The Real You

The nature of our personal existence in this telestial world is that there are two parts to each of us. The temporal part that is our body and the spiritual part which is our spirit. Part of the test of mortality is to determine which one of those "selves" we are going to consider our real self. The temporal part of us is influenced by the circumstances, ideas, and situations around us. The spiritual part of us is influenced by the Spirit and the teachings of the Savior communicated to us through scripture, prophets, and teachers.

Along the path of life each of us begins to define ourselves in certain ways. In doing this we think things like "I am a procrastinator," "I am a caring person," "I am a person who eats too much," "I am a perfect housekeeper,"  "I am a sickly," "I am sensitive," and many other things. But look at those things. Most of them have to do with the temporal self. But the temporal self is by nature temporary and therefore can't be the real self. The real self is the lasting, eternal, spiritual self and to define ourselves with anything but our spiritual self is a mistake.

In Buddhist teachings the temporal self is considered the constructed sense of self and it can undermine our happiness. It is self-destructive and gets in the way of us finding our highest potential.

So when we start to think, "I am . . ." stop and ask yourself is that true? Is that the real, lasting, spiritual me or is it the temporal, temporary me? That's the only way to discover who we really are.

The Benefits

Yesterday I wrote about letting go of the "tags" we define ourselves by (father, daughter, contented, ugly, over-weight, smart, etc) and instead thinking of ourselves in terms of our core--the child of God that we are.

There is a beautiful thing that happens as we do this. We begin to see others not by their "tags" but by who they really are. Instead of looking at a stranger and immediately thinking "pretty" or "homely" or "well-dressed" or "successful," we look at others as we look at ourselves and think "child of God." We, in turn, treat them very differently.

I love a quote from C. S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory about this. Lewis said,

"It is a serious thing, to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,
to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to
 may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now,
you would be strongly tempted to worship."

Who Are You?

When God appears to Moses in Moses 1:3 the first thing he does is introduce Himself. “Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?”

The next thing God does is tell Moses who he is, “Behold, thou art my son.” God then tells Moses that he has a work to do and proceeds to show Moses the history of the world. After this marvelous revelation, God’s glory withdraws and Moses is left overwhelmed and physically weakened from his encounter with God.

While in this weakened state, Satan appears to Moses and tries to tempt him by saying, “Moses, son of man, worship me.”

It is very interesting to me that the first and most important things God wants Moses to know is who He is and that Moses is His son. It is equally as interesting that the first thing Satan tries to do is demean Moses’ understanding of his divine origin. Satan wants Moses to think he is just a mortal, human being.

Later, as the temptation from the adversary becomes more intense Moses resists by saying, “God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.” In other words, the reason Moses is able to resist is because he is not fooled by Satan. Moses remembers who and what he is and instead of questioning his divine origin, he questions Satan’s lies.

Knowing that we are the spirit children of our Heavenly Father is empowering. When we cling to the fact that we, too, are of divine origin—we are the children of God—we will also be able to resist the temptations of the adversary and live the way our Father wants us to live.

What is Worship?

I wish I were full of answers today, but instead I’m full of questions. Yesterday I was struck by the word worship. It is a word I’ve heard and used all my life; “I go to Church to worship.” But suddenly it hit me that I don’t really know what that means.


I looked up the word and my dictionary said, “Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also: an act of expressing such reverence.” The word comes from Old English weorth which means worthy and -scipe a suffix which in English translates into –ship a suffix meaning “state or condition of.” That only gave me more questions. How do I “Reverence God”? Is the state of "worthy" mine or His?

From this etymology of the word I got the feeling that worship is praising God's worthiness. But simply saying words of praise seems to fall short of what my heart tells me is intended.

What all this pondering boils down to is this question: What is the difference between sitting through a Sacrament meeting and worshiping at a Sacrament meeting?

I’ve pondered for hours now and think I’m discovering some important things, but I’d like to hear what you think. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think it means to worship God or how you think we should worship.

The Power of Positive Truth

I’ve talked a lot here on Good News! about how Living in Truth is living with reality and the verities of life. But usually I’ve talked about the negative realities and how to deal with them. However there are many positive verities or realities of life that encourage us and help us to Live in Truth.  For example, it is true that you are a child of God. That is reality. When you remember that verity and make it part of your daily thinking and doing you live differently than when you forget who you are.

Next time you pass a mirror, stop, look at your reflection carefully, and say, “I am God’s child!”  Then as you go on about your day think about what that means. As God’s child you genetically have within you the potential to be like Him. You are loved by Him. He, like any good father, wants what is best for you. And He will help you in any way He can to do and be your best. How can you fail with a loving Father like that?

As we are taught in Romans, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). Yes, in and of ourselves we are weak and make mistakes and are often inadequate. But we are not alone. We are conquerors through Him that loves us. The Truth is that He will always help us. 

