We are the Children of God, our Loving Heavenly Father

We are Children of God—literally! Because you are a child of god, you have divine potential.

We are the children of God

One of the most common and challenging questions of life is, “Who am I?”

Have you ever wondered about your origin? An inspired children’s hymn has the answer:

“I am a child of God, and he has sent me here.” 1

Did we exist before we were born on earth? Yes. We are the literal children of God, our Heavenly Father; our spirits were begotten or created by God the premortal life. We are as beloved by God, our Heavenly Father, as earthly parents should love their children.

As the children of God we inherit God’s divine attributes and our potential is limitless. If we will allow him, God will become our tutor and help us reach our eternal destiny. Knowing that we are children of God and that he created us for a reason--and that reason was God’s love--should provide us with comfort, strength, and hope.

We are the children of God--He is the actual Heavenly Father of our spirits

Many prophets and apostles have spoken of God as our actual Heavenly Father. For example, Moses recorded a prayer of the people:“…O God, the father of the spirits of all flesh….” 2

Later, the Apostle Paul referred to God as “the Father of spirits;” 3 and he described our relationship to him: “…We are the offspring of God….” 4

These inspired servants of God were not speaking symbolically. Modern prophets and apostles have likewise testified that we are truly the children of God—God is our literal parent, our literal Heavenly Father.

Of this God-man familial relationship, Brigham Young said,

“Man is the offspring of God. Who can fully realize this? …We are as much the children of this great Being as we are the children of our mortal progenitors.” 5

And at another time,

“There is not a person here today but what is a son or daughter of [God our heavenly father]. In the spirit world [our] spirits were first begotten and brought forth….” 6

Addressing the fact that we are the children og God, another modern prophet of God, George Albert Smith, said,

“…we are children of God. He is the father of our spirits. We have not come from some lower form of life, but God is the father of our spirits, and we belong to a royal family, because he is our father.” 7

As the children of God, we were created in the image of God

We look like God because we are the children of God; God looks like us because parents and their children look like each other. God created Adam and Eve in his image. What statement of truth can be more plain?

In the book of Genesis, we are given a brief overview of the long and complex process of creation. During lengthy periods of time, designated simply as “days,” God organized the earth, moon, sun and the astronomical bodies in which they reside, in addition to vast varieties of life forms—simple to advanced forms—which are ever expanding in number and complexity. Then, when God finished all this, he did something marvelous: God placed his crowning creation upon the earth—God’s own children: Adam and Eve. 8 They were to become the parents of the human race, which descends from God.

Unfortunately, many people are confused about the creation of Adam and Eve and how their story harmonizes with current scientific theories, which are continuously changing. We are assured that one day God will reveal to his children the full account—for there will come “…a time to come in which nothing shall be withheld” 9 concerning the complex subject of the creation and the divine origin of man. Until that full revelation comes, we have the words of God's prophets and apostles:

“He [Adam] took upon him an appropriate body, the body of a man, and so became a 'living soul.'... All who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner.... Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our Heavenly Father. True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ or embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. There is nothing in this, however, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man." 10

Moreover, another apostle, Marion G. Romney, said,

“If there are some things in the strata of the earth indicating there were men before Adam, they were not the ancestors of Adam.” 11 Finally, we have the words of Moses: Adam was the “first man of all men.” 12

The children of God look like God

The Prophet Joseph Smith, who knew God intimately, gave us this description of our Heavenly Father:

"… If the veil were rent today, and the great God, who holds this world in its orbit, and who holds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make himself visible--I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form--like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another." 13

The children of God inherit the potential to become like God

Jesus gave us a commandment to become “perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect.” 14 Later, he described eternal life—the life that God leads—as “knowing thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” 15

To become perfect as God is perfect, to truly know him and live the kind of life that he leads is to become like God in every way. Just as children inherit the traits of their earthly parents so children of God inherit the traits of the heavenly parents. Yes, parents! The words to the hymn best explain this truth:

“In the heavens are parents single? No the thought makes reason stare. Truth is reason; truth eternal tells me I’ve a mother there.” 16

An apostle said,

“Man's purpose in life is to learn the nature and kind of being that God is, and then, by conformity to his laws and ordinances, to progress to that high state of exaltation wherein man becomes perfect as the Father is perfect.” 17

As the children of God we inherit his divine attributes, and our potential is limitless. If we will allow him, God will become our tutor and help us reach our eternal destiny.

We are the children of God and as such we are loved beyond our ability to imagine

We are as beloved by God, our Heavenly Father, as earthly parents should love their children. Knowing that we are the children of God and that God created us for a reason--and that reason was love--should provide us with comfort, strength, and hope.

God’s love for his children is the greatest power in the universe. Love is what motivates God to do what he does and to be who he is. All creation, including our personal creation, can be traced back to God’s love. The apostle John said, “God is love.” 18

God’s love for his children is expansive: “We love him, because he first loved us.” 19

Love that is given expands the capacity of love in the receiver. When I show my love for you, your ability to feel and give love grows. Just like parents show love to a newborn infant, God starts the process of love by loving us first. As the child matures, it returns love in greater and greater degrees. Love given and love received expand until love becomes perfect.

Perfect love is God’s love—it is infinite. Once we believe that God loves us with a perfect love, we cease to fear, for, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” 20 Despite all the troubles we may face in life, we know we are ultimately safe in God’s love and care. We know that God, who is our Heavenly Father, loves us with a perfect love and will sustain us in every situation. We know there is no risk in believing in God and asking for his help.

How do we, the children of God, show our love for our Heavenly Father?

Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” 21

Is there any greater manifestation of love than emulation? To try to live like God and become like God in every way is to love him. God, like any parent, makes fair rules or commandments to help his children remain safe, mature, and grow happily into a productive life. God’s commandments reveal God's way of life and therefore lead to happiness and eternal progression.

The consequence of breaking God’s commandments always leads to misery and a stagnant life. Moreover, God wants his children to return to him. That is only possible if we learn to love God and try to emulate him by obeying his commandments.

Questions about 'We are the Children of God, our Loving Heavenly Father'

• Where did you come from? What is your true identity?



• As a child of God, what do you inherit from him? What is your potential?



• What does God look like? Do you, a child of God, look like God?



• Do you believe that God knows and loves you and can help you through any situation?



• How can you show your love for God, your Heavenly Father? Do you have a responsibility to God?

References for 'We are the Children of God, our Loving Heavenly Father'

1. Hymns, #301
2. Numbers 16:22
3. Hebrews 12:9 – Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
4. Acts 17:28-29 – For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
5. Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 9:, p.283 - 284
6. Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 4, p. 216
7. Conference Report, 1946Apr:125
8. Genesis 1:26-27 – And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. o God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
9. D&C 121:28-32
10. Man: His Origin and Destiny, p. 354
11. Look to God and Live, p.250
12. Moses 1:34
13. Documentary History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 305
14. Matthew 5:48
15. John 17:3
16. Hymns, "O My Father," p. 292
17. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine Matthew 5:48; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 342-362
18. 1 John 4:16
19. John 4:19
20. 1 John 4:18
21. John 14:15