We believe in God, the Eternal Father....

At the end of last week, I had the thought to write this week on a talk I found on prayer. But then as I was sitting in Relief Society today, I was struck by the obvious basicness of the lesson, and yet its absolute importance. So while we may get on to the other talk, for the first part of this week, I'm going to share some of the things that struck me from our lesson today.

To start, we had pictures up of all over the North American continent. Beautiful fields with flowers, dry desert plateaus, snow capped mountains, fall trees in their fall glory, plus an illustration of a planet other than ours in the solar system with all the stars surrounding it. There was also one picture of the Savior standing at a door, knocking. Many times we see this and are told that the Savior is just waiting for us to let him in, but it seems so often the door is just more difficult to open sometimes. The good news is that there are people in our lives on whom we can rely to help us open the door. Our teacher, Cassidy, relayed a story in which she couldn't open her bedroom door in her apartment. She wondered if she was just being retarded. How many times had she opened a door, or even this door? What was she doing wrong? Cassidy ended up having to call her brother at 1am who laughed a bit and then climbed in her window to assist her. The mechanism in the handle had an issue, but she related it to this picture, that Satan will always be there to put feeling into our hearts that we are inadequate. And there are many people we can call on to help us let the Savior in.

Even the fact that there is a Savior speaks to the fact that there is a God. Alma 30:44 has this, written by Alma, "All things denote there is a God, ; yea, even he earth, and all things that are upon the face of it yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." We know that God is all about order. Sometimes the creation seems truly amazing, sometimes - eh, it's just the creation. But think, we have two places which clearly speak of the creation. It is recorded both in Genesis and in Moses. I always find it amazing that the Lord appeared to Moses when he was in a "high mountain". Until I learned the symbolism for mountain in the scriptures. A mountain is a temple. Therefore I can read Moses 1:1 "The words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high [temple]" (2) "And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses therefore Moses could endure his presence." And after Moses stood in the presence of the Lord, it was Satan who came tempting him saying, "Son of man, worship me." It is such like Satan to demote us to just son of Man. You wouldn't catch him reminding us of our lineage and Parentage. In fact it is his hope to dissuade us of our parentage. It was Joseph Smith who taught that God is the "Great Parent of the Universe". If he made the heavens and the earth and everything upon the earth, and we are upon the earth than we know that we must be His, and He our parent. "In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare. Truth is reason, truth eternal, tells me I've a mother there." (O My Father, Hymn 292) It is just like any father, and parent to love and want what is best for their children. To love and to help them in the ways they think are best and to plant people and things in their lives to shape them into the person they are to become. He wants us to, "Return with the Pearl, brave your way through the maze of that world. And you'll have my honor. Return to my side and I'll clothe you in raiment of light, just like thy brother. Heir to forever. Because you remembered to get the Pearl." It is earlier in the song, The Pearl, that it states, "He forgot he was the child of a King." Whenever I hear that song I wonder. How can anyone forget they are the child of a King? Its not like there isn't evidence every day they are the child of a King. Its not like there aren't parents around to remind them. Oh, I guess sometimes I forget I am the child of a King. Hmmm. It struck me like a ton of bricks. God is the Eternal Father. My Eternal Heavenly Father. He helps me in whatever ways he thinks I need it as parents let children experience life for themselves, so he does for me.