“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 

shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

It's Never Too Late To Bloom

The crocus in my garden are teaching me new lessons. I don’t know how old those bulbs are, but they surprised me the first spring after we moved in when hundreds of yellow and white flowers burst through the ground to greet me. That means they have been there at least twelve years. I love how each day they open up to the sun and close at night to take a rest. I love how they seem to defy winter and celebrate spring. But most of all I love how each year they teach me something new.

This year they have made me think about how it is never too late, (translate that to I’m not too old!) to change and grow and reach for the sun. Regardless of my age or circumstances, I have within me divine power. I am a child of God. That means I have eternal potential and like my crocus, I can keep on blooming and growing and doing until the day I die. Like my crocus, I can reach out to the light and open myself to God’s goodness. Age is a state of mind and we are never too old or too young to be what God intends us to be. So I raise my face to the light and enjoy the light it gives me.

Knowing God

Have you ever wondered what God is really like—I mean personality wise? 

Too often He’s portrayed as stern and stoic, a task master who commands and drives his children. But that never felt right to me. Then I found a quote by Heber C. Kimball that felt very right. 

Elder Kimball says, “I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively and good-natured when I have His Spirit.  That is one reason why I know; and another is—the Lord said through Joseph Smith, ‘I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance’ (D&C 59: 15).  That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man” (JD 4:222).

When we pay attention to the characteristics that manifest themselves in us when the Spirit is with us, we learn what God is like. That delights me not only because of what it teaches me about God but what it teaches me about myself. I’ve grown up to be very much like my mortal mother and father and as a daughter of God I can “grow up” to be like my Parents in Heaven.

As Joseph Smith taught, “if men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves” (TPJS, p. 343). 

He also said that, “Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive” (TPJS, 257).

As we come to know God, it is so much easier to trust in Him and love Him.

Danger!

There is a danger in growing up in the gospel that we need to be aware of or it can hurt us. The thing that causes this danger is that when we hear something over and over we stop hearing it at all.

For example: We all know that we are children of God. We have heard the words and sung the song and know “I am a child of God.” But we have heard this so much that when these words are sung or spoken we no longer comprehend them—we don’t think about what the words mean. The words float over us like an unnoticed summer breeze without any concept being associated with them. Instead of thinking about the majesty and wonder and magnificence of the statement, we think, “I know. I’ve already learned that one. You don’t need to tell me again!”

This takes us back to Living in Truth. When we live in Truth we deal with the now and what is presently before us. That means that when the statement “I am a child of God” is presented to us we have an opportunity to think about that truth. It is an opportunity to let light into our souls by contemplating what it really means to be a child of God, to be immortally God’s offspring, to inherit “genetic” qualities from Heavenly Parents that will allow us to someday be like Them.

When we Live in Truth, we open our hearts and minds to the beauty of truth in any given moment (even if we have heard it a thousand times before) and let that beauty encourage, enliven, expand, and nourish our souls.

Who Are You?

When God appears to Moses in Moses 1:3 the first thing he does is introduce Himself. “Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?”

The next thing God does is tell Moses who he is, “Behold, thou art my son.” God then tells Moses that he has a work to do and proceeds to show Moses the history of the world. After this marvelous revelation, God’s glory withdraws and Moses is left overwhelmed and physically weakened from his encounter with God.

While in this weakened state, Satan appears to Moses and tries to tempt him by saying, “Moses, son of man, worship me.”

It is very interesting to me that the first and most important things God wants Moses to know is who He is and that Moses is His son. It is equally as interesting that the first thing Satan tries to do is demean Moses’ understanding of his divine origin. Satan wants Moses to think he is just a mortal, human being.

Later, as the temptation from the adversary becomes more intense Moses resists by saying, “God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.” In other words, the reason Moses is able to resist is because he is not fooled by Satan. Moses remembers who and what he is and instead of questioning his divine origin, he questions Satan’s lies.

Knowing that we are the spirit children of our Heavenly Father is empowering. When we cling to the fact that we, too, are of divine origin—we are the children of God—we will also be able to resist the temptations of the adversary and live the way our Father wants us to live.

Being the Prince or Princess

When I was a girl I spent many hours in the cherry orchard behind our house daydreaming. I had a favorite tree where I could nestle into the branches, (I called it my nest) and I’d watch the robins eat cherries and pretend I was Heidi in the Alps, or one of the Mickey Mouse Mousketeers. But most often I imagined myself to be a princess that ruled over the robins. The orchard was my kingdom, and having a very vivid imagination, I could spend hours feeling elegant while watching the affairs of my kingdom from the high tower of my beautiful castle.

I miss the magic of those days. But I’ve come to understand that my make-believe wasn’t all that far off. Building and watching over a kingdom—the kingdom of God—is what life is all about. And building that kingdom begins in the mind by the way we think.

