Summary: In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have repeatedly been told that we are a child of God, but we have heard that phrase so many times that it can become trite and almost meaningless. When we consider that everyone else in the world, regardless of who they are, what they believe, or what they do is also a child of God, it can make us feel as though we’re no more important to God than anyone else. This article seeks to help us better understand just how significant being a child of God is.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our Primary age children learn to sing, “I am a child of God, and he has sent me here.” And then they ask God to “Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.”

As members of this church, we have repeatedly been told that we are a child of God, and we’ve heard that phrase mentioned so many times that it has become mundane, trite, and almost meaningless. If we were the only person whose father was God, then we could feel special and privileged, but when everyone else in the world is a child of God, regardless of who they are, what they believe, or how they behave, then there’s nothing special about us and we’re no more important than everyone else. In fact, if we feel like we’re not as good as someone else, then such a title is worse than meaningless because it can make us feel inferior to other children of God. That can lead to someone thinking that God doesn’t love them as much as he loves others.

But each one of us are special to God because each and every person who has lived, is living, or will yet live on this earth came here with the express desire to someday become as righteous and perfect as our Father in heaven. In fact, we deliberately chose to come here to this physical earth because we wanted to have the kind of training that will prepare us to become exalted beings.

But we have also been told this so many times that after a while it loses its significance as well, so what exactly does it mean to become just like our Father in heaven?

First and foremost, our Father in heaven is a God! That means he is perfectly righteous and perfectly holy. It means that he knows all things, is all wise, and is all powerful. As God, there is nothing he can’t do, including having the power to control the entire endless universe just by speaking his word.

Although this is what we believe about him, yet his abilities are so grand and vast that our finite minds can’t even comprehend what that means because it’s so far out of our realm of understanding that it’s like trying to explain calculus or how to build the international space station to a five-year-old. Therefore, to get a better sense of what it means to be like our Father in heaven, we need to compare it to something we can relate to.

In America, the most powerful person is said to be the President of the United States so instead of saying I am a child of God, if we say, I am a son or daughter of the President of the United States we’d be better able to understand the implications of what that phrase means. In ancient England, their most powerful person was the king, so if we can imagine that we’re the son or daughter of the king of England, we can understand how special and important that would make us. Or imagine if our father is the president of a company that has offices all over the world and his salary is a hundred million dollars a year. That would make us a very special person compared to everyone else.

But let’s say that because our father is so rich and influential, he can afford to send us to a very special prestigious school where we can be taught to do everything he does. However, all the other students in this school also have fathers who are just as rich and influential as ours. In that case, we wouldn’t be any more special than they are, yet that doesn’t diminish who we are.

However, despite the similarities to all these other students, everyone has different skills and abilities. Therefore, it’s only natural that some students are going to do better in their classes than others, and some are going to struggle to learn their lessons, but that fact doesn’t change how special each of us are because it doesn’t change who our father is and it doesn’t change how special and prestigious our school is.

We can think of our time here on earth as being in the school of the gods, where we learn how to be divine, just like our Father in heaven is, and we came to this prestigious school to be taught some of the lessons necessary for us to do what God, our Father, does, However, earth life offers many different kinds of things for us to study and learn about, but there is only one course of instruction that’s designed to teach us how to become just like our Father in heaven.

To again put this in a perspective we can relate to, let’s look at the example of attending college. The first thing we must do is apply to the particular college of our choice and when we are accepted, we’re required to sign a contract stating we will abide by the rules of that institute of higher learning, which includes attending the required classes, studying and learning the material provided, completing the assigned homework, and studying for and passing the tests given.

College courses are meant to be intensive and therefore it takes a lot of effort to get a passing grade in each subject. For that reason, there are some students who find the work too hard and drop out of college altogether, and of course, when that happens, they will not earn the degree for which they had once hoped to achieve. It’s only those who successfully endure to the end of all their classes who will graduate and receive a diploma in the field of their choice.

During the school year, there will be students who will not be serious about their education and will spend their time having fun instead of studying, who then risk not passing their courses. However, a person doesn’t have to be a straight A student to graduate. In fact, someone with a low C final grade will receive the same diploma as the honor student.

However, even though each diploma may look the same, no two students will be the same academically because the student who graduates with a low C will not have the same knowledge as the person who was an honor student. For that reason, they will not be prepared to be as successful in life after graduation. Thus, the real reason people go to college is not so much to get a piece of paper that says they’ve graduated with a degree, but to gain the necessary knowledge and skills they’ll need to be successful in their chosen field.

