I Am a Child of God

For the May visiting teaching message, we get to choose any talk from the April General Conference. I ended up looking at the entire first session:

Elder Hallstrom gave a talk called “I Am a Child of God.” He said while most of us good sing, without seeing the lyrics or music, the song, “the critical question is, do we really know it? Do we know it in our mind and in our heart and in our soul? Is our heavenly parentage our first and most profound identity?”

He also said, “We live in a world that can cause us to forget who we really are. The more distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually, then ignore, and then forget our connection with God.

“In today’s world… it is essential that our preeminent identity is as a child of God. Knowing that will allow our faith to flourish, will motivate our continual repentance, and will provide the strength to “be steadfast and immovable” throughout our mortal journey.

So, how do you know it? How does that become part of your identity?

I think that some of the other speakers provided answers to that. President Eyring, who gave the first talk at General Conference spoke about the parable of the sower and how we can continue to both love God and feel His love—and he said that one thing that can help us is our approach to General Conference: “Today my message to us all is that there will be a precious opportunity in the next few days to choose to have our hearts softened and to receive and nourish the seed. The seed is the word of God, and it will be poured out on all of us who listen, watch, and read the proceedings of this conference. The music, the talks, and the testimonies have been prepared by servants of God who have sought diligently for the Holy Ghost to guide them in their preparation. They have prayed longer and more humbly as the days of the conference have approached.

They have prayed to have the power to encourage you to make the choices that will create in your heart a more fertile ground for the good word of God to grow and be fruitful. If you listen with the Spirit, you will find your heart softened, your faith strengthened, and your capacity to love the Lord increased.

Your choice to pray with full purpose of heart will transform your experience in the conference sessions and in the days and months that follow.”

Sister Mary R. Durham spoke about the Holy Ghost, specifically in relation to children, but the things that she recommended we do to teach our children about the Holy Ghost are all things we could for ourselves, too, and would draw us nearer to God. Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke about priesthood keys, which make it possible for us to return to God, and Elder Steven E. Snow talked about being humble. Examining each of these, we can find ways that we can remember that we are children of God.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan talked about forgiveness. He said, “Even though we may be a victim once, we need not be a victim twice by carrying the burden of hate, bitterness, pain, resentment, or even revenge. We can forgive, and we can be free!” One thought I had with this is that often that second hurt involves not only being hurt through our feelings of pain, resentment, etc. toward the person who hurt us but also toward God for “allowing” that person to hurt us—or, in our view, not sufficiently punishing them for it. But if we can forgive, we can get rid of not only our resentment toward the offender but also any that we might have toward God.

Elder Renlund’s whole talk was about coming closer to Christ; he talked about how we can overcome feelings of entitlement and feel closer to the Savior, particularly through the sacrament. He said, “No matter where you stand in your relationship to God, I invite you to draw nearer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Benefactors and Givers of all that is good. I invite you to attend sacrament meeting each week and partake of the holy emblems of the Savior’s body and blood. I invite you to feel God’s nearness as He is made known to you, as He was to the disciples of old, in the “breaking of [the] bread.”

As you do, I promise that you will feel nearer to God. Natural tendencies to childish whining, disgruntled entitlement, and derisive skepticism will dissipate. Those sentiments will be replaced by feelings of greater love and gratitude for Heavenly Father’s gift of His Son. As we draw closer to God, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will come into our lives. And, as with the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we will find that the Savior has been nearby all along.”