In my parenting lately, I have been trying more and more to consider how Heavenly Father parents us and apply that in my family...falling short, but trying :)...
For instance, He allows for agency, but also recognizes the sometimes firm consequences of those choices. To further illustrate this point, last night we read in Mormon of the Book of Mormon, where he says something to the effect: "for I will not always suffer the children of men to find happiness in wickedness."
Another example is how He lovingly reminds us (through the Holy Ghost) what we should do to correct something, reminding us of the natural consequences of our choice or not, and then encourages us to do it on our own. Then He steps back. This is the method I thought about last night as I sought inspiration on how to handle a situation where one of my children hurt another one while doing something in frustration. Who knows how well it worked, but it left me thinking...Heavenly Father has eternal life and immortality (obviously :)...). He has achieved what I hope to achieve in the eternities as I eternally progress and seek to become more like him. How can I learn that, though? It made me think about what I would have known of God without the life and example of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament has miracles and blessings, it is true, but there is a lot of "hellfire and brimstone" consequences and situations!
This led me to remember the talk given by Elder Holland several years back that has stayed with me since: "The Grandeur of God" October 2003 General Conference (http://lds.org/general-conference/2003/10/the-grandeur-of-god?lang=eng&query=grandeur+god).
He starts with the following amazing statement: "Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. ... It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do,... He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven."
The talk is amazing, and as I reflected upon it, it made me grateful, once again, for my Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, and His life on this earth. How else would we be able to more fully grasp the very personal, intimate, and loving nature of God? Without His example, how much would we know about the power of God and His very real ability to heal us, help us, change us, love us?
I just want to include a couple incredible highpoints (in my mind) of the talk, just in case anyone who reads this doesn't have the time to enjoy the whole thing.
-"He did this at least in part because then and now all of us need to know God more fully in order to love Him more deeply and obey Him more completely."
-"After generations of prophets had tried to teach the family of man the will and the way of the Father, usually with little success, God in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.
"To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it and He did it."
-Speaking of the account of Enoch in Moses of the Pearl of Great Price: "Enoch turns his gaze toward the Father and is stunned to see Him weeping. He says in wonder and amazement to this most powerful Being in the universe: “How is it that thou canst weep? … Thou art just [and] merciful and kind forever; … Peace … is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?”
Looking out on the events of almost any day, God replies: “Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands. … I gave unto them … [a] commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood. … Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?"...
What an indelible image of God’s engagement in our lives! What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor “the gospel of God” He sent! 12 How easy to love someone who so singularly loves us!"
-"...Jesus did not come to improve God’s view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came."
-"I bear personal witness this day of a personal, living God, who knows our names, hears and answers prayers, and cherishes us eternally as children of His spirit. I testify that amidst the wondrously complex tasks inherent in the universe, He seeks our individual happiness and safety above all other godly concerns. ..(the prophet Joseph Smith) declare(d): “Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. … God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but … the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs.” 17
"I bear witness of a God who has such shoulders. And in the spirit of the holy apostleship, I say as did one who held this office anciently: “Herein [then] is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” 18 —and to love Him forever, I pray."
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