Ghia—This spring, let’s talk about our Heavenly Parents and a few ways to grow our relationships with them.

Resources about Heavenly Mother

https://www.motherinheaven.com/

https://www.mandybgreen.com/

Hello.

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This is Gia.

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Welcome to the Creative Spiritual

Journey, where Judy and I explore the

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connection between faith, nature, and joy.

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It's May, and I'm feeling very may-ish.

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Any idea what Mayish means?

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I suppose it's the excitement of spring.

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Here in the northern hemisphere,

the desert is blooming.

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The weeds on my property are

popping up all over the place.

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It's sunny one day and raining the next.

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And if the chipmunks haven't eaten

them yet, I have spring greens

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ready to be harvested in my garden.

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May is also the month we celebrate

Mother's Day, and I am sure you are

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aware that this isn't a coincidence

because May is associated with

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new growth, new life, nurturing,

care, creation, all things mothers.

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June, when we celebrate Father's

Day, is more about growth, support,

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strength, guidance, and protection.

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I thought about continuing my tradition

of sharing a Heavenly Mother podcast in

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May and a Heavenly Father podcast in June.

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But this year, I decided

to combine the two.

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I mean, because they really

go together, don't they?

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Our heavenly parents

are a heavenly couple.

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As a result, this heavenly

relationship has been on my mind.

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So, our heavenly parents.

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What do we really know about them?

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Honestly, not much.

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What we know about Heavenly Father is

all mixed up with images of Jesus Christ.

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So much so that it frequently isn't

clear who we are talking about when.

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And Heavenly Mother, we're just happy to

know our doctrine acknowledges her, right?

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Officially, there is very

little we know about her.

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Though I will include a couple

of links in the show notes if

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you want to explore her further.

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But here is what I've got

to share with you today.

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As members of the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have

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a document that I believe describes the

relationship of our heavenly parents.

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Any idea what I'm talking about?

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It's the family proclamation to the world.

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Have you ever considered this?

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We are created in the image of God.

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Marriage is ordained of God,

and it's central to the new

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and everlasting covenant.

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It feels natural to me to believe

that the same principles that create

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a strong, loving marriage on earth are

the very same ones practiced in heaven.

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With this in mind, here is what

the family proclamation tells

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me about my heavenly parents.

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First of all, they are equals.

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They stand side by side.

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They are in this whole creation

and perfecting of their

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children business together.

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I love that.

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It makes me smile.

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And here is what else comes to mind.

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They each have different roles.

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Roles as unique as May and June.

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And what are these different roles?

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The family proclamation states, "By divine

design, fathers are to preside over their

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families in love and righteousness, and

are responsible to provide the necessities

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of life and protection for their families.

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Mothers are primarily responsible

for the nurture of their children.

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I know this word preside gets

a little sticky at times.

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Here is how I like to think about it.

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To preside doesn't mean taking charge

and deciding what everyone needs to do.

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It's more like standing at a point

on the trail where you see the path.

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Take bearings and watch for danger.

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To me, there's a sense of

being watchful and vigilant.

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That is a role I can see

our heavenly father taking.

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his job to look at the big

picture, the whole of the plan.

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But there is another part

to the role of fathers.

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They are responsible to provide

the necessities of life and

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protection for their families.

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just as husbands are to provide for

the material needs of their families.

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Heavenly Father's role is

to provide for our physical,

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emotional, and spiritual needs.

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And all provisions, all protections

flow from love, which is the heart of

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both earthly and heavenly fatherhood.

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believe there are lots of ways our

heavenly father is fulfilling this role.

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But today, I want to focus on one

specific way, and that is through prayer.

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I am intrigued by the

words of Elder Runland.

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He said, quote.

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The Savior taught his disciples.

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Always pray unto the Father in my name.

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follow this pattern and direct our worship

to heavenly father in the name of Jesus

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Christ and do not pray to heavenly mother.

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End quote.

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This is interesting because I think

it's important to note that not only

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do we not pray to heavenly mother, we

don't pray to Jesus Christ either.

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It's not a gender thing.

