“There’s no one so hard to teach as the child who knows everything.”
Our Heavenly Father wants to help us but sometimes we won’t let Him.
God doesn’t want his children to just do what’s right, He wants us to choose to do what’s right and become like Him.
Lucifer is the one who speaks against us and tells us we are not adequate. He is the ultimate bully.
When we discover that we are off the path we can stay off, or through the Atonement of Christ we can choose to reverse our steps to return to the path.
We need to become spiritual adults who are capable of making good choices and governing ourselves while still remaining childlike and humble enough to receive correction from our Heavenly Father when we stumble or threaten to wander off the path.
The fictional character Mary Poppins … is given charge of the children, Jane and Michael. In a firm but kind manner, she begins to teach them valuable lessons with an enchanting touch.
Jane and Michael make considerable progress, but Mary decides that it is time for her to move on. In the stage production, Mary’s chimney sweep friend, Bert, tries to dissuade her from leaving. He argues, “But they’re good kids, Mary.”
Mary replies, “Would I be bothering with them if they weren’t? But I can’t help them if they won’t let me, and there’s no one so hard to teach as the child who knows everything.”
Bert asks, “So?”
Mary answers, “So they’ve got to do the next bit on their own.”
Parenting in a nutshell.
Brothers and sisters, like Jane and Michael Banks, we are “good kids” who are worth bothering about. Our Heavenly Father wants to help and bless us, but we do not always let Him. Sometimes, we even act as if we already know everything. And we too need to do “the next bit” on our own. That is why we came to earth from a premortal, heavenly home. Our “bit” involves making choices.
Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence our behaviors.
But God is not interested in His children just becoming trained and obedient “pets” who will not chew on His slippers in the celestial living room. No, God wants His children to grow up spiritually and join Him in the family business.
Sometimes we need to do the next bit on our own. In another sense, mortality as a whole is a time for us to do the next bit on our own. That’s not entirely true because we aren’t left to do it all alone but for us to become like God as opposed to just being obedient we have to be allowed to fail.
To ensure that we would exercise faith and learn to use our agency properly, a veil of forgetfulness was drawn over our minds so we would not remember God’s plan. Without that veil, God’s purposes would not be achieved because we could not progress and become the trusted inheritors He wants us to be.
We need the veil do that we have some plausible deniability – that is, it enables is to operate without full culpability, otherwise out first sin would make us irredeemable.
Christ’s advocacy with the Father in our behalf is not adversarial. Jesus Christ, who allowed His will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father, would not champion anything other than what the Father has wanted all along. Heavenly Father undoubtedly cheers for and applauds our successes.
Lucifer is this accuser. He spoke against us in the premortal existence, and he continues to denounce us in this life. He seeks to drag us down. He wants us to experience endless woe. He is the one who tells us we are not adequate, the one who tells us we are not good enough, the one who tells us there is no recovery from a mistake. He is the ultimate bully, the one who kicks us when we are down.
Indeed, God desires, expects, and directs that each of His children choose for himself or herself. He will not force us. Through the gift of agency, God permits His children “to act for themselves and not to be acted upon.” Agency allows us to choose to get on the path, or not. It allows us to get off, or not. Just as we cannot be forced to obey, we cannot be forced to disobey. No one can, without our cooperation, take us off the path. (Now, this is not to be confused with those whose agency is violated. They are not off the path; they are victims. They receive God’s understanding, love, and compassion.)
We can’t always accurately recognize the difference between those whose agency is violated and those acting with volition. Or job is to treat everyone as redeemable and try to help others act righteously, not to condemn anyone.
We need to choose whom we will serve. The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on choosing the living God and joining Him in His work. As we strive to “do the next bit” on our own, we practice using our agency correctly. As two former Relief Society General Presidents said, we should not be “babies that need petting and correction all the time.” No, God wants us to become mature adults and govern ourselves.
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