I Am a Child of God
Understanding our Father’s love and our true identity as His children is essential for our daily and eternal happiness.
I am a child of God and He loves me. This statement is powerful and empowering. More importantly, it is true, not just for me but for each of us and all of us.
“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. …
“In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan [for] His children.”
I bear solemn witness of the reality of this “plain and precious” truth, powerful and simple. Understanding our Father’s love and our true identity as His children is essential for our daily and eternal happiness. It prevents deception and gives purpose to this mortal life.
The divine pattern of families teaches us of our Father’s love and our relationship to Him. In fact, “our relationship to God … [is] explained in terms of the family.” Holy scriptures also teach us in terms of the family. The New Testament begins with a young family and a baby born in Bethlehem. The Book of Mormon begins with a family’s journey of faith, and the Old Testament teaches how the Creation was not complete until God had organized a family. It is often through families, despite all their imperfections, that our Father teaches us about His love.
While at a Church meeting last year, I received an impression to do what the teacher was doing. So, in a text, I asked my wife to find a baby picture of each of our children. When I got home, we sat down and showed my kids their pictures. I told them that there are no words to fully express the love we felt when they were born, including the day each picture was taken. I then asked, “As of the date of this picture, what had you done to earn our love?” They lowered their eyes and said, “Nothing.” I asked them to look up and said, “You are right. You did nothing to earn our love. By that same token, there is nothing you can ever do that will unearn or remove that love from you. You did not earn it; you cannot lose it. It is yours forever.”
I continued, “We need you to always remember that what we feel is but a small fraction of what your Heavenly Father feels for you. You are His child and He loves you. He loved you before you were born, He loves you today, and He will love you tomorrow. He wants you to prepare to be like Him. You must never forget this. We hope this understanding gives you courage to do your best, to trust Him, and to live up to your potential. We also hope it gives you the strength and the humility to come home when you need to, because no matter what has happened, you can always come home, just as you can always turn to your Father in Heaven.” There were tears and tender hearts as the Holy Spirit bore witness that this was true.
I referenced my children, but for you it might be a special love for siblings, parents, spouse, aunts, uncles, a grandparent you never met before. Or maybe all that is there is a desire for a family or for healthy family-like relationships. Families evidence a divine and eternal pattern, connecting us to our Eternal Father and to His eternal family. Even when a loving family is not part of our earthly experience, knowing that our Heavenly Father loves us can provide power, peace, and comfort, especially as we remember the eternal blessings that await all who make and keep sacred covenants—including all the blessings of an eternal family.
As I bear witness of the eternal depth and nature of our Father’s love, I also offer this warning: Beware of the adversary’s deceitful lie that twists this precious truth. He tries to deceive God’s children into believing that because God loves us, we can be saved regardless of our pride, regardless of our rebellion, regardless of our sins, and regardless of our rejection of His Son and His Son’s servants. Receiving Christ through priesthood ordinances and covenants, and then being faithful to those covenants, is the only way for us to fully understand His love and the only way to exaltation.
Knowing and understanding our Father’s love is important for many reasons. I will share just three.
First, understanding our Father’s love helps us better understand Jesus Christ. We better understand why He did what He did and why He loves us the way He does. We recognize why He is anxiously engaged in trying to save and bless all of His Father’s children. This understanding makes us eager to quickly and wholeheartedly join Him in His Father’s work. As we are anxiously engaged in this work, we are able to become more like Him.
Second, when we understand God’s love for us and for the rest of His children, we become immune to the divisive and misleading labels of our fallen world, both the labels that people try to put on us and the labels the world tries to put on others. We see ourselves and all of God’s children as beloved and divine. We become quick to repent, slow to judge, and ever hopeful that the best is yet before us. We are forever willing to love and to make sure that no one is ever sitting, standing, or walking alone.
Third, understanding our Father’s love protects us from the pernicious lie that it is too late for someone to change, too late for someone to turn to Christ, and too late to receive His redeeming grace. From the prodigal son to leaving the 99 sheep to find the one, our Father’s message, through His Son, has always been that there is still yet time if we turn to Christ today.
God’s love is real, and Jesus Christ is evidence of that love. To fulfill His divine responsibility to help His Father’s children, He conquered sin and the grave. While still a mortal, He taught us to pray to “our Father.” Not just His Father, not someone else’s father, but our Father—a loving Heavenly Father who gives better gifts to His children than any other earthly father gives to his. Jesus Christ, through His premortal, mortal, and current ministry, points us to eternal life and personifies our Father’s deep, abiding, and eternal love.
Today Christ shows us our Father’s love through priesthood keys held by living prophets and apostles. These priesthood keys allow access to sacred ordinances and covenants that prepare us to return to our Father. Living prophets and apostles stand as witnesses that the resurrected Christ is evidence of the continuing and immeasurable love of our Eternal Father.
What I witness before you today first came by way of the Holy Spirit when I was a young boy riding from Nuku‘alofa to my home village of Mu‘a. I was reading a copy of the New Testament that referenced John 3:16 in several different languages: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I knew this was true then, and I know it is true now.
Jesus is the Christ. He, His restored Church, and the divine pattern of families stand as witnesses of our Father’s love.
I, Hutch ‘Ungapapalangi Fale, am a child of God. He loves me and He loves you. May this truth never leave our minds or our hearts, and may it change us forever. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.