Eternal Families

Lesson 7

Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. By divine design, men and women are intended to complement, complete, and perfect each other.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/differences-inherent-between-men-and-women?lang=eng

“Why does gender even matter?”

Scenario: Alex often feels uncomfortable during conversations about what people consider to be traditional characteristics of men and women. She doesn’t feel like she has many traits that are considered feminine. She also has a lot of personal interests that align more with the interests of some of the men she knows. When conversations on gender come up in church, she wonders if she will ever really be able to fit in with the other women. She believes in Jesus Christ and trusts in the power of His Atonement, but she’s not sure how He can help her. In the end, Alexandra really wants to know if her personality will allow her to fulfill her divine potential as a daughter of God.

How can my understanding of gender be strengthened as I better understand Heavenly Father’s plan?

The family proclamation states: “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

The term gender can have different meanings for different people. As explained in the Church handbook, “The intended meaning of gender in the family proclamation is biological sex at birth” (General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 38.6.23).

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said of our creation: This [creation of male and female] was done spiritually in your premortal existence when you lived in the presence of your Father in Heaven. Your gender existed before you came to earth. (“The Joy of Living the Great Plan of Happiness,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 73)

President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency further taught that the “binary creation [of male and female] is essential to the plan of salvation” (in “General Conference Leadership Meetings Begin,” Oct. 2, 2019, newsroom.ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

The eternal marriage of a man and a woman is essential to becoming like our heavenly parents. The nature of eternal life, or exaltation, is the continuation of families for eternity. This potential can only be reached “through the creative powers inherent in the combination of male and female joined in an eternal marriage (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:19)” (Dallin H. Oaks, in “General Conference Leadership Meetings Begin”).

“By divine design, both a man and a woman are needed to bring children into mortality and to provide the best setting for the rearing and nurturing of children” (David A. Bednar, “Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” Ensign, June 2006, 83; see also Genesis 1:28).

Heavenly Father endows men and women with distinct capacities to help them fulfill these and other divine responsibilities in His plan. Men and women need each other to progress and reach their full eternal potential. As Elder Bednar taught:

The natures of male and female spirits complete and perfect each other, and therefore men and women are intended to progress together toward exaltation. …For divine purposes, male and female spirits are different, distinctive, and complementary.… The unique combination of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional capacities of both males and females were needed to implement the plan of happiness. Alone, neither the man nor the woman could fulfill the purposes of his or her creation. … Just as the unique characteristics of both males and females contribute to the completeness of a marriage relationship, so those same characteristics are vital to the rearing, nurturing, and teaching of children. (“Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” 83–84)

Elder Renlund "Male and female spirits were created to complement each other. That is why gender is not fluid in the eternities—because it provides the basis for the ultimate gift Heavenly Father can give, His kind of life. (“The Divine Purposes of Sexual Intimacy,” Ensign, Aug. 2020, 16)

Sisster Craig "Latter-day Saints come in many shapes and sizes, but “all are alike unto God” [2 Nephi 26:33]. … No matter who you are or what you’re dealing with, you are invited to the Lord’s table. (“Spiritual Capacity,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2019, 21)

Pres. Oaks "Be careful how you characterize yourself. … The only single quality that should characterize us is that we are a son or daughter of God. That fact transcends all other characteristics. (“How to Define Yourself,” New Era, June 2013, 48)

Each of us is a child of God with a potential destiny of eternal life. Every other label … is temporary or trivial in eternal terms. Don’t choose to label yourselves or think of yourselves in terms that put a limit on a goal for which you might strive. (“Where Will This Lead?,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 62)

Elder Christofferson "Everyone has gifts; everyone has talents; everyone can contribute to the unfolding of the divine plan in each generation. … So many of you are doing your very best. And when you who bear the heaviest burdens of mortality stand up in defense of God’s plan to exalt His children, we are all ready to march. With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and loss for those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children. (“Why Marriage, Why Family,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 52)

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-eternal-family-teacher-material-2022/lesson-7-teacher-material?lang=eng

Lesson 6 part 2 

Fears of getting married...

Pain of Divorce Madilyn Paige: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o7fiEuWeJM&ab_channel=JakeBlazzard

The Everlasting Covenant Pres. Nelson

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant?lang=eng

Hosea 6:1 “he will heal us” HESED … covenant love ❤️ 

Ps 36:7-9 “How precious is your hesed, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”

Lesson 6  Marriage between a Man and a Woman Is Ordained of God

Why have prophets, apostles, and other Church leaders continually taught this truth?

