"Eternal Truths" - Aug. 19, 2013

Thanks for your wonderful email and for always keeping me light hearted. I appreciate it. I'm so grateful to hear that you are all praying for the opportunities to share the Gospel. I think that the more I come to understand the precious truths that we live by, the more I realize what life is like without the Gospel. Really...seeing others and their families without the Gospel is really a heartwrenching thing. Some times I get so caught up in not being perfect in this or knowing that, but when we really take the time to stop and be grateful for what we know, we will with out a doubt widen our gaze and start to see in the eternal prospective of our Father's eyes. A really wonderful activity that I have had the opportunity to do is to read the Book of Mormon, writing down all the all the plain and precious truths that we received because of the Book of Mormon. Even this morning, I was able to study the simple doctrine of "God our Loving Father in Heaven" and was left after studies really feeling like I didn't learn anything new...and then I took the time to ponder and realized just what I knew about God our Father in Heaven: 

He is our Literal Heavenly Father. Understanding this we build our relationship with him where we love him, trust him, and treat him as our father. This understanding eliminates all notions that He is some not-understandable higher power or idea, but an actual being that we come from and can return to. I know that He is my Father. He's all of our Father, and we can know this truth for ourselves.

 

He created us in His image. This relates to the first in that our potential to be like our Heavenly Father is so much greater than we often give ourselves credit for. Our father is the greatest being of all beings, and our potential is so immensely great. 

He has a Plan. We should take comfort in that and in the thought that all that is around us - including our experiences and trials - are for our benefit from our wise creator. I know He created all things and is in the woodworks of our lives. We can all come to know this to be true. 

He speaks with us and we can speak with Him. Can you imagine the magnitude of this blessing? The All-Powerful, Wise, Creator of Heaven and Earth allows us, His imperfect children, to speak with Him through prayer. He's given His word in times of old and still gives His word to us today through modern-day prophets and apostles. I absolutely know that He hears our prayers and that He always answers - always. We can all come to know this is true through trying it out. So ask Him if He's there and answer. 

He loves us. We pray, we rely on his council, we remember his teachings, we keep his commandments, - All these actions operate on the fundamental doctrine that God loves us. If we understand this, keeping the commandments becomes not a chore, but a way to seek blessings. We don't pray just because, but to really talk with him and receive counsel. We don't go through this life without purpose or worth, but live every day worth-while and purposefully. I know He loves each of us. I know that.  

These doctrines are probably the most incredible foundations of our belief that we rarely take time to think about, but they are the doctrines that we more than any other use on a day to day basis. I am so grateful that the plain and precious truths of our Father in Heaven were restored through the prophets of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we have the privilege of  being his Children and living up to the fullness of the measure of our creation. 

I love you dad and mom because you're my mortal parents and examples to me of how I can be more like my Heavenly Father. Help the members not take for granted the precious truths that they bask in from day to day. 

The work continues and the miracles are great. I love the Lord and love His work!

Elder Claypool