{"id":28,"date":"2011-08-17T09:33:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T14:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2011-08-31T15:45:40","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T20:45:40","slug":"suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/2011\/suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkellyparies.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2Fsuicide%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p>My second entry to my blog is a request from my beautiful son on the other side, Kory.\u00a0\u00a0It was the next step in my journey to understanding the Spirit World.\u00a0 When I was a teenager I, like a lot of people struggled with my self perception, my social status and a whole array of things that made me consider the darker aspects of death.\u00a0 I felt so unworthy of life, that I thought it would be easier to just give up. I contemplated suicide. I know this was a scary thought but I didn&#8217;t think it would matter. I thought the world really didn&#8217;t care if I was here or not. To think I could just go to a beautiful place and all my trials would be gone. This is when I believe I was directed to a source of information that would help me through this trial.\u00a0I found a wonderful little book that changed my perception of life and helped me hold onto\u00a0life with both hands and all my might.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The book title was:<\/p>\n<p>Return from Tomorrow by: George G. Ritchie.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Return from Tomorrow by: George Ritchie\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Return-Tomorrow-Elizabeth-Sherrill\/dp\/080078412X\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for a link to Amazon and this book.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is a really little book only 124 pages and very inexpensive, around 5-6 dollars or less. But the message is powerful. It is the true story of George Ritchie at the age of 20 years old and his death in an army hospital in 1943. The book was first published in 1978. I was in high school at the time so I read the book with great interest. It was not written by a member of my church so it was a view about death from someone who had some religious training, but was not active in a church at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing that struck me was the confusion\u00a0he had at first. He did not know that he died. He was the same person. Felt the same in thoughts. He only had a body that no one could see. He tried to communicate with people but they would not respond. He\u00a0was frustrated and\u00a0felt that somehow he had lost his hardness. (He was experiencing his body of light.) He finally came to the realization that he had died.<\/p>\n<p>He had a wonderful experience with Christ. It was beautiful to read the description of the unconditional love. He then went on a journey. This is the part that really helped me with my current thoughts about suicide. He was shown several different people that were following living beings around, talking, pleading and crying\u00a0to them. He or she was so &#8220;sorry&#8221; they didn&#8217;t understand. Christ explained to\u00a0George when he was confused to what they were so sorry about, that they were suicides.<\/p>\n<p>This had great impact on me because at that time I realized that when we die we are exactly the same person. All the problems that we had do not just go away. We do not just go to a wonderful place or a dark nothingness and don&#8217;t have to worry about the trial we were facing.\u00a0 We are just the same, but we have lost this incredible gift of our physical body. We are able to do more and learn more with the two together. I know that also when in the spirit body alone, we have the ability to travel quickly and learn quickly but it is still harder to progress\u00a0without the\u00a0physical body. From all the accounts that I have read,\u00a0individuals\u00a0that have passed on, regard being separated from their physical body as bondage.<\/p>\n<p>Suicide only does one thing. Make our problems worse! We still have to deal with the problem. We are still here being tested, but now we have added to the problem in a big way.<\/p>\n<p>This life is like our final exam. We have gone through all the time to get an education and learn and grow.\u00a0If we end our trial early and at our own hand it is like finishing the course through years of study\u00a0and then just not showing up for the final exam. Even if those final moments in life are really hard, if we do not finish, we have not completed our mission here on earth and we will regret that decision.<\/p>\n<p>We also need to be kind and supportive to those around us.<\/p>\n<p>Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said this:<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Although it is wrong to take one&#8217;s own life, a person who commits suicide may not be responsible for his or her acts. Only God can judge such a matter. \u201cObviously, we do not know the full circumstances surrounding every suicide. Only the Lord knows all the details, and he it is who will judge our actions here on earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dWhen he does judge us, I feel he will take all things into consideration: our genetic and chemical makeup, our mental state, our intellectual capacity, the teachings we have received, the traditions of our fathers, our health, and so forth\u201c (\u201dSuicide: Some Things We Know, and Some We Do Not,\u201c <em>Ensign,<\/em> Oct. 1987, 8).<\/p>\n<p>A beautiful article by Brother Ballard helps us understand more:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Suicide: Some Things We Know, and Some Things We Do Not\" href=\"http:\/\/lds.org\/liahona\/1988\/03\/suicide-some-things-we-know-and-some-we-do-not?lang=eng&amp;query=suicide\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to read Elder Ballard&#8217;s article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Life is a wonderful journey with ups and downs. I hope that we can hang\u00a0on and enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n<p>Share your thoughts and experiences so we may support each other.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkellyparies.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2Fsuicide%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My second entry to my blog is a request from my beautiful son on the other side, Kory.\u00a0\u00a0It was the next step in my journey to understanding the Spirit World.\u00a0 When I was a teenager I, like a lot of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/2011\/suicide\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellyparies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}