Lesson recap: Our Father's Love

Margie Clark taught today's Relief Society lesson. She took her materials from two articles.

If you read nothing else this week, read this articles. Your life will be blessed and maybe even changed.

The Doctrine of the Father, by Quentin L. Cook, February 2012 Ensign

... how personal and individual are Heavenly Father’s love for and relationship to each of us. Understanding how He feels about us gives us the power to love Him more purely and fully. Personally feeling the reality, love, and power of that relationship is the source of the deepest and sweetest emotions and desires that can come to a man or woman in mortality. These deep emotions of love can motivate us and give us power in times of difficulty and trial to draw closer to our Father.

Margie reminded us, because sometimes we just forget, how much God loves us.

You are his daughter.

God is a righteous and loving father. Your spirit came into being out of love and a deliberate choice to give you life and opportunity.

As a spirit child you are known individually by our Heavenly Father. He has known you at least from the time you became a begotten spirit.

You are His precious daughter, whom He loves individually.

He knows you by name.

He uses names to express that He knows and identifies you personally and individually.

Within you lies the latent seeds of godliness ...There is power in saying or singing the words “I am a child of God.

Now for those of us who might not have the example of a righteous father to draw on, know this:

Your  relationship with your earthly father may have been lacking, but your Heavenly Father is with you. His presence can be strong in your life. Know He loves you, cares for you, and will always want a relationship with you. Know that He is your Father. And He is not going anywhere.

His Grace Is Sufficient, by Brad Wilcox, July 12, 2011, BYU Speech

The evidence and gift of love God could give us is the Savior.

“Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us."

Elder Bruce C. Hafen has written, “The Savior’s gift of grace to us is not necessarily limited in time to ‘after’ all we can do. We may receive his grace before, during and after the time when we expend our own efforts”. 

So grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves us through the tunnel. Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now. It is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher’s touch (see Hebrews 12:2).

Margie asked that we look for the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior in all the world around us. To remember that he loves us.



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