I Am A Daughter Of God; Who Art Thou?

Ok. Midterms, school, roommates, boys, homework, future worries... It's enough to make a freshman girl in college crack in half. And the last few weeks all this has almost done that to me. But thankfully I was reminded of something extremely important this week.
I am currently taking a Human Development class to cover one of my GE's. The class is very interesting and my professor is beyond incredible! He just knows what he is talking about and knows how to make it interesting. On top of this my professor is able to incorperate the idea of God and Jesus Christ and life on the earth into practically every unit of the class (which I love.) Well this week I attended his class with a heavy heart. The week was going long and it was hard to focus. As we began class my professor told us we were starting the unit of "Self." What on earth did this mean? As we talked my professor told us how important it is for each of us to have a concept of our own "self." My professor started his class off by saying this "Who are you all? When I ask you that what is your first response?" Being at BYU our initial response, the response we had been saying since we were young children, was "A child of God!" My professor smiled and shook his head. He then asked specifically "Young ladies who are you?" This brought to mind something I had not thought about in a while (it felt like.) And that would be the young womens theme. For those of you who may not know; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a program called Young Women's. It teaches the young ladies of the church how to grow up righteously and how to reach their potential as daughters of God. There is a theme/saying that goes with the program that you say more than once a week. When my professor asked who the young ladies were he asked us to "really say who we were" meaning, he wanted us to state the young womens theme: So we said:

 "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will 'stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places' (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation."

As I recited this theme that I had not uttered in what felt like months I felt something in my heart (sounds cheesy but I wont apologize) I felt a bit of a remembrance and I realized how much I had missed saying these words every week. After we young women recieted this my professor decided to share a scripture with us (I wish I could take credit for this blog post but I have my professor to thank for most of it!)

In Moses Chapter 1 The Lord is revealing Himself to Moses. I can only imagine how Moses felt at this moment. The God of all the earth has revealed himself to him. I would feel a bit...Small...Insignificant. I would find myself asking "Why is the Lord revealing Himself to me? A man?" But the Lord has a way of reminding us who we really are.

1:4- "And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands but not all, for my works are with out end, and also my words, for they never cease."
1:6-"And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth; but there is no God besides me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all."
1:7 "And now, behold, this one thing I show unto thee, Moses, my son, for thou art in the world, and now I show it unto thee." 

How cool is this? God first and foremost calls Moses His son! He reminds him firstly of who he is. He calls Moses by name. He reminds Moses not once but three times that he is a song of God. These simple acts have got to have made Moses feel better. However, once Moses is done talking with the Lord who shows up immediately to try to place doubt into Moses? Satan.

1:12- "And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold Satan came tempting him, saying; Moses, son of man, worship me."

Satan tried to tell Moses that he was of man. Satan is trying to take away the idea and fact that Moses has devine kinship. I can imagine how I would feel. I would feel pretty bad! I don't know if I would behave with doubt or how I would act. But Moses did not shrink at all.

1:13-" And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his only Begotten; and where is thy glory that I should worship thee?"

How awesome is that? Moses puts Satan in his place. When I read this scripture I picture it in "2015 language" and this is how it reads out " Satan, who are you to tell me that I am merely a son of man? I know who I am. I am a son of God. Who are you to tell me that I am not a child of God?"
I think that it is interesting that Satan targets the fact that the Lord told Moses he was a son of God. The Lord had just shown Moses many things, He had said lots of things, and truly God did show great power. Satan could've targeted many things. He could have tried to place doubt in Moses heart about the things he had seen, Gods power, or even the fact that God even existed. However, Satan decided to target Moses holy heritage. Why?
I want to quote what my professor told us: "Developing notions of self is the most important thing we can learn. It is also Satan's biggest target. If Satan can warp our sense of self everything else will fall into place [for him]" If Satan can get us to believe that we are not children of God, that we are not special, that we are not important, he has succeeded on so many levels. Satan uses the world to get us to doubt who we truly are. The world places in the minds of the children of God so many negative things. The world tells us we are not pretty enough, not skinny enough, not muscular enough for the world. The world tells us you are not smart enough, you aren't talented, you are just a face in the crowd. This can get depressing. I know personally this to be true.

As I was sitting in class i felt the stress of the last few weeks of school on my shoulders. It has been pretty hard. I have constantly felt that my success was determined by a percentage on a paper. I felt my worth was determined by my success. I felt myself not feeling good about who I was and how I was doing. However as I sat in class and heard this lecture my heart started to feel lighter. But I personally believe my whole day was changed by what my teacher taught us at the end of class. He told us this; No matter what happens in life. No matter what we get on our midterms, our finals, or on our assignments. No matter what "success" or "failures" we endure in life one thing will remain. The fact that we are children of God. It doesn't matter what we say or do we are children of God. He loves us. He does not base His love for us off of our successes and failures. It is an unconditional love and an eternal heritage. I will be a child of God for all eternity regardless of whatever happens in life.

When my teacher explained this to me I felt so relieved and loved. If we constantly look at ourselves through the eyes of the world we will never be happy. Looking at ourselves through the worlds view point is like looking through one of those mirrors at the carnival; our reflection is distorted and not what we want. But if we choose to trust the Lord, believe in the fact that He loves us, and look at ourselves through His perspective I know that we will be happier.

I am so grateful for what I learned. At the end of it I was really thinking about myself and how I felt about myself personally. While thinking I decided to do something. I wanted to personalize the Young womens theme to myself. So I did. And this is what I got from it:


"I, Kelsey Anne Wood, am a daughter of  Heavenly Father, who loves me, and I love Him. I will stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places' (Mosiah 18:9) as I strive to live the Young Women values, which are: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. I believe as I come to accept and act upon these values, I will be prepared to strengthen my home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation."

I know that God lives. I know that His Son, our elder brother, Jesus Christ lives. I know that the Lord is there for us through the best of times and the worst of times. And I know that if we look at ourselves through His perspective, recognizing who we truly are, we will be happy.  If you ever have a shadow of a doubt of who you are just get on your knees and ask Him. He will help you remember who you are and He will remind you of your purpose on this earth.