot stress enough how deeply my thoughts and prayers are going out to everyone impacted by this senseless act of violence. I also want to say how grateful I am to police officers, medical care givers, and anyone else who played a part in helping the victims today. God bless you all.
I will never pretend to understand how anyone could take the lives of innocent people. It is even more difficult to comprehend that anyone could claim to do it in the name of religion. I appreciated and agree wholeheartedly with the remarks of Gordon B. Hinckley when he was interviewed on television by Larry King following the 9/11 terror attacks when he said:
“Religion offers no shield for wickedness, for evil, for those kinds of things. The God in whom I believe does not foster this kind of action. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of love. He is a God of peace and reassurance, and I look to Him in times such as this as a comfort and a source of strength.”
Without question there is solace is the belief that a just God will make sure that each person faces their appropriate judgement in the end.
At times like this I think it is imperative that we keep faith in the goodness that exists in humanity. We cannot let the acts of a violent few villains overshadow the vast number of heroes doing incredibly good in the world. There are so many great people doing so many amazing and selfless acts of service and the more we can highlight their good works, the more we can overshadow the evil villains. Those sweet missionaries who were injured are the perfect example. They are out as volunteers, paying their own way, spending two years away from family and friends and all the comforts of home to go out and do humanitarian service for strangers and spread a positive message of God’s love for all. They are the perfect example of heroes doing good in this world and there are all kinds of other great examples just like them.
The more we highlight the good works going on by heroes in this world the more we can spread a message of hope and positive action. Each of us can be an influence for good in the world and each of us can don our hero outfits and get out there and do good works to make this world a better place.
In closing I will say – Clearly the villains haven’t paid enough attention to the Disney movie’s because being a hero is simply WAY COOLER than being a villain and in the end it’s only the heroes who get to have a happily ever after… thank heaven for that!
~Amy
