Visiting Teaching Message

Each Sister Is a Beloved Daughter of Heavenly Parents and Has a Divine Destiny

Teach the scriptures and statements that meet the needs of the sisters you visit. Bear testimony of the doctrine. Invite those you teach to share what they have felt and learned.

What Does It Mean to Be a Beloved Daughter of Heavenly Parents?

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president: “You are literally spirit daughters of Deity, ‘offspring of exalted parents’ with a divine nature and an eternal destiny. You received your first lessons in the world of spirits from your heavenly parents. You have been sent to earth to ‘prove’ yourselves. …

“You are treasured children of the promise. If you will keep the Lord’s statutes and commandments and hearken to His voice, He has promised that He will make you high above the nations in name and honor and praise” (“You Have a Noble Birthright,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2006, 106, 108).

President James E. Faust (1920–2007), Second Counselor in the First Presidency: “A conviction that you are a daughter of God gives you a feeling of comfort in your self-worth. It means that you can find strength in the balm of Christ. It will help you meet the heartaches and challenges with faith and serenity” (“What It Means to Be a Daughter of God,” Liahona, Jan. 2000, 123; Ensign, Nov. 1999, 102).

President Lorenzo Snow (1814–1901): “We believe that we are the offspring of our Father in heaven, and that we possess in our spiritual organizations the same capabilities, powers and faculties that our Father possesses, although in an infantile state, requiring to pass through a certain course or ordeal by which they will be developed and improved according to the heed we give to the principles we have received” (“Discourse,” Deseret News, Jan. 24, 1872, 597).

How Can I Understand and Attain My Divine Destiny?

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985): “All of you need to drink in deeply the gospel truths about the eternal nature of your individual identity and the uniqueness of your personality. You need, more and more, to feel the perfect love which our Father in Heaven has for you and to sense the value he places upon you as an individual. Ponder upon these great truths, especially in those moments when (in the stillness of such anxiety as you may experience as an individual) you might otherwise wonder and be perplexed” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 222).

Romans 8:16–17: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “We are to be creators in our own right—builders of an individual faith in God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith in His Church. We are to build families and be sealed in holy temples. We are to build the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. We are to prepare for our own divine destiny—glory, immortality, and eternal lives. These supernal blessings can all be ours, through our faithfulness” (“The Creation,” Liahona, July 2000, 104–5, Ensign, May 2000, 86).

Photo illustration by Christina Smith; border: detail from Jesus Christ, by Harry Anderson