SCRIPT & POSY: Your Weekly Sundae- LIFE.

Your Weekly Sundae this week is informative, so get your thinking caps on!

Sometimes we get caught up in the thick of things as we live our busy lives and shuffle from one hurried errand or activity to another, and so the other day while giving the spiritual thought i asked our English group if they thought that it was necessary to have a purpose to life. It was pretty apparent that we all knew there should be a purpose to life as very quickly the entire room was filled with head nods and echoing, "YES's" as if i had just asked a "DUH" question like, "Is the sky blue?" The next question..."Why?" This time the silence was a little longer and i got responses such as:

To have a destination
To make life more interesting
To acquire success
To have no regrets
To make dreams come true
To leave your mark on life

The next question, "So what IS the purpose of life?" Is that a slight stupor of thought i hear?...Answers such as:

it's personal for each of us
to feel happy
to live toward retirement
to enjoy life
to help others feel happy

Hearing all these replies i could easily conclude one thing. None of us have our purposes in life set to be miserable. Not a single one of us wakes up each morning saying, "I want to be extremely unhappy and miserable today!" We all strive for one thing....

AND TO...

!!!!!!!!!!

And you know what? That's great! Because that's just what Heavenly Father wants for us! There's a scripture from the Book of Mormon i would like to share from 2 Nephi 2:25:

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

It's also obvious that many have various ways going about acquiring that joy, and most times the joy and happiness sought after is fleeting from one point to the next. So Heavenly Father has created a plan for His children called The Plan of Salvation; a plan so perfect as to make each of His children eternally happy that it is also called The Plan of Happiness. This plan i like to think of as a timeline, or map, of our progress through eternity. It offers simple answers to profound questions such as: "Where did we come from?", "Why are we here?", and "Where are we going?"

It would be nice to know that our lives didn’t begin at birth, nor will they end at death. Before we came to earth, our spirits lived with Heavenly Father who created us in His image. Meaning all of us on earth are literally brothers and sisters in the family of God.

He knew us, and we knew Him, and His plan before ever coming to Earth. This period of time we like to call our Pre-earth life. Just as we can't remember saying our first words, or taking our first steps, we can't remember our pre-earth life. You could say that a "veil" has been put over our minds, which means we have to operate by faith rather than sight.
God wanted us to grow and become like Him and enjoy the blessings He has, and just as most of us leave our home and parents when we grow up, God knew we needed to do the same. He knew we couldn’t progress unless we left for a while, to gain experience by learning to choose between good and evil, so he allowed us to come to earth to experience the joy—as well as pain—of a physical body. Our body is God's plan and a necessity for our progression and for obtaining a fullness of joy, because if we have any hope to become like Him that requires gaining a body like He has. The body is not merely a mobile unit, but rather a "home" for our spirits. So here we are, living our lives here on good ol' mother earth with our physical bodies, with one purpose...

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. "
-Alma 34:32 (Book of Mormon)-

Ummm...helloooo purpose!

Do you know the story of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? I know, i know, "What? What does that have anything to do with my purpose in life?" EVERYTHING. Did you know it was Adam and Eve who allowed the rest of us to come to earth, make choices, and become like our Heavenly Father? There are many who actually feel that they are punished because of Adams transgression, but we believe it was all part of God's perfect plan.

"And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."

-2 Nephi 2:22-24(Book of Mormon)-

The key word is "choice." From the beginning God immediately acknowledged agengy and gave His children the option to choose, and as we know Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptations and disobeyed God who had commanded them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a consequence, they were separated from God’s presence physically and spiritually—an event we refer to as the Fall. They became mortal—just as we are—subject to sin, disease, all types of suffering, and ultimately death. But it wasn’t all bad because they could now feel great joy."Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." Remember?

Once out of the garden, they were able to progress and learn by experience. In addition, they could have children, which meant the rest of God’s spirit children (all of us) could come to Earth, experience physical bodies, and be proven by our daily choices. But that doesn’t mean He expects us to be perfect. He knows we won’t be. Heavenly Father wants us to return back to Him and do so happily, that's why Heavenly Father sent His son Jesus Christ, to show us how to live according to God's plan, and to also perform the Atonement to pay for our mistakes and triumph over spiritual death by His suffering, and over physical death by His resurrection.

Here's a fun little video that kinda just sums it all up...

So we all know what we're all coming down to, it's not exactly the most pleasant of thoughts but yes, death is inevitable, but that is not where life ends!

"Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow."

-Alma 40:11 (Book of Mormon)-

"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"(1Corinthians 15:12) As we know on the third day after His Crucifixion, Jesus Christ became the first person to be resurrected. And so when we die, our spirits will move to the Spirit World where we will be reunited with loved ones who have passed on before us, and there we will stay until our own resurrection. Which is simply when our bodies and spirit will be reunited once more in a perfect immortal body of flesh and bone that will never again be subject to disease, pain, or death. And so, even after death, we will continue to follow Christ's example!

Christ's Atonement made this possible for us and is a gift to everyone that even the wicked will receive. The resurrection makes it possible to return to God's presence but does not guarantee that we will be able to live eternally in His presence. We may not be responsible for the Fall of Adam and Eve, but we are responsible for our own sins, and to receive that blessing we must be cleansed from sin. Thank goodness for repentance!

Afterwards...judgment. Each of us will face God who will judge each of us fairly according to our works and desires and reward us appropriately. Everyone varies so it would only make sense for a perfect plan to have degrees of glory, versus a heaven and a hell. There are three kingdoms of glory: the telestial, terrestrial, and for those who repent, receive the ordinances of the gospel and keep sacred covenants, they will receive exaltation in the highest kingdom, the celestial kingdom. There we will live in God's presence with our families and receive a fullness of joy.
Another sum it up video!

Interesting enough as i have been writing this questions of my own have been coming to me, so if you have questions YOU'RE NORMAL! Not that being like me makes you normal at all...

So what do we learn here?

We are literal children of God
Our lives Do have purpose
We are helpless without the Atonement of Jesus Christ!
We CAN live with God again!
We can be with our families for eternity
There is a plan that enables us to face the affects of spiritual and physical death and have joy in this life and in eternity

So put it all together and what do you get? A PERFECT plan of SALVATION for our HAPPINESS. Pretty great, huh?