YWValues: Divine Nature
The church has always taught that we are literally children of God, of heavenly parents, although I would hesitate to speculate about the nature of divine conception or childbirth. These subjects are sacred, and I am not qualified to give an opinion. I haven't even formed one.
But we teach our young women that every human literally contains divine "DNA" - whatever that means. Our bodies are mortal, and born to mortal parents, but we believe our spirits existed before our bodies. I don't know what "spirit" is. I don't know its exact relationship to matter. Joseph Smith writes that it is finer than matter, but that our spirit bodies look like our physical bodies. Mormons use the word "soul" differently that other religions, because we teach that the soul is the spirit and body together, and that our body's death is temporary - our eternal soul is both spirit AND body, although it goes through stages where the spirit is more or less naked of matter (before birth, and between death and resurrection). Our bodies are sacred spaces because they are meant to house our spirits.
I know that although spirit is meant to control matter, we don't always. We care for our bodies, and learn to keep them well, as carefully as we would keep our homes. But we are still learning, and we don't always choose the appropriate times to allow our bodies to make decisions.
I have very vague ideas about what attributes exactly we inherited from our heavenly parents. It's pretty easy to give God credit for everything good about me, and take the blame for all of my less fortunate attributes, but the truth is that just because some of my personality is less than divine doesn't mean that it isn't a divine attribute in some embryonic stage. Even the worst vice is, in some generous light, the side effect of a superpower, or a good thing turned in on itself. We are not done growing, and we won't be done growing for a long time. Literally ANY weakness can become a strength, because underneath every weakness is divine DNA. I have seen addicts become healers. I have seen gullibility become gentleness. I have seen anger become compassion and depression become empathy. (Ether 12:something. Seminary Scripture Mastery was a long time ago.)
I am tempted to think that agency is a divine attribute - that it is a gift from our father in heaven is clear, but is it a gift we inherited, or a gift He gave us sometime after our infancy? I believe Heavenly Father has and uses agency. Our faith in His unshakable goodness, mercy, patience, love, forgiveness, etc. all depend on His making that decision every time we come to Him. He is not chained by anything but His own Divine Nature, and that is more dependable than the laws of physics. But it requires faith.
Because we are His literal children, we believe that we can grow to become like God, and inherit all that He has. If we want to know what God is like, we can look to Jesus Christ, who was the spiritual and physical child of Heavenly Father. I want to be more like them.
The implications of individual divinity do the important work of undoing dehumanization. Because we believe so firmly in our own divine natures, we are both constrained to and blessed to be able to see that nature even in people we consider our enemies. As often as we are told (sometimes by God Himself) that He loves us as His individual children, an essential reminder in moments of alienation and pain, we must extend that same love even to individuals who hurt us, who hate us, or who dismiss us as inconsequential.
More on that tomorrow.
But we teach our young women that every human literally contains divine "DNA" - whatever that means. Our bodies are mortal, and born to mortal parents, but we believe our spirits existed before our bodies. I don't know what "spirit" is. I don't know its exact relationship to matter. Joseph Smith writes that it is finer than matter, but that our spirit bodies look like our physical bodies. Mormons use the word "soul" differently that other religions, because we teach that the soul is the spirit and body together, and that our body's death is temporary - our eternal soul is both spirit AND body, although it goes through stages where the spirit is more or less naked of matter (before birth, and between death and resurrection). Our bodies are sacred spaces because they are meant to house our spirits.
I know that although spirit is meant to control matter, we don't always. We care for our bodies, and learn to keep them well, as carefully as we would keep our homes. But we are still learning, and we don't always choose the appropriate times to allow our bodies to make decisions.
I have very vague ideas about what attributes exactly we inherited from our heavenly parents. It's pretty easy to give God credit for everything good about me, and take the blame for all of my less fortunate attributes, but the truth is that just because some of my personality is less than divine doesn't mean that it isn't a divine attribute in some embryonic stage. Even the worst vice is, in some generous light, the side effect of a superpower, or a good thing turned in on itself. We are not done growing, and we won't be done growing for a long time. Literally ANY weakness can become a strength, because underneath every weakness is divine DNA. I have seen addicts become healers. I have seen gullibility become gentleness. I have seen anger become compassion and depression become empathy. (Ether 12:something. Seminary Scripture Mastery was a long time ago.)
I am tempted to think that agency is a divine attribute - that it is a gift from our father in heaven is clear, but is it a gift we inherited, or a gift He gave us sometime after our infancy? I believe Heavenly Father has and uses agency. Our faith in His unshakable goodness, mercy, patience, love, forgiveness, etc. all depend on His making that decision every time we come to Him. He is not chained by anything but His own Divine Nature, and that is more dependable than the laws of physics. But it requires faith.
Because we are His literal children, we believe that we can grow to become like God, and inherit all that He has. If we want to know what God is like, we can look to Jesus Christ, who was the spiritual and physical child of Heavenly Father. I want to be more like them.
The implications of individual divinity do the important work of undoing dehumanization. Because we believe so firmly in our own divine natures, we are both constrained to and blessed to be able to see that nature even in people we consider our enemies. As often as we are told (sometimes by God Himself) that He loves us as His individual children, an essential reminder in moments of alienation and pain, we must extend that same love even to individuals who hurt us, who hate us, or who dismiss us as inconsequential.
More on that tomorrow.
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