All of us came to earth for the very purpose of learning how to do what our Father in heaven can do, but once here, very few people actually sign up for that course. It’s at the time we are baptized that we sign the contract saying we will keep the commandments God gives us and as of today, only 17 million people living on the earth out of 8 billion people have chosen to do that. That’s only one-fifth of one percent of the world’s population. That makes those 17 million people extra special to our Father in heaven.

But the course of instruction is not easy, and for that reason a percentage of those 17 million people have decided to drop out of God’s divine university. Among those who remain, there will be some who won’t be serious in taking their required courses of instruction and will spend more time pursuing the things the world has to offer rather than staying focused on their studies. Although at death all of us will graduate from this life and move into the next stage of our existence, those members of Christ’s restored church who only gained a low C will not be prepared to be as successful in their future spiritual estate as will those who worked hard and got good grades.

The very reason why people go to college is to get the kind of job where they can make the kind of salary that will provide a good life for themselves and their families. And the same is true for why people enroll in God’s special course in godhood, where they hope to have a more glorious eternal future for themselves and their eternal families, but what does that life look like?

Since the glories of heaven are so far beyond our ability to fathom, we again need to compare it to something we’re all familiar with.

Imagine being able to afford to live in a one-million-dollar home sitting on an acre of a well-manicured lawn with beautiful shrubbery, trees, and flowers. And imagine having enough money to afford to buy the best furniture, the best clothing, the best cars, and being able to go on exotic vacations.

Now compare that to those in the middle class who can afford to live in a nice comfortable home but where money is a little tight. These people can afford to buy decent furniture, wear decent looking clothing, drive a decent car, and can afford to take a simple vacation once a year.

Then compare that to someone who lives in the slums. Since most of them have no job, they can just barely afford the necessities of life and the thought of having any kind of luxury item is only a dream. As for their transportation, they have to depend on walking to get where they want to go.

But they are better off than those who live in prison, where their movements are confined and where they have no freedom to do what they want. As for what these people personally own, they are dependent on what others tell them they can and cannot have.

In heaven there are three degrees of glory – the celestial, terrestrial and telestial – and there is a place of no glory known as outer darkness, or what other Christians would call hell. This place can be likened to those in prison. We can think of the telestial kingdom as the slums of heaven, with the terrestrial kingdom being likened to those living in the middle class, while the celestial kingdom is where the rich live.

But there is one more level which is the highest degree of heaven which is where the gods live. This could be likened to living in a $20 million mansion with five acres of beautiful land, with maids, butlers, and servants to take care of any and all needs from cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, lawn care, chauffeur driven cars, and even live-in babysitters and personal tutors. We can compare this level of living to that of the king of England.

When we lived with our Father in heaven as spirit children, this was the kind of environment we grew up in and is the kind of life we were used to. This is where we called home and where we wanted to return. This is no different than if we were born as children to a king where we grew up living in our father’s palace and enjoying all the amenities available to our father.

But as we become adults, our desire is not to stay at home as children but to have a palace of our own where we are a king over our own kingdom, just like our Father. Even here on earth, the desire of all children is to someday leave home and have their own family. When we left our heavenly home to live in mortality, we looked forward to the time where we could return to that part of heaven because to us, that is where “home” is. However, we didn’t want to return as children, but as grown adults, capable of living in our own mansion and ruling over our own kingdom.

This is the kind of life we aspired to, and this is what all our training is about. None of us aspired to return to heaven so we could live in the middle-class section, and we certainly didn’t want to spend eternity living in the slums of heaven.

But to achieve the level of living that our Father has requires knowing how to do everything he does. To put this in earthly terms, it would be like learning how to successfully manage a highly profitable world-wide organization.

But before we are able to do that, we first have to gain specialized knowledge and develop specific skills. However, to gain that knowledge and develop those skills can only come through diligent and persistent efforts in learning our lessons.

Yet, as hard as that may be in itself, we have to face another challenge. Satan and his angels are determined to distract us from our goal of returning “home” by getting us to forget about preparing for our eternal future. Instead, he tries to distract us by having us focus on enjoying the things of this world and not think about what will happen when we leave mortality. He tries to convince us to eat, drink and be merry because it all ends when we die, so he encourages us to take advantage of what life has to offer now so we don’t miss out on all the wonderful earthly things. But this is similar to what happened in the Walt Disney movie of Pinocchio when boys were lured to Pleasure Island, where they could engage in all sorts of fun things, but as they did, they slowly began to turn into donkeys who were then sold into slavery.

