An Eternal Destiny

In his recent talk in general conference Elder Renlund said this: “We have heavenly parents, a father and a mother. The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother comes by revelation and is a distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints. President Dallin H. Oaks explained the importance of this truth: ‘Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.’” He continued, “Very little has been revealed about Mother in Heaven…. The Savior taught His disciples, ‘Always pray unto the Father in my name.’ We follow this pattern and direct our worship to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ and do not pray to Heavenly Mother.” The most prominent reference to a Mother in Heaven in Latter-day Saint literature is found in the hymn O My Father in which we read these words of Eliza R. Snow: “In the heav’ns are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare! Truth is reason; truth eternal Tells me I’ve a mother there.” While there is no scripture that teaches this directly, it certainly appears logical from some passages such as this one from Paul: “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11). We also have this powerful statement about the eternal importance of marriage from a revelation in our dispensation: “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-3). If for us—who are seeking to become like our Father in Heaven and who are created in His image—we must be married to receive all that He has, then surely He too must have an Eternal Companion who is our Heavenly Mother. Undoubtedly both the Father and the Son have entered into the everlasting covenant of marriage, but perhaps out of perfect respect for the exalted Women who stand beside Them eternally they have revealed nothing to us. Given how much the world at large profanes the name of the Father and the Son in vulgar expressions, surely they would not allow that same treatment by mankind for the perfect Companions at their sides.

                In connection with his teachings that we have an Eternal Father and Mother in Heaven, Elder Renlund also emphasized that “we have an ‘eternal destiny’” as their spirit children. He taught, “After death, we will receive what we have qualified for and ‘enjoy [only] that which [we] are willing to receive.’ Realizing our eternal destiny is dependent on our choices.” He suggested that we must conform to the path that the Lord has set forth in order to realize the full blessings available to us in that eternal destiny. I like this analogy he gave: “We cannot create our own path and expect God’s promised outcomes. To expect His blessings while not following the eternal laws upon which they are predicated is misguided, like thinking we can touch a hot stove and ‘decide’ not to be burned.” He also related this idea to his experience as a heart surgeon. He said, “You may know that I used to treat patients with heart failure. Their best outcomes were obtained by following established, evidence-based treatment plans. Despite knowing this, some patients tried to negotiate a different treatment plan. They said, ‘I don’t want to take so many medications’ or ‘I don’t want to undergo so many follow-up tests.’ Of course, patients were free to make their own decisions, but if they deviated from optimal treatment plans, their results suffered. Patients with heart failure cannot choose an inferior course and then blame their cardiologist for inferior outcomes.” He summarized the lesson for us: “We cannot deviate from Heavenly Father’s course and then blame Him for inferior outcomes.”

                I recently listened to The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. In one scene the famous Christian author George MacDonald, a personage in heaven in the book, explained this to the main character: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” If we want to obtain all that the Father hath, we must learn to say in all situations, “Thy will be done” just as the Savior did perfectly. But if we want to take our own path, to do our own will, then He will indeed say to us, “Thy will be done,” and we will remain outside of His presence. Just as a patient who receives a heart transplant will be best helped by following precisely the treatment plan of his or her doctor, so too we will advance the furthest in our eternal journey by submitting to the will of our omniscient God and following His plan for us. If we do not, we will get in the end what we had desired—our own autonomy outside of Him—but we may ultimately find that we wish we hadn’t wished for it. Elder Renlund powerfully summarized these thoughts with these words: “I invite you to center your life on Jesus Christ…. If you are willing, the Holy Ghost will guide you. Our Heavenly Father wants you to become His heir and receive all that He has. He cannot offer you more. He cannot promise you more. He loves you more than you know and wants you to be happy in this life and in the life to come.”