What would disappear if every person on earth knew that they had a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother who loved them?

What would be gone if every child was raised with this knowledge?

Maybe hatred would disappear.

Maybe competition and jealousy.

Maybe self-loathing and criticism.

I know this won’t happen right now.

But I can control what my children learn.

How might they behave differently with this knowledge in their life?

Quin is a natural leader and quite brilliant.

I can see a future where she understands her divine destiny, as well as everyone else’s, and she teaches and leads with love and kindness.

Barrett loves to make people laugh and handles any vision impairment with naive bliss.

I can see a future where he understands who he really is, and uses humor to set a powerful example of being confident before others and the Lord.

Now who knows the path their life will really take, or the decisions that my kids will make, but I want to do my absolute best to ground them in this beautiful knowledge that I think can transform the world.

“Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.” -The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Do we teach this clearly enough to every young person we come in contact with?

Do WE believe it?

When we know that we have Heavenly Parents who love us, when we REALLY know this, I think we can change the world one person at a time.

Feeling loved and feeling important can change anyone.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

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4 Responses

  1. Those are beautiful thoughts Cali. As you mentioned from the family proclamation, each child “has a divine nature and destiny.” This is innate to everyone, but it [the knowledge] must be awakened within and activated by us individually. I believe those were the same thoughts and hopes of The Prophet Joseph Smith when he introduced our Heavenly Father and Christ and our potential to become like them in the “Lectures on Faith,” by the “effects” [LonF 7:17] of faith alone: [LonF 1:1] this was printed in 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. Back then these “lectures” were our canonized scriptures and it was called “The Doctrine of the Church” and lasted until 1921 [86 years] when they were removed. Why? [D&C 60:3; 93:39] The reason they were removed, we are told, was a half-truth or “lie.” It says they were removed because they were not “presented as revelations to the whole Church.” But they were! It was signed by: Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, F.G. Williams in 1835. These 7 Lectures were presented to the Church and that is why they were called “The Doctrine of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.”
    https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/9
    https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/12
    These 7 Lectures tell the story [doctrine] of the higher law, if you will, of what we as a people need to “become” like in order to return back to our Fathers presence in Celestial Glory, by faith alone [LonF 1:1; 7:13-17]. They are profound! What we are left with today is the lessor law… just like in the days of Moses. Both Moses and Joseph Smith Jr. “sought diligently to sanctify… [their] people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts…” (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 84:23 – 24). Both Moses and Joseph were taken and the people were left with the lesser law of ordinances and ceremonies to wake them up, if they would awaken, and remind them of who they were and of the higher law, if their eyes and ears were open to receive it. The higher law is the simple, pure law that a child understands through love, honesty and virtue from the heart. We are all endowed with this potential, with this destiny, with this birthright and inheritance!

    The higher law: “Who cannot see, then, that salvation [Celestial Glory] is the effect of faith? for as we have previously observed, all the heavenly beings work by this principle; and it is because they are able so to do that they are saved: for nothing but this could save them. And this is the lesson which the God of heaven, by the mouth of all his holy prophets, has been endeavoring to teach to the world….what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them—That he proposed to make them like unto himself; and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings: And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved…” [LonF 7: 16-17].

  2. The Family Proclamation to the World says each person “has a divine nature and destiny.” This is innate to everyone, but it [the knowledge of our divine potential] must be awakened within and activated by us individually. I believe those were the same thoughts and hopes of The Prophet Joseph Smith when he introduced our Heavenly Father and Christ; and our potential to become like them in “Lectures on Faith,” through the “effect of faith” [LonF 7:17] alone. The “Doctrine” of the Church [LonF 1:1] was printed in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. Back then these “lectures” were our canonized scriptures and it was called “The Doctrine of the Church” and lasted until 1921 [86 years] when they were removed. Why? [D&C 60:3; 93:39] The reason they were removed, we are told, was a half-truth or “lie.” It says they were removed because they were not “presented as revelations to the whole Church.” But they were! It was signed by: Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, F.G. Williams in 1835. These 7 Lectures were presented to the Church and that is why they were called “The Doctrine of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.”

    https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/9

    https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/12

    Doctrine and Covenants, 1835, Page 5 (josephsmithpapers.org)

    These 7 Lectures tell the story [doctrine] of the higher law, if you will, of what we as a people need to “become” like in order to return back to our Fathers presence in Celestial Glory, by faith alone [LonF 1:1; 7:13-17]. They are profound! What we are left with today is the lessor law… just like in the days of Moses. Both Moses and Joseph Smith Jr. “sought diligently to sanctify… [their] people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts…” (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 84:23 – 24). Both Moses and Joseph were taken and the people were left with the lesser law of ordinances and ceremonies to wake them up, if they would awaken, and remind them of who they were and of the higher law, if their eyes and ears were open to receive it. The higher law is the simple, pure law that a child understands through love, honesty and virtue from the heart! We are all endowed with this potential, with this destiny, with this birthright and inheritance!

    The higher law says: “Who cannot see, then, that salvation [Celestial Glory] is the effect of faith? for as we have previously observed, all the heavenly beings work by this principle; and it is because they are able so to do that they are saved: for nothing but this could save them. And this is the lesson which the God of heaven, by the mouth of all his holy prophets, has been endeavoring to teach to the world….what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them—That he proposed to make them like unto himself; and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings: And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved…” [LonF 7: 16-17].

    I believe in this “higher law,” it transcends all organized religions, it is innate to all, for God is “no respecter of persons” [Acts 10:34] and “any portion of the human family” who chooses to “become” a manifestation of the attributes, character and perfections of godliness is a member of “the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn” (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 76:67).

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