Our Father in Heaven

Yesterday I taught Relief Society, Chapter 1 of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, entitled Our Father in Heaven.

There is a lot of awesome stuff in this lesson, so I had to pick and choose which things I went over to make sure I would have enough time to get through to the end. I like the teaching help at the end of Chapter 2: "[Avoid] the temptation to cover too much material. . . . We are teaching people, not subject matter per se; and . . . every lesson outline that I have ever seen will inevitably have more in it than we can possibly cover in the allotted time" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Teaching and Learning in the Church," Ensign, June 2007, 91).

So my Relief Society got a condensed version. But here I don't have as many constraints (or discussion) so here are the thoughts I had on the lesson.


Since this was the first lesson we had from this book, I began by showing a picture of the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, and briefly bearing my testimony of him. I told of my excitement to be teaching from this manual this year. As you can read in my previous blog, I've been learning about his life. I've also read through the first few lessons, and I can feel the testimony that he had of his Savior. It is apparent that he was a scholar, and his words are very clear, logical, and easy for me to understand. He quotes a lot of scripture, and it is clear that he had a very good understanding of those scriptures. I really am looking forward to learning more about him this year.

From the Life of Joseph Fielding Smith

The first paragraph talks about the many technological advances he had seen over the course of his life. He mentions telescopes and microscopes, and other advances in medicine and machines. But he says,  “All of these discoveries and inventions have not drawn men nearer to God! Nor created in their hearts humility and the spirit of repentance, but to the contrary, to their condemnation. … Faith has not increased in the world, nor has righteousness, nor obedience to God.”  A contrast to this is Alma 30:44, which claims that "all things denote there is a God".

The second paragraph of this section is a description of President Smith's prayers, how they "were always very personal - as if talking to a friend." I asked the question: What leads a person to be able to pray like this, as though talking to a friend? The obvious answer is to come to know him, to study the scriptures and pray and listen to the Spirit.

Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith
1. Beginning with Joseph Smith's First Vision, the true knowledge of God has been restored in our day.

 We read the first two paragraphs of this section, and then I very briefly talked about the apostasy, and the Nicene Creed. Then I showed a picture of Joseph Smith's first vision and asked what this first vision taught us about God. Answers included that he has a physical body that resembles ours, that he was a separate being from Jesus Christ, that he hears and answers prayers, that he knows us by name.

2. To exercise faith in God and worship Him, we must have an understanding of His characteristics.

We read John 17:3, and then I asked how we come to know God, how can we learn about him, when we we can't see him.

We read the 3rd paragraph of this section, beginning with the sentence: "We know that God is known only by revelation, that he stands revealed or remains forever unknown." This led to a discussion of what things have been revealed to us about God? What qualities and attributes does he have? I wrote these on the chalkboard.

When the comments slowed down, we read the 8th paragraph, which begins: "God is our Father; he is the being in whose image man is created." We then listed more attributes that were found in this paragraph.

3. God is a personal being and the Father of our Spirits.

The second paragraph of this section reinforces that God is literally the father of our Spirits, and that Jesus is our brother.

I asked the sisters how God can progress if he is all powerful, all knowing, and perfect (all things which were brought up as qualities and attributes of God)? We read the last sentence in this section which says, "And I am grateful that we know he is an infinite and eternal being who knows all things and has all power and whose progression consists not in gaining more knowledge or power, not in further perfecting his godly attributes, but in the increase and multiplying of his kingdoms."

4. Heavenly Father loves us and is interested in each of us.

We read the last three paragraphs of this section, which talk about how the worlds were created so we would have a place to live; how we are God's work and His glory. We read how God's love for us is greater than that of a parent for his offspring, and then we paused for a moment to let that sink in, and to discuss how knowing this makes us feel.

5. Heavenly Father weeps over His disobedient children.

We read where President Smith quotes Moses 7:28-30, 32-33, then talked about the last two paragraphs of this section, where he talks about the sorrow the Lord feels about his disobedient children. I referred to a story a sister shared in Relief Society last week about a time when her daughter received her endowment in the temple in preparation to serve a mission, and how, due to her own inactivity, she was unable to be with her daughter, and how sad that made her feel. I pointed out that the sorrow goes both ways - both for those left outside, and for those within the Celestial Kingdom.

6. Heavenly Father has provided the way of redemption so we can be brought back to His presence.

This is an awesome section. We pretty much read it straight through because I didn't want to leave anything out.

The first paragraph talks about Adam's fall and our need for a Savior. The next three paragraphs speak of how God sent His son to redeem us from the fall. (John 3:16) We needed someone with power over death to willingly atone for our sins and give his life so we could live with God again.

I especially loved the 5th paragraph where he says "It was never the intention of our Father in heaven to leave men to grope and feel their way in darkness and that without any light to guide them, and expect them under such conditions to find their way back into his kingdom and into his holy presence. That is not the way of the Lord. All down the ages from the beginning our Father in heaven has shown his kindness for his children and has been willing to give them direction. . . .There is no need for men to shut their eyes and feel that there is no light only as they may depend upon their reason, for the Lord has always been willing to lead and direct and show the way. He has sent, as I say, messengers from his presence. He has sent revelation. He has commanded that his word be written, that it be published, so that all the people might know it."

God is our loving Father. He he is powerful and wise and perfect and he loves and cares about us, individually. He is sad when we are disobedient. He wants us to return to his presence. He provided a Savior to help us return, to redeem us from the fall of Adam, to set an example, to atone for our sins so we can be forgiven and return to his presence. As President Smith said, "I say to you, and to the whole Church, and, for that matter, to the whole world, that a gracious and loving Father has in these last days spoken again from heaven to his servants the prophets.

His voice has been one inviting all men to come to his Beloved Son, to learn of him, to partake of his goodness, to take his yoke upon them, and to work out their salvation by obedience to the laws of his gospel. His voice has been one of glory and honor, of peace in this life, and of eternal life in the world to come."