Great Sunday

I want to write down a few thoughts from the lesson in Relief Society today. We had the most darling teacher and she did a wonderful job. She taught from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk called " Faith of our Father". It is a great talk and I recommend reading it if you haven't.

President Uchtdorf refers to the fact that though this is a world wide church and we all come from different walks of life, cultures, languages, political circumstances and religious traditions we can claim the legacies of today's modern day church pioneers, even if we don't know them ourselves. It is almost that we become one and find joy in each others spiritual growth when we join the church.

He then refers to the well known hymn, "Faith of our Fathers," and what that means. Since we just celebrated Pioneer day this has a great deal of meaning to me. I am grateful that many of my fathers that came before me were good God fearing people who became some of the early members of the church. They laid a great foundation for me. Pres. Uchtdorf says that for him that phrase reminds him of the Lutheran faith since that is what his ancestors belonged to.

He then had this to say which really impressed me:

"We honor and respect sincere souls from all religions, no matter where or when they lived, who have loved God, even without having the fulness of the gospel. We lift our voices in gratitude for their selflessness and courage. We embrace them as brothers and sisters, children of our Heavenly Father.
We believe that it is a fundamental human right to worship “Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”4

I love this. I couldn't agree with him more. I have many friends who belong to different faiths but are absolutly wonderful and deserve my respect, love, and gratitude for their love for God.

He then talks about "Faith of our Father" instead of "Fathers". Just that letter "s" makes such a difference. This is the part of this lesson that I just loved...

"What, then, is the faith of our fathers? Is it the religion of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents?
But what of the faith of the ancient ones before them? What of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Are they not our fathers? Are we not of the house of Israel? What of Noah and Enoch and our first parents, Adam and Eve?
What of the Savior and those disciples who followed Him?
The faith of our Father in Heaven has been consistent since the beginning of time, even from before the foundation of this world. John the Revelator described a great war in heaven.5 The issue was moral agency, as it is today. All who have ever lived on this earth were among those who fought against Satan and stood with the Son and the Father. Therefore, do we not owe our allegiance to God, our Heavenly Father?
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, “we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”6 And “we believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”7 We believe in the great plan of happiness, the plan of redemption, the plan of salvation, whereby God’s children may experience mortality and return to the presence of the Father—a merciful plan established from before the foundation of this earth.
This is the plan and the faith of our Father!"

I love how beautifully he says this. The faith of our Father is the plan of salvation and is constant. I find comfort in understanding this. It brings a great deal of perspective to my life. It really was a great lesson!!