The Child of God Angle

[Anonymous]

Someone mentioned in another thread about the “Child of God” concept at church. When I was younger my family would tell me I should have self esteem because I am a child of god. People in the church often talk about how being a Child of God means we are special or should think well of ourselves.

I have never gotten this. Maybe you can help me see it. The reason I don’t get it is this:

a) There are billions of children of God. How does that make me special in any way? I feel like one of the 300 Million plus people in America.

b) God doesn’t speak to me very often, so He’s kind of like an absent parent who doesn’t care very much about me personally.

Perhaps you could help me understand how being a child of God somehow is a source of self-esteem or comfort.

[Anonymous]

As far as self esteem goes I think it’s just another way that people convey the whole “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (which is proof to me that god is good at subtraction). When people say this I think they are focused on the one to one relationship with god.

When I first joined the church the teaching that I was a child of god really resonated with me. Being a child denotes a personal relationship which is something more than a creation. By contrast a creation feels more impersonal, as if we are things.

The child of god concept can help teach unity, it can provide a model for understanding god’s love (like a perfect parent), and it can even be a surrogate love for when love is absent in someone’s life. Feeling loved can help with self esteem.

[Anonymous]

I have heard the saying something to the effect of “God made me, and He don’t make no trash.” Because God doesn’t make mistakes he must have a design and purpose for your life.

In the Mormon context of being a child of God there is the concept of exaltation. Each one of us is a God or Goddess in embryo. The idea of the expansive potential of each human being might also give one a sense of self worth.

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

I have never gotten this. Maybe you can help me see it. The reason I don’t get it is this:

a) There are billions of children of God. How does that make me special in any way? I feel like one of the 300 Million plus people in America.

From a very human perspective, self-worth is comparative. From the child-of-God perspective, it is not. Rather, I think it is entirely rooted in the idea that we should take heart because there is a benevolent all-powerful being who has a personal, vested interest in each one of us as an individual. In this view, we are not abandoned to our own folly or left without a listening ear. God wants us to succeed and is actively trying to help us. Because he is omnipotent and omniscient, it doesn’t make any difference that he has other children, because he as capacity to love on an infinite scale.

SilentDawning wrote:

b) God doesn’t speak to me very often, so He’s kind of like an absent parent who doesn’t care very much about me personally.

When I was a believer, God ‘spoke’ to me all the time. Now that I believe there is no God, he never ‘speaks’ to me. The question is this: did the real God stop speaking or did I stop hearing an imagined God?

One other thought. In early Christianity, being children of God, AKA members of the family of Christ, AKA brothers and sisters, was a way of saying that we had become allied with God and become his ‘spiritual children’, not that we were each, literally, his children. Personally, I like that message better, because it has to do with my actions, not those of some other being. In Mormon parlance, this is being spiritually begotten of Christ, though he is not our literal father.

[Anonymous]

I know many people who derive a great deal of comfort from the idea that God loves them as a perfect father (and some who get tremendous comfort from a God-Mother). I am truly glad for them.

I’ve never felt close to my Heavenly Father, although I do feel something more for a Savior “big brother.” Jesus resonates more with me. To be honest I can’t quite figure out sometimes what LDS doctrine is regarding our interaction with God the Father. Do we need an advocate or not. Sometimes it seems we do, sometimes it seems we don’t. In the temple Elohim definitely keeps arm length even from Adam who seems like a pretty righteous dude.

About 10 years ago I started dabbling in astronomy. I’d take my telescope to the middle of the desert and look at stars, planets, galaxies, and other cool stuff in the sky. It was a time that my faith transition was just starting. Instead of seeing the unimaginable enormity of the universe and knowing that I’m a meaningless speck, I got a good deal of comfort from it. It was about the time I realized I probably was going to die and become “nothing” and I realized that I should not worry about it and just try to enjoy life while I’m here. I decided to not worry as much about what God thought about me when I realized I might not be His literal child. Coincidentally this was the time I also changed my definition of tithing, and I used the difference to buy a fancy telescope. 🙄

These days I mostly hope I’m God’s child and that He care two hoots about me. Usually I think I’m a quantum blip never to be repeated. I would love to be wrong and live with my wife and kids forever and ever with a perfect body.

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

Someone mentioned in another thread about the “Child of God” concept at church. When I was younger my family would tell me I should have self esteem because I am a child of god. People in the church often talk about how being a Child of God means we are special or should think well of ourselves.

