We Are His Children

by Camilla E. Kimball

I consider it a privilege to bear my testimony to this wonderful group of young women. I’d like to tell you that as I grow older my testimony grows stronger and more appreciative every day of my life.

We had an unusual experience in this recent journey that we have made. We had been visiting many of the less privileged members of the Church in the South Pacific and in the Caribbean area, where we have many new members. One experience that we had filled my heart with gratitude for what the gospel is doing for these dear people. We attended a meeting of the children in the school in the Samoan Islands. They have a Church school for the children there, and the students were gathered together on this particular occasion in the gymnasium, 1,700 little children. They were sitting on the floor just as close as they could get. It was wonderful to look out into the faces of these beautiful children with their black, shining eyes; and then to hear them sing “I Am a Child of God”; and to realize that beginning at the young age of kindergarten children up through the high schools they were being taught this wonderful hymn, that to me is one of the classic hymns of the Church.

I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way,

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

(Naomi W. Randall and Mildred T. Pettit, “I Am a Child of God,” Sing with Me, p. B-76)

To me, if we can have that in our hearts and our ambition, we will realize what a wonderful opportunity we have: We know where we came from. We know what the purpose of our life here is, and that is to grow and develop and to be useful and to advance in knowledge and in cultivating our talents, and then that we as women may have the wonderful opportunity and the privilege of being mothers in Israel and having the opportunity to teach little children to love our Heavenly Father and to know that we are his children and that he is so much concerned with us, each of us.

May our Heavenly Father bless each of you that you may walk safely to eternal life, which is the desire of all of us, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.