Brothers and Sisters...

Well, it didn't take long for me to fail on my New Year's goal to write once a week in my blog, did it?  The great thing about falling down sometimes is learning to get up and not falling again.  I've been away from home doing work related things for over a week now.  I suppose it's a precursor to what will be ahead of me in the near future when I'm gone for a longer period of time.  Though, I am and will be far away from home, I am so grateful for modern day technology which allows me to talk and see my family even though they are hundreds to thousands of miles away.  Today, I went to church here where I am.  It never ceases to amaze me how the Church is so well organized.  (Of course it is... it's the Church that God organized, I would hope that it would be).  I love that I can expect the same lessons here that I would receive anywhere else in the world.  One of my good friends went to church with me today.  He is in the process of learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It's been such a long time since I was in the same boat as him when I was learning about the basic beliefs and principles of the Church.  I forget how many things I take for granted.  Even the simple practice of calling each other "brothers and sisters."  Why is that?  Well one reason is because in a spirit sense, we are literally all brothers and sisters here on this earth.  Not only did God create man physically, but before this world was, He created our spirits and we existed in a pre-mortal spirit world.  That is why we refer to God as our Heavenly Father.  That also makes every person born to this earth a spirit brother or sister.  Jesus Christ was our Heavenly Father's first born in that pre-mortal spirit world.  Our spirits look like us now except they are not tangible as we know it.  When we lived with Him before the world's creation, God presented a plan for us in a Grand Council, which was that we could return to live with Him, and so that we could become more like Him.  Just as a father or mother wants there children to have all that they have and more, He wants us to have all that He has (though not more, since He is perfect).  Part of being able to do that is to have a physical body like Him.  God the Father has an immortal physical body that is perfect.  Coming to this earth helps us to get one step closer to that by being born with physical bodies which will one day be resurrected like Jesus Christ was resurrected.  (Resurrection is a topic all it's own, to which I will one day get)  Many of us also came to have experiences and be tested while we are in this mortal state, so as to grow and learn to obey God's commandments.  Since it would be our choice to obey God or not, God knew that there needed to be a Redeemer on earth in order to save us from our mistakes and sins.  Jesus, said that He would be that redeemer and that He would give all the credit and glory to Heavenly Father.  However, there was another spirit child that was at this Grand Council who also wanted to be our Savior.  That spirit was Lucifer.  But his plan was to force everyone to obey and to take away our freedom to choose.  Lucifer wanted all of the glory for himself and did not want to give any credit to anyone else.  When these two options were placed before Heavenly Father, He chose Jesus to be the Universe's Savior.  Lucifer did not like this, and so he rebelled and was able to draw away a third part of all of Heavenly Father's spirit children, to rebel also.  God, therefore, punished Lucifer and his followers and sent them to earth without receiving physical bodies.  They then became our tempters, trying to cause us to make wrong decisions in life for they wanted us to be as miserable as they are.  Of course all of us don't remember this pre-mortal life, for there is a veil as it were, which keeps us from remembering, so that we will learn to follow God's teachings by faith.  (Faith is also another subject all its own).  Knowing what I have just explained allows me to realize that every person that I come in contact with on a daily basis, is a literal spirit brother or sister of mine.  It also helps me know that each person that is born once made a choice to follow Jesus Christ when we all were in the presence of Heavenly Father as spirits.  If you think about it, every person has divinity deep within them and the potential to become like our Heavenly Father is, physically and spiritually.  This perspective helps me to love and serve others, as I love and serve my own family.