I have never gotten this. Maybe you can help me see it. The reason I don’t get it is this:

a) There are billions of children of God. How does that make me special in any way? I feel like one of the 300 Million plus people in America.

b) God doesn’t speak to me very often, so He’s kind of like an absent parent who doesn’t care very much about me personally.

Perhaps you could help me understand how being a child of God somehow is a source of self-esteem or comfort.

Maybe it’s a concept that is not metabolized the same way by all people. My husband has good self-esteem and would freely confess that the child of God concept helps keep him humble and kind. It’s not so much that he’s a child of God, as much as everyone else is, too.

[Anonymous]

I struggle with this, too, SD. The God of the Lost Car Keys concept was part of my FC. As I have transitioned I recognize there is no such God, at least for me. Part of my transition back to regular church attendance needed to include how to deal with people who so firmly believe that God is so interested in the minutia of their lives. I’m not an expert at that yet, but I do recognize that some people need to believe that sort of stuff to have any sort of faith at all – in other words, it is faith affirming to them. (I also believe it sets them up for a future FC when God doesn’t help them find their car keys, or more likely something much more important and that my faith is actually stronger than their because I am not longer susceptible to that let down.) I have looked at it from the angle that we’re all children of God, so in LDS theology how does that make us special? Some Protestant churches hold that only the believers are children of God (as opposed to LDS theology that we are literally children of God). I can’t see the two mixing because of that literal view, except for the “one true church” angle. As an evolutionist, I don’t believe we are literal children of God in the physical sense, although I am open to the idea we may be spirit children of God. Yet, like you, I see that God (as a Father) is very uninvolved in multiple ways – even when God speaks, it is almost never God the Father and almost everything we know (or think) He has said has been”here’s my Son, listen to Him.” If we broaden the definition of God to include Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, He (They?) could be seen as more interactive – but I’m not sure that’s so in my case. The reality is that our modern prophets get revelation that same way the rest of us do – by “feelings” or “promptings.” I can no longer put my faith in such things.

Once I believed I did have a personal relationship with God and could testify like others that I thought He was a helper who knew my name and loved me. I am nowhere near believing that now, and instead of my former faith being a comfort to me as it was then, it now causes me some distress and angst. In answer to your question, I believe it’s mostly confirmation bias.

[Anonymous]

I struggle with it personally, but not for other people. I think the process of finding peace is the process of learning to condition our thoughts. And if a belief in a God that is wrapped up in their daily life, watching over their every decision, and injecting himself into the details of their lives makes them feel more at peace, then I am pleased for them.

My father was in an accident recently, and suffered temporary dementia that an operation (a shunt in his skull to allow fluid to drain) remedied. He is back to his old sharp self. He swears up and down that God intervened to restore his mental capacity. I did not object to this as it brought him peace and joy to believe that.

Same with priesthood blessings. I will give them to my children and family when they ask as they believe them, feel the Spirit when I give them, etcetera. As peace and happiness is th purpose of our existence, then I am not one to stand in the way of beliefs that promote that happiness.

At the same time, I don’t feel that the “Child of God” angle does much for me. God is largely absent from my life as far as I can see. There are remote connections to Him — he created the earth, gave me talents and brains that make my life better, and perhaps pulled some strings to bring my children into my life, but overall, I feel like I am on my own. At the same time, I am ready to acknowledge his hand in all things, should I feel there is evidence of this now, or in the future.

[Anonymous]

I have always liked the story in Moses, in the Pearl of Great Price:

Quote:

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.

8 And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.

9 And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth.

10 And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

11 But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.

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.

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?

14 For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?

15 Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve.

16 Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.

In my personal life, if I believe I have divine potential, than I can take courage to face life’s challenges, which are temporal, and believe I can survive and triumph over things that are just of this world.

While I may be less than the dust of this earth in this life as I am right now…I can have faith I am divine in nature, I just have a ways to go in my progression.

I need to have that vision of my potential to stretch me, and at the same time be humble and patient, and remember:

Quote:

40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;

42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.

On days I get down, and really hate myself for being such a failure in life…I remember that experience Moses went through, and remember today I can try again, and tomorrow can be better. Because I’m more than just a plant or animal. I’m a divine child of god who just doesn’t really hear from his Heavenly Father much, because He trusts me enough to let me figure things out and learn from this life. I’m on a path, and he is OK with it. While I reach my potential.

[Author]

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