god is our loving heavenly father

The root of all of my beliefs, of religion in general, is that a superior being exists. Now, quite honestly, I know I can't tackle the argument of every atheistic view out there (go read CS Lewis or something). I've heard it recently argued that it's all a matter of faith - you can't prove if God's there, you can't prove if He's not. And God himself? Well, my belief is that religion and God is all a spiritual matter, so you're not going to find the answers through anything other than spiritual means.

My belief is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. To me, the two most important parts of that statement are 1) that He loves us, and 2) that He is our father.

First of all, we're loved. The most powerful being in the universe, the one that truly has all power, knows all things, and can sometimes seem like some big, intimidating pile of intelligence - He loves you. He cares about you. He weeps when you find sadness and rejoices when you find joy. And I'm not talking about "love" in the way we seem to throw it around these days - one day confessing our love for someone and the very next changing our minds. Not in the "Wow, I really love pizza" meaning of the word. I mean the perfect, undefiled mean of love. His love - God's love - is pure and true and constant. It will never fade or diminish, and it's not dependent on what we do - it is simply there.

Second, God is our father. That's a pretty simple statement that carries a pretty complex meaning. Through it, we learn a lot about the nature of God, and a lot about our nature as His children.

Though I'm not yet a parent, I know the love for a child is immense, and I know that any good parent wants the best for their child. That means that when a toddler tries to stick their hand on top of a burning stove, the parent stops them. More often than not, the child is upset because all they know is that the person they love so much just stopped them from touching the beautiful glowing orange thing. The child might be wondering if their mom or dad does, in fact, love them. On the other hand, the other extreme doesn't automatically make the best kind of parent. If a mother never let her children step outside of the house (even if for safety reasons), the mother isn't really doing what's best for the child. Being trapped and over-protected prohibits necessary growth.

I think most of us would agree that being a good parent doesn't mean you let your child experiment on everything and figure it out for themselves, and it also doesn't mean you set absurd rules that prevent the child from ever learning. Rather, it's a balance of the two. We know that God is the perfect parent, which means He has rules but He also let's us learn, and the underlying factor for everything is that He wants us to be happy.

Growing up, I remember going to my parents for advice or permission on a lot of things. At times, they would tell me "No". "No, you can't go to that party. No, you can't skip school tomorrow. No, you can't drive the car at the age of 14." Other times, the answer was more along the lines of, "You know enough to make that decision for yourself." To be honest, there were moments when I found both infuriating. When the answer was a straight "no", I was angry they hadn't let me choose for myself. When the answer was to choose for myself, I was angry they hadn't given me a straight answer to make the decision easier. At the root of all my feelings, however, I knew that they loved me, and that everything they told me or directed me to do stemmed from their love for me. I was growing up, and I was learning, and they helped me to do that.

After a time, as I knew enough of the principles behind each rule my parents had established in our house, I was able to make correct decisions based on those very principles. I realized that all along, every bit of guidance my parents had offered me had been to make me happy. Especially as I left home and went to college, I always felt comfortable calling my parents up on the phone and being honest. Sometimes that meant crying together, and sometimes that meant laughing together. Getting a 98% on that Human Development test I was really nervous for meant that as soon as I left the testing center, I was dialing my mom to tell her how happy I was. She was right there on the other line to let me know how happy she was as well - she was proud of me. When I faced discouragement, I could call my dad and he would listen and sympathize. He was sad because I was sad.

No matter what I did, they loved me, and that love was based alone on the fact that I was their daughter. I could have disregarded everything they had taught me, denied they were my flesh and blood, and turned from their protective care, and they still would have loved me.

I testify that God is the same way. I know that He cares about us. I know that He loves you simply because you are you - you are His child, and that carries a great deal of importance. He wants you to be happy and to make good decisions, and He's always there on the end of the other line to pick up that phone and talk when you're ready to talk. I hope we are aware of how much He wants to listen to our struggles and our hopes and our dreams and our fears, and how willing He is to provide for us the help we need here on earth. As our parent, He has more knowledge than we do. He can tell when we're about to touch that burning hot stove and give us guidance. It is through obedience to Him that we will find true and lasting happiness.

God has given us a Savior, Jesus Christ, as a sign of His love. He knows were not perfect and He knows we're a little bit stubborn, but the fact of the matter is that He loves us and Christ's atonement can still apply to us. He asks that we have faith, repent, and turn to him through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost in order to be clean to return to His presence. I know that if we follow Christ, and trust our Heavenly Father, we will one day receive the greatest "welcome home" we can ever imagine. I know that as we better understand our God who dwells in the heavens, we can better understand things here on earth. He is the root of everything, and He is where it all begins.



Scriptures:

Believe in God (Mosiah 4:9)
God is perfect (Matthew 5:48) (see also 3 Nephi 12:48)
A comparison with our earthly father (3 Nephi 14:9-11)
God has a body of flesh and bones (D&C 130:22)
God's purpose (Moses 1:39)
God's love (John 3:16-17)
We are the offspring of God (Acts 17:27-29)
Children of God (Romans 8:16)
The father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9)
God's love (1 John 4:7-9)