Thursday, May 7, 2020

How do we view Heavenly Father #14

I've been pondering how I view Heavenly Father. Over the years I've come to view my Heavenly Father as kind of an all-powerful being, someone that loves me unconditionally, one who is at the head of all things that we have come to know and understand, and the one who I want to return to when my mortal probation is over. But at the same time Heavenly Father is also kind of mystical, mysterious, and really unknown to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. But I've never seen Him in the flesh or heard His voice, so, how should I view Heavenly Father? I’ve spent a lot of time over the years searching the scriptures and other writings from trusted brothers and sisters in the church. I've listened to His prophets and apostles and spent a lot of time in prayer but yet, I still fall short of that deep-down fatherly connection.

Early Christian views of God (our spiritual father) were personal, more anthropomorphic, meaning more like our earthly father and less abstract, meaning a mysterious, mystical, or not like us. But with a lot of prayer and deep contemplation my perspective has changed. Whenever I'm thinking about my Heavenly Father I also stop to think about my earthly father and how he as a person that I have physical knowledge of might feel or act. For example, we all know that when we do something that is not in line with gospel principles aka sin, we hear that our Heavenly Father is sad that we've made a bad chose. What does Heavenly Father look like when He's sad or how do we think Heavenly Father feels deep down when we mess up. So, I stop and think what would my earthly father think or feel when he has found that I had done something not inline with his teachings.

When we do things that make our earthly father sad or happy, we know how that looks and feels. So, I think our Heavenly Father must feel and look the same way but magnified of course because we can't comprehend the depth of His love or anger.

Inconclusion, if we view our Heavenly Father like we view our earthly father it may help us to feel that closeness we seek with our Heavenly Father and understand how we can make Him happy or sad by our actions.

It is important to realize that everyone may not have had an earthly father in their life for one reason or another.

 So, look at that one person that loves us and only wants the best for us. This person could be a mother, a grandparent, a sister or brother, or even a friend that has helped you through some of life's harder roads.

Side note:
I try to always add a scripture or two to help convey my point or reference where I found my information but, this proved to be most difficult. So, I'll add Genesis 1:26-27 to show our earthly father can be viewed in some ways like our Heavenly Father because he was made in His image.

Genesis 1:26-27
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.





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