In the quote below, the phrase I loved was “hold on to them with your faith.” I wrote a post called, “Overcome by Faith,” where we learn that those who inherit eternal life are those who through their faith in Christ have overcome the world because their faith stirred them to action and thus they qualified to live the life that Christ lives and are awarded grace in proportion to their works. What is exciting is that we to through our faith (sufficient faith as just mentioned) we can secure our wayward children to us. Also reference my post titled, “Repentant wayward children will enjoy salvation.”
Orson F. Whitney:
“You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don’t give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours-long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant sevice in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or in the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tred a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God”
(in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, 110)
Craig
I don't know why this made me tear up…I think it's because I love the love that my Heavenly Father has for me and for all my family! 🙂