Finding Yourself

Society convinces you that you must "find yourself."  Many spend years trying to piece together a person who they think they are. Others travel to discover the person they have always been.  The remaining population simply moves away from home, starts a business, goes to school, finds a religion, gets married, or begins a new hobby all in hopes that they can somehow discover the person that they "truly are"; so they can "find" or "discover themselves".

Guess what? Its not that hard.  In fact, you already know.

You are a Child of a Heavenly Father that loves you.

One of (granted, there are many) my favorite chapters in all of scripture is Romans 8. Verse 16 states, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."  Our spirits know that we are children of a Heavenly Father. Our mortal minds (the veil) are the roadblock that prevents us from that knowledge. Our purpose here on earth is to rediscover this simple, yet exalting, gift: that we are His children, and He loves us.

What does it mean to be a child of Heavenly Father?

Heavenly Father is the Supreme Creator. With Jesus Christ, He created the heavens, the earth, and all things which in them are (Moses 2:1).  Can you even begin to comprehend what that entails?  Every living thing that is living, has lived, and will live was created by, or under the direction of our Heavenly Father.

He also knows and understands all truth. (D&C 93:26) Everything that you learn in school, He already understands completely. Everything that anyone has ever studied, He knows.  This means He understands how to do Chemistry, Calculus, Physics, English, and any other subject that has ever been studied. And this isn't the type of understanding in which you know facts and can gain an A in the class because you simply learn what you have to, (Admit it, we've all done this in one of our classes.) but an all-knowing understanding that allows Him to create many worlds and galaxies.
Do you realize how big one galaxy is? In the Milky Way alone, there are 400 billion stars. (www.space.com) It would take 225 million years to complete a single revolution around the Milky Way. (www.universetoday.com) Heavenly Father created many galaxies.

Heavenly Father knows every single person that has ever walked the earth, currently is on the earth, and will come to the earth. In 2011, it was estimated that 107,602,707,791 had lived on the earth. (www.prb.org) But not only does He know all of those people and those waiting to come to earth, but He also knows the third of His children that chose Satan's plan in the war in heaven. (D&C 29: 36-38) You do the math. :) Heavenly Father does not simply know of these children, but He knows them all individually.  He knows the mistakes we've made, the weaknesses we have, the things that bring us joy, and our deepest thoughts and feelings.

You are a child of an almighty, omnipotent,and divine being. And guess what? He knows you perfectly. He has so much to do and think about and yet He chooses to think about you.

He LOVES you!

Not only do we have a Heavenly Father who knows us but He loves us too. Romans 8 (here's my favorite chapter again) says, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God . . . ." (verses 38-39). There is nothing we can do that will separate us from the love of our Heavenly Father.

President Uchtdorf says it far better than I, "Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you. 

God does not look on the outward appearance.  I believe that He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely. He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked. What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us."

 

Acting Like His Child

Imagine a Prince. This Prince is the son of a King. His goal is to become the next King.  But there are many things he must learn before doing so. He has to learn how to rule, how to talk to the people, how to communicate with neighboring kingdoms, and lead an army to battle. There are many times as he is learning that he makes mistakes, and sometimes they are even big ones. However, these mistakes only make him grow more and push him to work harder than ever before. 

The same can be said of us. We are also preparing to inherit a kingdom because we are of royal birth. We have a royal destiny to fulfill. And though we make mistakes along the way, they only make us grow. 

But oftentimes we have to stop ourselves and ask, "Am I acting as a Princess would act? Am I talking as a Prince would talk? Am I becoming the King I am destined to become?"  We must act like a child of God.

We must stop trying to "find ourselves" and begin trying to "become ourselves."  We must become like a child of an all-knowing and all-loving Heavenly Father.