Hello everybody!! I hope you had a great week and were able to work on something that could strengthen your relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, this week in my Family Relations class we focused on Social Class. When we think of Social Class, we imagine ranks of where people are based on their situation. What are different ways we can define Class? It could be defined as the amount of money one might have, or where they live, how well their education is, what kind of job they have, what race they are, the religion they are affiliated with, the language or amounts of languages they can speak, how they are dressed and their family structure. Now there are a lot more things that could define class. With all of these things that "define" class lets do an example. Say you see a lady who is walking around with a Prada bag and expensive clothes and her hair is in a neat bun and she is talking on the phone and her English is very proper. Just from that, you can see that she has money, keeps up her appearance, and has had the proper education needed to be literate. People would put her in a high class. Does it matter though if we are put in certain classes? The certain classes we are put in my opinion do not define us! Yes, we have different things that define class, but does that define who we are as individuals? If you are in a higher, lower, or middle class are you there because you worked your way there. Do you deserve to be labeled with that class? That is where privilege comes in. If I were to define privilege it would be, an advantage or entitlement given to us. The key word in that sentence is given. It is not something that is earned. Now, I am not saying that people can't work hard and earn the things they need or want through hard work, because many people have done that. What I am saying though is that when we put that definition of class on each other; when we see others as a certain class, we are not seeing them for who they truly are. We are not seeing there lifestyle, how they grew up, their trials, their heartaches and their accomplishments. We honestly aren't seeing any of their story.
I know this is terrible but before my mission I viewed high class people as snobby with an heir about them that let everyone know that they were better. I viewed lower class people as ones who had gotten into drugs and thrown their lives away. They were there because the decisions that they made. I then viewed middle class as people who worked hard to stay comfortable within their means and the ones that were truly happy. I should not have done that because it put others in a box. Now are there people out there that do follow what I used to believe about different classes? Maybe, but no one deserves to be put in that box or mindset before their story is known heck, even after it's known.
I served in the Salt Lake City Utah, at Temple Square Mission. It was there that I saw up close and personal all different kinds of situations. There were World travelers who would come to see Temple Square. They had lots of money and they had their fancy clothes and they stayed at the most expensive hotel across the street that outlooked the Historic Grounds from the 40th floor. It started to surprise me though that all of these "types" of people I met were so sweet and they were real! They would talk with us for hours and we would become good friends. Then as the weeks went on I started to notice more and more of how many homeless people were around the city. We would walk by them everyday and they would have their tents set up and they would be begging for money. I felt bad for them but had the same opinion that I had before my mission. They probably got themselves in that situation and they were probrably doing drugs and begging for money to spend on more drugs. It was around the first month of my mission that I was kind of called to repentance because of the way I was viewing these people. A scripture passage kept coming to my head over and over. It was in 1 John 3 and it says, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutters up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."
I love this scripture and I needed it to change my view of others. I had a worldly view on people I put them in categories before I knew them. When Jesus Christ was on the Earth, He talked with everyone and He loved everyone fully. Throughout my 18 months of serving and being a representative of Jesus Christ, I started to see others like Christ did. I loved them and talked to them and were friends with them, not because their status, privileges, situation or class. I talked to them and loved them and served them because I knew that they were a child of God and that they were loved by Him. I loved them.
I know there will always be ways to define people and their accomplishments and ranks in society but I am grateful for the love I have for them all and I invite you to see people as they truly are, Children of God. :)
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