Many people around the world have asked themselves these basic questions. Who am I? Did I exsist before this life? what is this life for? and where am I going after I die? The simple answers to each of these questions are you did exsist before this life as a spirit. As it says in the book of mormon, alma 13:3 "and this is the manner after which they were ordained, being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowlege of god on account of their exceeding faith and good works......" You have an individual identity, you are known to that being who created you. President Dieter F. Uchdorf of the first presidency of the church gave an absolutely wonderful talk on our true identity. He recounts the story written by Hans Christianson, "The ugly duckling" he speaks of our true identity. Just as the ugly duckling in the story we are children of God, our loving Heavenly Father. In it President Uchdorf. tells how there are voices in the world that would have us believe that we are "Not swans, but merely ugly ducklings". He admonishes us "Please just look into the water". He tells us that we are children of one of the most glorious beings in exsistance. We have a greater potentiel then the world would have us believe.
Which leads me to the answer to our next question. "What is this life for"? The answer to this question is given in the book of mormon. In 2 nephi chapter 2 it states in verse 11 "For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things. If not so........righteiousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compund in one; wherefore, if it should be one body, it must needs remain as dead, having no life, neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught......". Our being here is to experience opposition, to learn to be happy. This fact is illistrated rather clearly in verse 25 of the same chapter. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are, that they might have joy". God that eternal being who created us, our father in heaven, who created both our spirits and our physical bodies created us for the purpose that we might have joy! God so loves his children that he was willing to send them from his presence into a scary world that we might increase in joy and happiness rather then remain in the perpetual state of innocence having no idea what true happiness was. He gave us a way to learn for ourselves, and then because he knew that we would also be unable to overcome one very inportant obstacle. Our sins, he knew that we would do things that were contrary to his laws, that would prevent us access to his eternal realms again, to have us return to him in triumph. So he sent his son to provide us a way back into his presence to gain forgiveness from our breaking the laws set forth by him. This principle is illistrated in 2 nephi 2:26-27 which states "And the messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which god hath given. Wherefore , men are free according to the flesh and all things are given them which are expedient (or important) unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediator, of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." The idea is that we are sent here not to be pupets on a string for this all mighty being. But to make choices and grow from the consiquences of these choices by a loving heavenly father who only wants the best for us.
So just where are we going after this life? Well that is probably one of the more important questions, because obviously if our heavenly father is true that, a loving heavenly father. Then he can't just leave us to waste away once we die. He has provided a place for us to go that we might enjoy the fruits of our labors, or the rewards of our efforts here on earth, and for some, to provide them with a chance to be instructed on christ and his ultimate sacrifice for the world. To those who might not had the chance to hear it on earth. "Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the ressurection behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this morta body, yea, the spirits of all men weather they be good or evil, are taken hom to that god who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow." Alma 40:11-12
Truely we are the children of one of the most glorious beings in the universe, God, the eternal father. We are his children, and we are created in his image. We are sent here to make choices, to learn, to grow, to enjoy the eternal reward of our work. In fine, God our loving heavenly father has provided us with not only the means to become better then we were before, but he has also given us the way that we might return to live with him.