The Savior instructed, “Seek ye to bring forth the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12:31). Later in the book of Luke we are told that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). While the kingdom of God is not brought about by imagining elaborate clothing and carriages like I used to imagine, it is brought about by visualizing ourselves as the princes and princesses of the kingdom. As we think of ourselves as the children of the King, and act accordingly—with love, kindness, joy, gratitude and all the other virtues that belong to our Heavenly King—the kingdom of God within us begins to grow. We change. We act differently. And as the kingdom within us grows, we discover hidden treasures of knowledge and gifts and talents with which we can serve others.

This isn’t make-believe. It is real. And the first step to bringing forth the kingdom of God within us is to use our minds to visualize who we really are.

Humbly Brilliant

In conjunction with what I wrote yesterday, the question always comes up about humility. Aren’t we taught that we should be humble? As King Benjamin said, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).

So how does thinking of yourself as brilliant, talented, and fabulous fit in with humility? To answer that question let’s first define humble. My dictionary says humble is “not proud or haughty: not arrogant or assertive.” The Savior knew he was brilliant, talented, and fabulous. But He was humble because he was not proud, haughty, or arrogant about it. He was the Son of God. He knew that, but didn’t need to boast or flaunt that fact in order to make Himself feel good. Instead it was like a foundation to His character that everything else built upon but doesn’t need to be constantly referred to or pointed out.

My favorite saying about humility sums this up. People who are humble don’t think they are less than other people. Instead they think less of themselves than they do of other people. In other words, when we know we are children of God, our brilliance and talent is so much a foundation to our character that we don’t need to be constantly proving it to others (pride and haughtiness). Instead we forget about ourselves and use our inherited brilliance and talent to serve others. The key to humility is not demeaning yourself or thinking you are less than others; the key is in understanding where your brilliance and talent come from. As Williamson put it, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”

Part of Living in Truth means understanding the truth of who and what you are--a talented and brilliant child of royal birth.


Picture: http://internetpaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/child-of-god.gif

God's Love Langauge

While in South Carolina a dear friend, TeLene, spoke with me about the entry I wrote not too long ago about the five love languages. She said that after reading about how God speaks to each of us in our specific love language, she began to think about the fact that God must have a love language also and that His love language is acts of service. This means that whenever we are obedient and serve, God feels loved. She explained how this discovery had changed her. For example, she had an assignment to help clean the church and when the time came had other things she would rather do, but then the thought came to her, “No. I need to go clean so God will feel loved.”

I’ve been thinking about what she said ever since and just yesterday found these insights from President Thomas S. Monson, “We have a responsibility to prove to our Heavenly Father, by the things we do, that we love Him. . . . Though we may not necessarily forfeit our lives in service to our God, we can certainly demonstrate our love for Him by how well we serve Him. . . . Each of us has opportunities for Church assignments. This opportunity of serving in the Church enables us to demonstrate a love of God and a love of our neighbor. . . . There is no finer way to demonstrate love of God than by serving Him in the positions to which we may be called. (“How Do We Show Our Love?” Ensign (Jan. 1998), p. 2, 4, 5.)

We talk a lot about God’s love for us, but sometimes we need to think about our love for God. Recognizing that He wants to be loved and then “speaking” His love language not only demonstrates that love, but the conscious recognition that when we obey we are loving him can motivate us to do the things we should.

Our Relationship to God

One of the most important things we can do in this life is to come to know who we are (see Romans 8:17) and act accordingly. This doesn’t mean that if asked the question we can answer, "I am a child of God." It means that you feel like a child of God. You feel like an heir! In other words, somehow the information has moved from being an idea in your head to a feeling in your heart. You KNOW you are God’s child and identify yourself as such. One thing that has helped me understand this is prayer. When I consciously think about my Father in Heaven and talk with Him rather than at Him, I feel more connected to Him. In addition, when I have finished pouring out my heart to Him, instead of jumping up and running on to the next task I pause and give Him time to speak to me. In this way I sense a very real connection.
I taught my children to do this when they were younger and one night as I was saying prayers with five year old Anissa, I began to review this principle with her. "Remember," I said, "to wait a few minutes after you. . ." At that point, Anissa put her little hand in my face to stop me from speaking. "No, Mom!" she said. "You don’t have to tell me that because once when I listened Heavenly Father said, ‘I love you."
As we learn who we are, the next step is the exemplify. Simply put, we act like a child of God at all times. We are princes and princess of the God of the universe! As we dress, speak, and act like children of deity, we are examples to those around us.
Ministering this knowledge grows out of exemplifying it. In any interaction with another of God’s children we should treat them as the royal beings they are. Sometimes this is difficult because they aren’t acting like God’s children. But the amazing thing I’ve discovered is that when I treat people as special, they soften and act differently. It has become a delightful endeavor for me to find something to complement sales people, telephone solicitors, servers in restaurants, or other service people for. I’m sure they take a lot of abuse from people and it has been so fun to watch them "brighten" when I complement them or simply treat them with the respect a child of God deserves.
It is a mind set and at first it is difficult to constantly remind ourselves of who we are and who others are. But as it becomes habit, amazing things happen. This is especially true when we remember that the people in our families are not "ours." They are God’s and he has entrusted them to our care.