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We only pray to heavenly father.

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Why?

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Why don't we pray to heavenly mother?

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Honestly, I don't know.

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But I kind of like the idea that our

heavenly parents sat down together and

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talked everything over and looked at what

needed to be done and who had what skills.

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And Heavenly Father said," I'll take this

big job so you can focus on other things.

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"Because answering prayers has got to

be a big responsibility, doesn't it?

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I mean, to my simple brain,

it seems never ending.

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This said," I think at times many

people are unhappy about this

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doctrine, preferring the idea of

being able to pray to heavenly mother.

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"And I get it, because as kids, when

we have troubles or need comfort,

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who is the first person we turn to?

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Mother, right?

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I pondered this, one day I had

a little phrase pop into my mind

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that has tickled me ever since.

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It adds," I'm going to call

it a new emotion to my prayers.

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"And this little phrase is daddy's girl.

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I have taken to approaching my prayers

thinking of myself as a daddy's girl.

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Now, I love my dad, but I would never

have used the term daddy's girl as a way

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to describe my relationship with him,

it has been interesting to approach my

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prayers, believing I have this type of

relationship with my heavenly father.

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Being a daddy's girl is more than a label.

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I see it as a deep, enduring bond.

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It's a feeling of being completely

comfortable, safe, and understood.

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It's a feeling of looking up to Heavenly

Father, valuing His perspective and

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being willing to turn to Him for guidance.

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It's sharing laughter, spending time

together, and expressing love freely.

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It's allowing His influence to shape

confidence, spark interest, and set

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a foundation of trust and security.

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I recently came across an

Instagram post by Sharon Eubanks.

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Of course, I couldn't find the post

when I tried to look it up again later,

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but she said something to the effect

of, " Father wants us to come to him

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with our ideas because he respects our

agency, which means he isn't just around

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to tell us what he wants us to do.

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He is truly interested in supporting us

in what each of us individually wants.

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I was so happy when I heard her post.

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I think it goes right along with

my idea of being a daddy's girl.

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I love praying to my heavenly

father, knowing he wants to give

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me everything my heart desires.

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I also feel it's important that my

interactions with my heavenly father

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be reverent and sacred, as I've played

with this idea of being a daddy's girl,

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I found myself approaching my prayers

with a smile on my face and a sense of

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abundance in my heart, and this has felt

powerful to me, and I think that there

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is probably a happy balance between

the idea of reverence and this more

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playful idea of being a daddy's girl.

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because my prayers have been so

skewed towards the serious side, I

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have felt really good swinging the

pendulum all the way to the other end

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of the spectrum, and I believe that

eventually I will find a balance.

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So that's the idea I wanted

to share with you about our

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relationship with Heavenly Father.

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Now, let's switch gears and

talk about having a relationship

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with our heavenly mother.

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What can we learn from the

family proclamation about her?

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The proclamation says," Mothers

are primarily responsible for

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the nurture of their children.

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"Do you feel nurtured by heavenly mother?

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Where?

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Where in your life might

you feel this influence?

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For me, the obvious answer is to see

my heavenly mother in mother nature.

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Here are a couple of

thoughts on this idea.

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One of my favorite books is How to Make

Friends with Wild Birds by Gail Hypine.

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this book, Gail brings up the role

that instincts or deep ancestral

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knowledge plays in the life of birds.

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And in the process of her

explanation, Gail talks about the

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role instincts play in humans, and I

was so excited to learn about this.

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Now, you might be thinking," I'm a

human with a large thinking brain.

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I don't run on instincts like an animal.

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"Turns out that's not quite true.

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We rely on tons of instincts,

and one of them is our affinity

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towards things that are cute.

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Did you know that?

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Humans love cute things.

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We can't help it.

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It's ingrained in our DNA.

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We were born with it.

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That's why we love kittens

and puppies and babies.

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Babies would not live very long

without this ingrained instinct.

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Isn't that interesting?

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And here is another instinct, we

have as humans, our desire for love.

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What?

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Did you ever imagine love was an instinct?

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Let me explain.

