“Our True Identity"

Brian: So why is it so important to understand one’s true identity? When Melinda and I presided over the Texas Houston South Mission, I had a period when I was particularly worried about the conduct of some of the missionaries. One day as I was praying about how to help them, the Lord instructed me to take our missionaries to the House of the Lord, the holy temple, and ask them as they attended an endowment session to consider this question: “What does the temple teach you about your true identity?” I asked the missionaries to share what they learned in their next email to me. Here are a few of their responses:

• Melinda: “The thing I learned in the temple is that the Lord does love me; that He has great plans for me; and, in order for me to successfully fulfill my purpose, these trials are necessary. I know the Lord will give me the strength I will need to successfully endure to the end. I must simply be humble enough to accept His help and act so I may fully partake of my Savior’s grace.”
• Brian: “The temple helped me understand so much of the potential I have. I am also understanding more of how much of a privilege it is to be in the position I am in. Yes, it can be difficult. Yes, I am losing my hair a little bit, but I am coming closer to the Savior and that is what really matters. I know that I am not perfect and so does He, so He gives me a lot of help and then lets me struggle so that I can learn to trust Him more.”
• Melinda: One sister who had dated some abusive boyfriends said, “I learned that I will never be in a relationship where I get hit ever again. I learned that Heavenly Father thinks I’m beautiful no matter what.”
• Brian: “One thing that stuck out to me was just that I think we are all capable of doing a lot more than we realize. Each of us, being sons and daughters of God, have divine gifts and talents and abilities that we inherited from our Heavenly Father. I also really learned that God is aware of me and so is His Son, Jesus Christ.”
• Melinda: “One thing that was really testified to me was my individual worth. I had had a hard time seeing my individual worth. I now know that I have a divine purpose here and that I have access to more faith, hope, and power from my Heavenly Father. I also learned so much about being an agent. I realized that, for a long time, I have been an object acted upon and am now learning to be an agent for myself because I know who I am and what I can accomplish while here in the mission and in my life." 2
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  Personal correspondence with President Brian K. Ashton and missionaries serving in the Texas Houston South Mission
  

You see, what we believe we are impacts what we will become.

Melinda: Now as just mentioned, we need divine help to become like God. We gain access to this help by making covenants with Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We become children of the covenant when we are baptized by immersion by one holding proper priesthood authority from God. We also make additional covenants in the House of the Lord.

Once we become children of the covenant, we must keep those covenants to ultimately obtain God’s power in our lives. This power is available to us because of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. When we keep the covenants we have made with God, we become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Brian: It is for these reasons that President Nelson said:

Brian: If understanding your true identity is so important, what can you do to come to believe that you are literally a child of God, and that being a child of the covenant and a disciple of Jesus Christ will lead to having God’s power in your life and to your obtaining eternal life?

Melinda: I know that these blessings are real because I chose to accept Sister Nelson’s invitation and have been asking myself this question. I have found that the greatest changes for me have been in my attitude and the way I think about the things I am doing. Further, in pondering this question, I take time to listen to and be directed by the Holy Ghost so that the things I do have more meaning and I feel more peace and joy. I also am more aware of my true identity. You can have these same blessings in your life.

Brian: I have found that my testimony that I am a child of God, a child of the covenant, and a disciple of Jesus Christ has been strengthened as I have consistently done the following things:

• Studied the scriptures daily. This has helped me to better understand my relationship with God and the ways in which He works with His children. This testimony is confirmed as I see God deal with me in the same ways.

• Prayed to my Heavenly Father each morning and night. Through prayer I have developed a much deeper relationship with God. As I pour out my heart to Him and ask for help and answers to questions, He responds with help, answers, solutions, and deliverance.
• Attended church each week. Partaking of the sacrament and renewing my covenants with God has helped me to maintain hope and allowed me to repent and start anew when I struggle to be all that I should be.
• Attended the House of the Lord. The covenants, ordinances, and instructions we receive in the House of the Lord are designed to help us better understand our true identity and how to obtain God’s power. You see, it wasn’t just our missionaries who learned who they are in the temple and how God sees us. Melinda and I did too.
• Maybe most importantly, my knowledge of these truths has been strengthened as I have kept my covenants in times of difficulty and trouble. I’ve had at least three major challenges in my life where I could not see how God could keep His promises to me. Yet I had moments when I felt that He would. And I chose over long periods of time to believe that He would find a way to keep His promises to me even though it seemed impossible. These situations all lasted years. Nevertheless, in each one of these lengthy trials, God kept His promises. Somehow a way opened up for the seemingly impossible to occur. Because of these experiences, I know that God is my Heavenly Father, that covenants are real, and that as we follow Jesus Christ, we obtain divine help and power in our lives.

Melinda: Our beloved students, missionaries, instructors, employees, and friends, we invite you to ask God who you are. Study the scriptures and pray daily, attend your church meetings and the House of the Lord, and most importantly keep your covenants even when it seems like it will be impossible for God to keep His promises to you. We promise you that, as you do, you will come to know God. You are His beloved child whom He loves and wants to bless.

Brian: Now, in conclusion, let’s listen to President Nelson’s own words from the May devotional.

President Nelson video clip: “My dear young friends, I love you. I thank you. I believe in you. As the Lord’s prophet, I bless you to know the truth about who you are and to treasure the truth about what your glorious potential really is. I bless you to take charge of your own testimony. And I bless you to have the desire and strength to keep your covenants.

“As you do, I promise that you will experience spiritual growth, freedom from fear, and a confidence that you can scarcely imagine now. You will have the strength to have a positive influence far beyond your natural capacity. And I promise that your future will be more exhilarating than anything you can presently believe.