I Know That My Heavenly Father Loves Me

So to preface this, I'd like to say that I love and cherish many of the songs in the primary songbook. Among my favorite songs is this one. I was trying to download an mp3 of it from the church's website, but I guess they don't have it available. If anyone knows how to get it from there, I'd really like to know. Anyway, I decided to search through YouTube and see what I could find and this was the first thing that popped up, and not surprisingly, the best of the videos that I found.

Over the past few weeks, things have been pretty crazy in my life with trying to figure out if I really wanted to teach English at the jr. high/high school level and taking a class specifically for it. With it finally coming to a close this past week, I've been trying to get into the habit of reading my scriptures first thing and it's incredilbe how much that has made a difference for me. Its reminded me of the love that my Heavenly Father has for me and I am so grateful for that. I feel so privileged to have a knowledge of that. I truly took this knowledge for granted growing up in the church. It was heartwrenching to go out into the mission field and to try and help people not only learn this, but how their lives could improve as a result of that knowledge. So many people I met didn't have this knowledge or had forgotten it and had a very difficult time learning or relearning it. I'm so thankful that my parents took the time to teach this eternal truth to me, even when I wasn't the most teachable. I know that our Haeavenly Fatehr loves each and everyone of us, no matter what we've done. He wants each of us to feel of His love, and the love of His Son, Jesus Christ.

To those who feel like they have been separated from that love, or haven't felt it at all, I hope that you will continually seek after Him and realize that He wants to help you more than you want to be helped. In a world that tries to demean and demolish the things that we hold dear, it can be difficult to see or feel that love in our lives at times. But I have no doubt that even in the moments that we feel cast off from the Lord that we really aren't. I know that He has helped me through every challenge I've faced in my life, and I know that He will do the same for all of us if we allow Him.

I'm grateful for what the creator of this video wrote: "Despite all the darkness that is surrounding us, we can see, feel, and hear much beauty of our Heavenly Fathers creations. May you all find the time to still smell the roses and be grateful for life and hopefully this will help you to raise up your children for the future". I too hope that next to knowing that our Heavenly Father lives, that my future children will know that they are loved not only by their father on earth, but infinitely more by their Father in Heaven. This knowledge has changed my life and affects me in ways that I can't imagine. One of the greatest ways I've been able to feel His love is by reading the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon. If there is one resounding message throughout the book, despite the continual tragedies and trials that occur, it's that our Heavenly Father knows each of us individually and loves us. When Christ visited the Nephites after His resurrection, He said, "And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see [me]..." (3 Nephi 18:25). I testify that our Savior and our Heavenly Father will never command any of us to go away when we diligently seek Them, and we will be able to literally feel in our hearts the love which They seek to give us. :)