I've just had a very deep and heartfelt conversation with my twelve year old. Elena said she wished she could tell everyone about Heavenly Father's plan for His children. So I decided that today I would do it for her. The plan, as Mormons believe it, is really very simple and beautiful.
Before we came to this earth life we lived with Heavenly Father as His children. We were spirits without bodies, but we were literally His children. We were happy and loved there and we inherited divine qualities like strength, courage, love, intelligence and selflessness from Him. He knew, as all wise parents know, that we would have to go through some learning experiences so that we could grow and become like Him. He gathered all His children to a great meeting in Heaven and proposed that we come down to a planet, a planet created and designed specifically for our use. There we would receive bodies, and undergo testing and trial to learn to be more like Him. These earthly experiences would prepare us for greater things and move us along in our progression. He explained to us that our time on Earth would be a time of difficult trials. We would know hardship, pain, sorrow, but would also know great joy and fulfillment. The way we chose to deal with our experiences would determine our outcome. God knew, that like all children, we would make mistakes, some of them small and some of them terrible. This would disqualify us from returning back to Him because we would now be unworthy to live with Him. He presented the solution to this problem in the form of a Savior. Our older brother Jesus Christ was chosen to fill that role. Jesus volunteered Himself to suffer for all the sins of His younger brothers and sisters. He was offering to literally pay the price for sins committed by others by His own suffering. In doing so He was buying us back, so we could come home to Him and Heavenly Father. By doing so, He was satisfying the demands of justice (suffering for sins committed) and mercy (forgiveness), two laws that our Father and our Savior live by.
When I think of my Savior, I feel reverence and love. I feel happy. I feel hopeful. I find myself quietly smiling, and sometimes bawling my eyes out. He is my hope for second chances. He is my source of strength to make it through trials, because no one has suffered more than Him, and if anyone understands what I'm going through or knows how to help, He does. He is my Savior because He saves me. I cling to Him out of necessity, but also out of love.
For a more in depth explanation of why we are here on this earth, click here.
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