A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come.… It is [God] who in the beginning created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and joined them as husband and wife. … Each individual carries the divine image, but it is in the matrimonial union of male and female as one that we attain perhaps the most complete meaning of our having been made in the image of God—male and female. Neither we nor any other mortal can alter this divine order of matrimony. It is not a human invention. Such marriage is indeed “from above, from God” [see Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge (1953), 42–43] and is as much a part of the plan of happiness as the Fall and the Atonement. (Christofferson, “Why Marriage, Why Family,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 52)

Mr. and Mrs. Right

As we visit with young adults all over the Church, often they will ask, “Well, what are the characteristics I should look for in a future spouse?” As though they have some checklist of, “I need to find someone who has these three, or four, or five things. “And I rather forcefully say to them, “You are so arrogant to think that you are some catch and that you want someone else who has these five things for you! If you found somebody who had these three or four or five characteristics that you’re looking for, what makes you think they’d want to marry you?” The “list” is not for evaluating someone else—the list is for you and what you and I need to become. And so if there are three primary characteristics that [you] hope to find in an eternal companion, then those are the three things [you] ought to be working to become. Then [you] will be attractive to someone who has those things. … You are not on a shopping spree looking for the greatest value with a series of characteristics. You become what you hope your spouse will be and you’ll have a greater likelihood of finding that person.[ii]

Lesson 5 part 2 Natural Man

"If, then in the course of our mortal experience, we chose to “do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God [should] command [us]” [Abraham 3:25], we would have kept our “second estate” [Abraham 3:26]. This means that by our choices we would demonstrate to God (and to ourselves) our commitment and capacity to live His celestial law while outside His presence and in a physical body with all its powers, appetites, and passions. Could we bridle the flesh so that it became the instrument rather than the master of the spirit? Could we be trusted both in time and eternity with godly powers, including power to create life? Would we individually overcome evil? Those who did would “have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever” [Abraham 3:26]—a very significant aspect of that glory being a resurrected, immortal, and glorified physical body. No wonder we “shouted for joy” at these magnificent possibilities and promises [Job 38:7]. (Christofferson, “Why Marriage, Why Family,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 51)

"Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal existence. Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and act in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In the school of mortality, we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, “according to the flesh” (1 Nephi 19:6; Alma 7:12–13). (“We Believe in Being Chaste,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 41)

NATURAL MAN

Alma 41:11 and 1 Corinthians 2:14

Part of our mortal testing “is to determine if the appetites of [our] body can become mastered by the spirit that dwells within it” (Russell M. Nelson, “Your Body: A Magnificent Gift to Cherish,” New Era, Aug. 2019, 5).

Elder Bednar- "To some degree, the natural man … is alive and well in each of us (see Mosiah 3:19). The natural man or woman is unrepentant, is carnal and sensual (see Mosiah 16:5; Alma 42:10; Moses 5:13), is indulgent and excessive, and is prideful and selfish. …

As sons and daughters of God, we have inherited divine capacities from Him. But we presently live in a fallen world. The very elements out of which our bodies were created are by nature fallen and ever subject to the pull of sin, corruption, and death. Consequently, the Fall of Adam and its spiritual and temporal consequences affect us most directly through our physical bodies...Every appetite, desire, propensity, and impulse of the natural man may be overcome by and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are here on the earth to develop godlike qualities and to bridle all of the passions of the flesh. (“We Believe in Being Chaste,” 42–43)

• How can this principle help someone who may feel like he or she cannot change or cannot control the appetites and impulses of the natural man?

• What are some things the Savior understands about the challenges of a physical body?

• What have you learned about the Savior from how He has helped you “put off” or overcome the natural man and become more like Him? How has the Holy Spirit helped you in these efforts?

Lesson 5 part 1

The climax of the creation. US. Satan is a No body.

Our bodies are amazing! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/emotional-resilience-for-self-reliance/3-our-bodies-and-emotions/3-my-foundation?lang=eng

Things the Body craves Sleep, sugar, showers, social, sex, salt, sunshine .... etc. All of which that are not bad but must be moderated in their time and season.

Alma 38:12