A group of Mormon women bloggers are currently hosting what they call “Celebrating Family 2011″ — with daily content on four different blogs featuring guest posts centered on The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

There are posts by men and women, by those who are married and those who are single, posts that span a variety of topics. For example, consider the following posts that all share thoughts on the topic of God’s love for all of His children, and how knowledge of His love and His plan can help us love others and endure hard trials:

From The Family Proclamation Includes Everyone by Jenna Eakins:

I’m just 27 years old.  I live alone.  I have no children.  And more to the point, I just went through a divorce earlier this year from my husband of three years….

In the midst of and despite my disappointments early on in life, I hold the hope and divine counsel offered in the Family Proclamation close to my heart and find its contents specifically relative to myself.

I fear that many people believe that the Family Proclamation is just for married people or “picture-perfect” families.  I now know that the principles found in the Family Proclamation are for everyone, even single, childless, divorced, young women like me!

From Teach Me Who I Am!

One year I was sitting in a meeting with Elder Ballard [a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles], as he was talking with a group of seminary [youth religion] teachers.  I will never forget something he said in that meeting.  “If my grandchild were in your seminary class, there is one thing I would want you to be certain to teach them….”  I remember this striking me with such force and knowing that since he was personalizing that statment to his grandchildren, whom he certainly adored, that it would hold much gravity.  “I would want you to teach them that they are a child of God.”…

The understanding of who we really are, what that really means, and what that means we can become… can absolutely change our bearings in life.  It can effect every choice we make, the way we treat others, and how we see ourselves.

From Jim who posted his post entitled A Taste of God’s Love, writing about a day when he was “people watching” at an indoor water park:

[M]y thought process went something like this: There are a lot of people here… everyone is so different… some would be easy to get along with, some are jerks… there are a lot of people on this planet… it’s mind-boggling to think about how unique each of the Earth’s inhabitants are… And then I pondered long and hard on this one: How is it possible that Heavenly Father can know and love all of these people individually and intimately? It wasn’t that I was doubting what we’ve been taught; I was simply wondering how it is done.

While in “ponder mode” I was suddenly struck by a feeling that overwhelmed me most unexpectedly…. I was left without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves each one of us as though we are His only child.

As stated in the proclamation, this means we have a divine nature and destiny. What that means to each of us should be a matter of personal study and prayer. It should determine how we act with each other and when we are alone. It should determine how we treat others—all seven billion of our brothers and sisters—and how we speak about them. It should be the driving force behind all we do.

We’ll try to share more highlights from this celebration of truths we are taught as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We hope you’ll take a few minutes in the next couple of weeks to read some of the posts on the following blogs:

Chocolate on My Cranium (http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/)
Welcome to the Madness (http://rovinroberts.blogspot.com/p/family.html)
We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ (http://beinglds.blogspot.com/)
The Red Headed Hostess (http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/)