"For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light..."

Divine Nature

Before I start, I want you to write down your name and put down one or two words which define who you are. Now, write down your favorite name or title for yourself. Did you do it? Good. With what you wrote, you are now ready to learn about Divine Nature.

What is Divine Nature? It is a part of you which is inherently divine and inherently you. It defines you in an eternal way. Sometimes it seems like Divine Nature and Individual Worth are the same thing. We know that we are unique individuals and that we have Divine Parents. These things seem to mesh the two. But lately I have understood more about Divine Nature. I learned more by asking myself questions like these:

What parts of me are divine?

I think my talents, my abilities, my righteous desires, my mental and spiritual capacities, and my ability to become like my Heavenly Parents are all divine parts of my nature.

What are your Heavenly Parents like?

They are good, pure, all-knowing, and all-powerful. They live in an eternal family unit. They are parents.

Oh, I think I'm beginning to see something here. Part of my Divine Nature relates to my role as a mother--the physical, spiritual, emotional, and other capacities related to bearing and nurturing children.

Is that sexist? I've been taught my whole life that I could be anything I wanted. I could be an engineer, a reporter, a CEO of a major corporation, a . . .

Don't you think Heavenly Father could ask us to call him by any name he wanted? Don't you think he could come up with some pretty important sounding names? He's all-knowing and all-powerful, so he must be the greatest mathematician, physicist, chemist, inventor, businessman, engineer, biologist, writer, reporter, or sports legend that ever was. He knows more about the stars than any astronaut or astronomer. But how does he want to be known? Heavenly Father. His role as a parent is the most important, most defining thing about him. We are his children. His work and his glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). His glory isn't coming from riches, worldly acclaim, or great achievements of skill or strength. It is from having us grow up and become like he is. He gave us Divine attributes to help us with this task. Now our job is to learn about and respect what he has given us.

Our ability to become mothers is a spark of divinity within us. What an awesome power and responsibility we have to use it as He has directed us. Once we become mothers, those little ones are ours, but they still belong to Heavenly Father. Can you imagine the sacred trust we are each given? We are to take care of His children and help them return to live with Him again. Wow!

When put in this perspective, we would never dream of having a career interfere with our children. We would never speak harshly to them or hurt them. We would train them to be just how Heavenly Father would want his children to be trained. We would prepare as much as is humanly possible to fulfill this divine role. We would learn more about child development, nursing, nutrition, and the Gospel. We would learn how to teach the Gospel better. We would develop a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father so that he could help us raise His children better. We would learn to pray more sincerely and get answers to our prayers. We would not skip our daily scripture study. We would visit the temple regularly. We would learn good songs to sing to our children and learn how to sacrifice and serve better. Never would we let bad thoughts, unrighteous actions, temptations, worldly desires, or selfishness get in the way of our children's good.

Is this sexist? No, it is divine. It is part of the most important part of us--that part which was entrusted to us by our Heavenly Father. If we use our divine natures well, we will be exalted and receive incomprehensible joys and blessings. And if we do not use them well, we cannot now understand the sorrows we will endure. When we are mothers, OUR work and OUR glory come from helping Heavenly Father "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

What is your Divine Nature? What defines you? Who are you? You are a Daughter of God, Sister, Wife, Mother, Friend. Part of our Divine Nature is every noble characteristic that makes us better daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, and friends. So look within yourselves and label yourselves again. What do you see? I see the glorious potential to become like our Heavenly Parents.

(see Family Home Evening Resource Book p. 20-22, lesson five, "I Am a Child of God.")