In the same way, because the great majority of people listen to Satan’s lies, they choose not to enroll in God’s course of divinity, but in doing so they are only preparing themselves to live either in the terrestrial or telestial kingdoms of heaven, as will those who later drop out of their divine schooling after having once agreed to be baptized.

What we have to realize is that God will not force anyone to do something they don’t want to do and therefore he gives us the freedom to decide what kind of an eternal future we want for ourselves. For instance, when someone goes to college, they choose to take classes in the kind of career they want to work in. Stated differently, they choose to follow a career they’re interested in and that they enjoy doing. For example, the reason someone chooses to become a doctor, or a nurse is because they enjoy helping sick people get better. On the other hand, no one takes engineering courses if they don’t like math.

In the same way, people who choose to be baptized into Christ’s restored church should do so because they want to become more like God. But even if that’s something they desire, it’s going to take hard work for them to achieve their goal. For example, if someone takes genuine pleasure in caring for the sick, if they want to become a qualified doctor, they’ll have to put in the time and effort it takes to obtain their medical license.

When someone goes to college, they devote four years of their life to learning and studying, often sacrificing other things they would like to do, yet on graduation day, all of that effort is forgotten as they experience the thrill of walking up on stage to receive their graduation diploma. And the same is true of becoming like our Father in heaven. It’s going to take a great amount of effort to learn how to do that, and sacrificing doing things that others are enjoying, but in the end, the thrill of our reward will be beyond our current ability to comprehend.

What we have to always remember and keep in mind is that what we do now determines what we will be doing in the future, both here in mortality as well as in eternity. Whether we like it or not, we are here to learn valuable lessons that will stay with us forever, but the decision of what we want to learn and what we choose not to learn God leaves completely up to us. God can give us counsel, advice, guidance, and direction, but he won’t make us do what he wants. At the same time, Satan can persuade, lure, tempt, and seek to deceive, but he can’t make us choose to follow him. We alone are free to choose who we want to listen to and what we want to do.

But if we choose to enroll in God’s courses, know that he will do everything in his power to help us succeed. Those who enter into covenants with God, both at the time of their baptism and especially in the temples of the Lord, and who strive to keep those covenants, Jesus is committed to giving them all the help they need.

Like all good teachers, his door is always open, and his help is always available because he’s more interested in our success than we are. He wants us to achieve the best that God has to offer more than we want it, mostly because he understands much better than we do how glorious his kind of life is than that found in any other degree of heaven.

However, because he is so interested in our success, there’s a very important reason why his training has to be so rigorous, and that’s because the greater the power someone has, the greater the chance becomes of them misusing it and God wants to make sure we never do that.

To illustrate this problem, when someone has great power, they may be tempted to do something they know they shouldn’t, yet think that because of who they are, or because of their power, influence and/or money they can get away with it. Unfortunately, history is replete with examples of those who sought to misuse their power and learned the hard way that what we sow is what we reap.

Sometimes these sins are committed with the best of intentions or because of poor judgements, but when people are caught doing things they shouldn’t and are convicted in a court of law, they will spend time in prison regardless of their wealth or position.

To become a god requires becoming perfectly righteous and perfectly holy, however, they always retain the freedom to do what they want. We’re told that when someone does something “in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves, and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood of that man” (D&C 121:37), and that law applies even to God.

Should someone who holds the exalted position of godhood use their power in any degree of unrighteousness, the heavens withdraw and when that happens, they lose the authority and power of their priesthood. And when that happens, they’re not just demoted to a lower kingdom, but they are stripped of all their glory. Should that happen, the only place they are qualified to spend eternity is in outer darkness. which is exactly what happened to Lucifer and those who followed him.

However, our Father in heaven is doing everything in his power to make sure that never happens to us and so he plans his course of instruction with the intent of sorely testing us so that in the eternities we will never want to make an unrighteous decision as an exalted being.

For this reason, God is totally committed to our success in becoming just like him. He wants to see us enjoy all the glory and power he has more than we do because that’s what brings him great joy and happiness. This is why God’s work, and his glory is all about helping to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children.

But Satan’s work is all about doing everything he can to make us as miserable as he is, and he does that by getting us to either forget about or blind us to or minimizes the importance of our divine destiny.

 

Related articles can be found at The Nature of God