"I Have A Family Here On Earth, They Are So Good To Me"

Maybe I am just trying to get back in touch with my childhood, but I find it easy to remember all the songs I used to sing in church as a little kid.  There is a beauty about the simplicity of the message that they share and an even greater beauty to the depth of its meaning.  I have pondered many times on the words to the Hymn: "Families Can Be Together Forever" and considered it truth in my own life.  I am one of the lucky kids who grew up in a good home, raised by good parents, with good siblings.  Life has not always been perfect but things have been easier because I have parents who care and sisters who support me.  "The family is ordained of God" (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).  In my family, we were never alone, we always cared for and respected each other.  I know that God has prepared a way for our families to be happy and to live together forever and I'm grateful for the blessings of the holy temples that provide us that possibility.  I hope to live in a manner in which I may see them gathered with my Heavenly Family. 

What Draws Me There?

This morning while I was looking at this picture, I thought of how bad I wanted to be there.  I think of good friends and missionaries that surround me, and I want to be with them.  I started to wonder, what is it that draws me to want to be with these people, or at this place?  One may suggest, because beauty.  Another, the bond or connection.  Another may say it is because of a neat, clean appearance.  Or it may be the atmosphere of love and comfort.  All of these give me a vision of what heaven may be.

I define draw, partly, as a means of pulling up or out of despair.  We know that everyone that is born with the light of Christ, (Moroni 7:16), and that this inward force drives us to do right and come to God.  To completely define draw, in this manner, it is an effect that causes us to be pulled out of despair and to move continuously towards God.  These things that draw me to Him, are places or people previously designed by the Lord to bless my life.  I know this applies to us all.  A scripture to help understand this, is found in Jeremiah 31:3.   "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." 

I am drawn to these places because of the love that I feel.  That love is everlasting.  That love is the perfect, and fills our souls with peace and joy.  May we draw close to Him as He draws close to us.