Welcome.

At our recent stake conference, one of the visiting authorities reminded us of a three-fold truth that, as he said it, rushed into my heart with a penetrating force.

He admonished us,

“Remember that you are:

• A Child of God
• A Child of the Covenant
• A Disciple of Jesus Christ”

I felt the incontestable truth of those “labels” as I was reminded of them.

I’ve wanted to hold onto the spiritual feeling of that moment so I’ve been pondering these powerful reminders for days and have come to more fully appreciate the laser focused identity they give me. I’d like to share a few thoughts on each category.

A Child of God

In the restored gospel, there hardly seems to be a more simple and profound truth than this one. The absence of it brings an inaccurate eternal identity which can cause agonizing disorientation and confusion in mortality.

I can’t imagine not knowing my parental, heavenly heritage. I would be so lost, so ungrounded, so purposeless as I moseyed throughout earth life.

The presence of this knowledge gives an upward connection to God Himself, a sacred and safe place for a beginning belief that He does indeed have a plan for our lives, that His fatherliness is for our eternal benefit.

I’ve had the sweet honor of sharing this truth with friends who have investigated the restored church, and every time, it has been with tender joy as I see them dare believe this eternal truth.

In a masterful October 1974 General Conference address given in his masterful way, Elder Maxwell connected “the doctrine that you are a child of God” to “the beginning of belonging.” (Maxwell, N., “Why Not Now?,” October 1974 General Conference) If that isn’t true, I don’t know what is.

When we gain the transforming witness that we are literal children of a real God, it truly does give us Someone to whom we can belong and a place wherein we can contribute. We fit in in God’s kingdom on earth; we don’t, therefore, need to try and fit in in the world. We look to God for validation, and what we get from Him is entirely enough. We don’t go searching like lost sheep for a world besotted sheepherder. Rather, we follow the Good Shepherd of our souls to whom we feel a sense of belonging, born of our witness that we are indeed children of God.

To be a child of God is no small thing. It is a foundational block in the grand plan of redemption. Though Jesus is the central figure in the Plan of Happiness, we are significant and vital beings. We are the reason for the Savior’s condescension and the Father’s permitting it. We are, after all, children of God.

This truth should be engraved on our hearts and burned in our souls. Our primary kiddos are not the only ones that should be singing “I Am a Child of God.” Not only should we sing it more as adults, but we should – heart and soul – go on believing and embracing this glorious truth.

You are a child of God.

A Child of the Covenant

This label thrills me to my core! I love being a child of the covenant that God made with Abraham and renewed with Isaac and Jacob. I love the antiquity of this generational linking.

Where else other than in a covenanted relationship can one be sharing in the consummate and matchless love of hesed?

Where else can one receive temple protection and peace?

Where else is the promised blessing of posterity possible for the faithful who never marry or never bear children in mortality?

Where else is the priesthood of God, fully restored, present to bless human beings?

Where else is prosperity – in its fullest sense – found?

Where else can one be so brilliantly prospered with the presence of the Divine?

And where, oh where else can a promised land be awaiting?

Only in the covenant made with Father Abraham!

As a child of the covenant, you have incredible claim upon a unique covenantal love, protection and peace, posterity, priesthood, prosperity, God’s and Christ’s presences, and a forever, more glorious than you can imagine promised land.

Why forsake this? For some measly something the world has to offer? There is no comparison!

You are a child of the covenant.

A Disciple of Jesus Christ

I wouldn’t say that being a proclaimed and practicing disciple of Jesus Christ is easy and effortless, but I would claim that it is way better than following the other one who seeks our allegiance. For that fidelity, one may be rewarded with the baser things in life such as addition, darkness and despair. For loyalty to Christ and efforts to walk a disciple’s narrow path, some paramount blessings are increasing light and understanding, greater love for self, Deity, and humanity, and the blessings of meaningful fellowship with like-minded striving souls. What are those things worth in today’s world?

Earthly and heavenly rewards may motivate at first, but honest sought discipleship, prolonged and honed, is offered out of heart love and deep-felt desire. God does beautiful miracles with desire, and love makes all things glorious.

Make no mistake about it: we are devotees of a Perfect One! We are disciples of Jesus Christ, and eventually we are to be made totally whole, absolute complete, in other words, perfect. CS Lewis may have understood this concept better than most and wrote well of the demanding and rigorous journey of a striving disciple. Lewis boldly declared that there was a cost associated with becoming a disciple, a Christian. Speaking as he sometimes did for Christ, Lewis said, “Make no mistake, if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, or let you rest, until you are literally perfect – until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.” (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, 152-55). Those are serious as if spoken by Jesus words, but they are also welcoming words for true followers of Him, ones that want to become perfected through his blood and grace.

Again, the catalyst here for lasting discipleship change, improvement and perfection is heart desire. God and Christ accept and respond to initiating desire.

When we let desire and discipline guide us deep into the woods of discipleship, in time we will emerge new creatures in Christ. As such, He will use us to accomplish His perfect purposes.

You are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Unto all the world: You are a child of God. You are or can be a child of the covenant. You are or can be a disciple of Jesus Christ.