Of all the little elements making up my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ- there is one not-so-little piece that I am confident will never, ever falter. Other beliefs that I have may waver, and I may have weaknesses in my certainty of parts of the gospel, but this I will always know: I am a daughter of God, and He LOVES me.
There is simply too much evidence to deny it. To name a few...
1. We know about Him
And we didn't make it up, either. Our loving God sent us here to Earth, and He didn't send us to be here alone. We have access to the paths that will lead us to a testimony of His existence and love, and if we watch for it, we can see how His hand influences our lives every day. We have had dispensations of prophets on the Earth all throughout history,and we are in the midst of one of those dispensations today, with President Thomas S. Monson as our living prophet. We have the Book of Mormon, in addition to the Bible, to guide us through this mortal existence so that we can know how to return to live with God, sealed to our earthly families in a beautiful plan of progression, for eternity.
2. He sent us His Son
I believe that the greatest source of peace that we have access to is in feeling the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. His love is so infinite, and His mercy is so great, there is just no mortal feeling that can compare. Heavenly Father sacrificed Him for us, in a perfect plan for our redemption.
3. He offers us perfect examples of how to live
And I don't just mean the prophets, or even the Savior. Heavenly Father Himself is a perfect example of, among other things, parenting. Ever noticed? As parents (or future parents), we should always keep the line of communication from our children to us wide open, and what better example of that do we have than God's. He has made it possible for us to pray to Him anytime, anywhere, always. Even if it is just a prayer in our hearts, we can use that to ask Him for blessings, for protection, for help. And even though He knows exactly what the very best way to live our lives would be, He allows us to find the way ourselves. His counsel is there, His advice is wide open for our use. We just have to ask, and to look. Never has there been record of Him shoving His advice, discipline or doctrine down our throats.
Want to know how to be a good parent? Look to how Heavenly Father has loved us unconditionally, looked upon us in sweet mercy, and promised to always, always forgive our trespasses.
...And that's just a few. But you get the idea, yeah?
We often talk about founding our testimonies in the Savior and His Atonement. I've been thinking, lately, that it may be a good idea to go one step further and first establishing our testimonies in He who created us; Our Father. If we can establish that relationship, everything else (The Atonement, The Restoration, The Plan...) falls into place!
ReplyDelete