Earth Life: Why am I here?

     One of the blessings of Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is that all of us who are on the earth now, were able to come here. What a sweet blessing! I know I'm grateful that I was able to get my chance on earth because that was one of the main parts of God's Plan, for us to have to opportunity to come to earth and gain a physical body.

    Now that we are here and have our bodies, why are we here? What is the purpose of life?  That is a very good question which many people have. That question is one of the big questions of life! I am happy to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the answer to that question. First, lets go to the Book of Mormon. There is a scripture in the Book of 2 Nephi, Chapter 2, verse 25, which reads. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." Right there is tells us what the purpose of life is. Joy. Adam became mortal, so all other men could "be" or come to earth. Men are here on earth, to have "joy". Heavenly Father didn't call His Plan the Plan of Sadness or Plan of Misery. He calls it the Plan of Salvation, I don't know about you but isn't Salvation supposed to be happy? God also calls His plan the Plan of Happiness, therefore, His purpose for us being here is to ultimately have joy! Simple as that.

      See this priceless picture of this happy family. They look like they are having a good time and enjoying themselves. That is exactly how God wants each and every one of us to be. We are all a part of God's Family, and He has given us a family on earth to live in so we can learn and grow together and come closer to Him and our Savior Jesus Christ. God's whole plan is to enable us to reach it back to Him with our families because that is how He wanted it to be. I am so grateful to have a family so I could learn about my Heavenly Father and come to know His plan for me. Families are so important and they are central in fulfilling God's Plan of Happiness.

     

      

 

     As previously mentioned, the purpose of life is to have joy, personally and with our families. How do we find that joy in life? By making choices. We were all given our agency or ability to choose for ourselves. God has given us commandments to follow during this life, and if we do our part to follow them, we will be received into God's presence when we go out of this life. In other words, we need to learn and follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ during this life in order to find true happiness and qualify for eternal life in God's presence. Yes, we do have to do perform good works while here on earth, there is a purpose for being here or else why would God even allow us to come here? The book of Alma in the Book of Mormon says, "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors (Alma 34:32).  Clearly that scripture says that we are to prepare to meet God, NOW, and we do that by performing labors or good works while in this life. Let us choose the good path of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     "Come follow me". That was the Savior's invitation to His Apostles and ultimately is His invitation to each and every one of us. All He requires of us is to believe in Him and have faith, repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by His proper authority, and then endure to the end. That's all. It may seem tough, but He has promised that He will help us along every step of the way. I know that God's purpose for us in this life is to have joy and prepare ourselves to meet Him by following His Beloved Son and His gospel. I hope we will all take the Savior's invitation to heart and choose to follow Him.

Pre-Earth Life: Where We Came From

There are many people in today's world who have questions about well, just life in general. One of those questions being "Where did we come from?" Sure it does sound obvious or maybe even a little silly but that is a real concern that people have and there is an answer to that question. Which is why I have chosen to address this topic.

The Plan of Salvation: The Plan of Salvation is in a nutshell what the word implies. It is a plan that our Father in Heaven provided for us to follow so we could have the opportunity to live with Him again someday with Jesus Christ our families. The scriptures also call this the Plan of Happiness or the Plan of Redemption. The Plan of Salvation answers the basic questions of life; "Where did I come from?" "Why am I here?" and "Where am I going after I die?" This plan was presented to all of us by our loving Father in Heaven before the world was even created.

Pre-Earth Life: The Council in Heaven

  So before we all came to this earth, we lived with God and Jesus Christ and with everyone who has come to this earth. We are all children of God, He is our Father in Heaven, literally. We dwelt with Him and our families as spirit bodies. We all noticed that God had a body of flesh and bones and He was perfect. We wanted to become like our Heavenly Father but we couldn't unless we received a physical body and experienced mortal or earthly life. So our loving Heavenly Father presented this Plan of Salvation to all of us. He said He would have a world created where we could experience joy, peace, pain, sorrows, afflictions that would all help us learn and grow and become like Him. But, God said He needed someone to be a Mediator to fulfill this plan. We needed a Mediator because God knew if we came to earth, we would sin and make mistakes which would not allow us to return to His presence. So He needed a Savior to come down and set an example for all of us to follow who would be willing to suffer and die for all of our sins so we could correct our mistakes and live worthy to make it back to Heavenly Father's presence. With that, Jesus Christ stepped up and said He would be the Mediator and Savior of the world. Jesus Christ loved His Father and His children so much that He was willing to offer Himself as a sacrifice so we all could have the opportunity to return to live with Heavenly Father again. Jesus Christ said He would do all this, and whatever glory that was given would go all to His Father and not to Himself.

On the other hand, Lucifer, stood up as well and said that everyone should be forced to do what's right so everyone would make it back to Heavenly Father. But Lucifer wanted all the glory instead of God having all the glory. Now, our Heavenly Father didn't want it to be that way because He wanted all of us to have our free agency or the right to choose whether we would follow His plan. He wanted us to prove we loved Him and wanted to make it back to live with Him. And so, that is how Lucifer became Satan and the Devil because He rebelled against Heavenly Father's plan and so he was kicked out of Heaven, unable to receive a body or the opportunity to experience life. Somehow, Lucifer was able to persuade one third of the hosts of Heaven to leave with him. That was a sad day when one third of all our brothers and sisters were cast out of Heaven, never to be able to receive any blessings our Heavenly Father bestows upon us when we obey. That time was what the scriptures refer to as the "War in Heaven". Not a battle of swords and shields, more so of words and debate. 

As we all know, God's plan succeeded and He and Jesus Christ created the world and all that are in it so we all could have the place to gain a body, experience life and make choices that will help us become closer to Heavenly Father and hopefully in the end to live and dwell with Him when that time comes. All of us who are on the earth now, who have ever lived on the earth, and who will ever live on the earth in the future all chose to follow Heavenly Father's plan. We just forgot it all when we were born so we could exercise our agency and choose the right path God has laid out before us. Thankfully we have the scriptures and words of modern prophets that teach us about this plan and where we came from so we can know what we need to do to make it back to our Heavenly Home. I know that we were all with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ before this world was created and that we all made the right choice in the beginning to come to earth. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has truths that were lost concerning this plan and if we read and pray about the Book of Mormon, we will know if the true Church of Jesus Christ is restored on the earth again.

For more information on the Plan of Salvation visit Mormon.org.