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Birds often made for life.

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That's because it takes a mother

and a father to raise baby chicks.

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It's very difficult for a

single bird parent to feed all

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those peeping mouths alone.

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And guess what?

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Human babies take a lot longer

to raise, so it's natural that as

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humans, we believe in lifelong love.

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If we didn't, our babies

would never survive.

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This desire for a partner is an instinct.

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Just like with birds, it's in our DNA.

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And think of our heavenly parents.

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How long does it take

to raise their children?

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Do you think they will be

together for a long time?

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An eternity, maybe?

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So, are instincts a gift

from heavenly mother?

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Is this ancestral knowledge passed

down to us through the ages, something

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she imprinted in our DNA so that we

could survive this earthly experience?

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Of course, I have no proof, but

I like to imagine it's true.

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I believe instincts nurture our souls.

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They keep us safe.

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They push us gently in the best direction,

and I can't help but believe this is the

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nurturing effect of our heavenly mother.

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speaking of this instinct of love,

I want to offer one more thought

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I have about our heavenly parents.

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I personally don't call my

husband honey or sweetheart.

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I call him fabulous.

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Yep.

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When I can't find him, I yell,"

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Fabulous.

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ghia: "And he answers.

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It's so cute.

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And this brings me to the idea of names.

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As I said above, with most names in

scripture, it's hard to differentiate

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Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but

it's clear that Heavenly Father, the

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big kahuna, the God of Gods, has chosen

that we as his children call him Father,

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heavenly father, which is so endearing,

and I love that, But there is another

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name that I think is distinctly reserved

for our heavenly father, and I love to

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imagine that this is the name our heavenly

mother calls her husband, what she calls

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her other half, her favorite person.

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Let me explain.

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you recall in the book of Moses where

Moses goes to the top of a mountain?

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And among other things, he is taught that

he is a son of God, and then later, as

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he descends the mountain, Satan calls him

son of man, And Moses is like, Whoa, wait.

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I'm not a son of man.

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I am a son of God.

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and this allows Moses to recognize and

call out Satan as a fraud and a faker.

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that's a great story, isn't it?

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But it has always left me a little

confused because there are several

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places in the scripture where

Jesus is called the Son of Man.

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In fact, he even calls himself Son of Man.

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So how does that work?

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Listen to this example from Matthew 8:20.

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"And Jesus saith unto him, the

foxes have holes and the birds

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of the air have nests, the son of

man have nowhere to lay his head.

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Now, I love this analogy of foxes

and birds, but son of man ... What?

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This is so confusing.

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Then I was excited a few years

ago to learn I wasn't the

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only one with this question.

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Elder D.

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Todd Christopherson had the same one.

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Of course, he was only a boy at

the time and I was a grown woman,

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which clearly points out the

difference between me and an apostle.

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But regardless, Elder Christopherson

quoted Moses 6:57, which says," For in

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the language of Adam, man of holiness

is his name, and the name of his only

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begotten is son of man, even Jesus Christ.

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"The answer to my question was

right there in the scriptures, and

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I had never noticed it before.

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Heavenly Father's name is man of

holiness, which is why his only

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begotten son is called Son of Man.

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We could say his name is

son of man of holiness.

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but I think that got a little wordy,

so it was just shortened, kind

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of like a nickname, son of man.

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Okay.

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So all this to say," Heavenly

Father's name is man of holiness.

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"This led me to wonder exactly

what the word holiness means.

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Definitions include exalted, worthy

of complete devotion, and perfect

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in goodness and righteousness.

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Now, the part of this definition that

stands out to me is complete devotion.

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Our heavenly father is a

man of complete devotion.

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I love that in relation

to heavenly mother.

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are a couple completely devoted

to each other, and I can't help

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but imagine that Heavenly Mother

calls him man of holiness.

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"Man of holiness, where are you?

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And he answers, "Isn't that so cute?"

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And it's something I love to ponder

in relation to our heavenly parents.

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They are truly a heavenly couple and

have a relationship worth emulating.

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So that's what I've got for now.

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Until next week, Namaste.