What I Believe

Hi, I'm Steve's wife. Here is what I believe:

1. God is my Heavenly Father. He is literally the Father of my spirit and the spirit of each person who lives on this earth; we are all spirit brothers and sisters.

2. We lived in Heaven with our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother. Although we only had spirit bodies, our Heavenly Father and Mother each had a glorified soul--a spirit body and a physical body perfect, glorified and inseparably connected.

3. Our Heavenly Parents wanted us to be happy and have the same joys and blessings they have--they wanted us to have a physical body, and they wanted us to have the joy of being married and creating a family that would last forever. They wanted us to be creators and kings and queens like them.

4. To become like them, we would need to gain a physical body, and experience earth life with all its joys, trials, and heartaches. We would need to be tried and tested in order to see if we would be willing to keep His commandments in order to return and live with our Heavenly Parents again.
The problem with gaining earthly experience is that we would make mistakes and wrong choices--we would become unclean. No unclean thing can enter into the presence of God. By making any choice that was not correct, we would damn ourselves and not be able to return to His presence. But if we kept ourselves from ever doing anything wrong, we wouldn't be able to do anything right either; we'd never gain the experience needed to become like our Heavenly Parents. Either way, once we left our Heavenly Home, we wouldn't be able to return and become like our parents--to leave would be hopeless because we couldn't ever return home, but to stay would not fulfill the plan of our Eternal Parents for us to gain perfected bodies and have a family of our own.

5. Fortunately, our Heavenly Parents are prefect and all wise, all knowing, and all powerful. Our Heavenly Father Elohim selected His eldest Son, the Great Jehovah, even Jesus Christ, to come to Earth and live a perfect life. He commanded His Son to live a perfect life and to bear the sins, pains, transgressions, and sicknesses of all of His children who were willing to follow Him. Because of His love for His Father and for us, Jesus Christ accepted this commandment and chose to come to earth and bring all who are willing back into the presence of our Heavenly Father. We may not be completely clean, but through the perfect and clean life that Jesus Christ lived, we will have the ability to be made clean and pure through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. It is through the use of our choice--our agency if you will--that we are able to come to Christ and be saved. As He cleanses us through His atoning power, we can be washed clean and become born again.

6. Just as I believe in a loving God who is my Father, and Jesus Christ who was my elder Brother in my pre-earth life, but who now is my Savior, Redeemer and Lord, I also believe in the Holy Ghost. A Being who is under the direction of God the Father. He, the Holy Ghost, does not have a body of flesh and blood. He is a Spirit; as such, He has the ability to touch our hearts and bear witness of truth. He can bless us by comforting us, warning us, and bringing knowledge to our minds. Without Him, we would not have the full ability to know truth, or be able to follow Christ completely.

7. Not only do I believe in the Good, but I also believe in the evil that tries to lead us away from our Heavenly Parents. This great evil is known as Lucifer, the Son of the Morning--Satan. He was also with us in the beginning. He, too, was a spirit son of our Heavenly Parents. He rebelled and was cast out. He has lost the privilege of gaining a body or a family. He strives to make all people miserable like himself.

8. I believe that families are created of God and are the fundemental unit of society. Our Heavenly Father has made it possible, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, for our families to be united eternally--it doesn't just end at death. I know that through obedience to the covenants and promises I have made in the Lord's holy temple, I will be able to be with my husband and children forever--the relationships I cherish in this life can continue.

9. My statements of faith reflect my beliefs as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints--yup, I'm a Mormon. Look at Mormon.org for more info. if you're interested.

Miriam's Beliefs in Ten Minutes

Recently, my mom did a study about American teenagers' inability to express their beliefs. I'm a teenager, and I thought I was ready for the challenge when my mom announced that we had ten minutes to write down five key things we believed. Once I had pencil and paper in hand, however, I found it to be much harder than I had initially expected. It wasn't that I didn't know what I believed - I just found it difficult to cram everything into five statements. I made my best effort, though, and here's what I ended up with:

1. I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings, and they love us and are involved in our lives.

2. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins so we can repent and return to live with him and God and our families and loved ones forever.

3. I know that the first principles of the gospel are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion to wash away our sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

4. I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God.

5. I know that prayers to God are answered; current, personal revelation is available; and there are living prophets on the earth today.

There you have it - my beliefs in a ten-minute nutshell.

Melissa's Beliefs in a Nutshell

This is what I wrote down during my time allowance.

1.  I know there is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  We are Heavenly Father's spirit children.  Jesus Christ atoned for our sins, and the Holy Ghost helps us know what's right.

2.  We are placed here on earth as a test.  If we obey the commandments, and receive temple blessings, we can return to live with Heavenly Father forever.

3.  God's power is on the earth today.  It's called the Priesthood.  Righteous men who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can have it bestowed on them by other Priesthood holders.  Our church leaders are selected through the Holy Ghost, and set apart by the Priesthood like King David.

4.  In our temples, righteous members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints receive blessings and make promises with God through the Priesthood, both for themselves, and in behalf of those who have died.  In this manner, families can be sealed forever, not "'till death do us part"

5.  We believe that Christ will someday return to the earth, and be our King.  He will gather the Ten Tribes of Israel, and establish a thousand years of peace.  All the wicked will be destroyed, and the righteous dead will be resurrected.

What do you believe in?

My wife recently shared with our family a book report she had prepared for a college course.  In the book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, 3370 US teenagers were interviewed in depth regarding their religious beliefs.  The author found, among other things, that even though most of these youth held religious beliefs, few of them were adept at putting them into words.

Well, how about us?  Could we put our strongly-held beliefs into words?  My wife then gave us each a sheet of paper and a pencil and asked us to record five statements describing our faith.  We had ten minutes to complete our task.

Here are my five statements:

1. God is the Father of our spirits.  We came to this earth to gain a physical body and to live by faith.  After death, we will return to His presence.

2. God has given us commandments and the agency to choose right or wrong.  If we repent of our sins, we will receive forgiveness and be cleansed.

3. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God.  He created this earth, taught us how to live happy lives, died to pay the price of our sins, and broke the bands of death for us all.

4. The priesthood is the power to do God's work here on earth.  We are taught and led by prophets of God with this power.  Priesthood ordinances can seal families together forever.

5. We believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon as the word of God.  Jesus Christ will return to the earth to establish His kingdom, and righteousness will prevail.