We are Heirs of God

Today I read Romans 8, which contains one of my favorite scriptures. I remember as a missionary, my mission had 3 levels of scholarship that we had to have our zone leaders and finally APs sign off on. Each level involved memorizing certain scriptures or scriptural reference, reading a book out of the standard works and out of the missionary library. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it! One of the scriptural references we had to memorize was Romans 8:16-17. Which states that we are children of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

Latter-day Saints take so much grief in "demeaning" God. What others mean by this is that they think that because Latter-day Saints believe we can become as God is, it somehow diminishes Him and takes away from His majesty and power. I personally don't see how. But then again I grew up being taught this and have had the Spirit confirm its truthfulness to me so it seems natural to me. However, here in this chapter of Romans we have Paul teaching the exact same doctrine!

What is an heir? There are several definitions of the word heir, among which is this one: an heir is someone who inherits the rank, title and position of another. So if we are heirs of God, then we will be inheriting the rank, title and position of God. I don't know how you could misinterpret Paul's words when he says them plain as day. And as if that weren't enough, Paul goes on to say that we are joint heirs with Christ. Now, I don't think any Christian will deny that Jesus Christ is going to inherit all that the Father hath. And if He does, well Paul says we are join-heirs with Christ which to me says that we will also inherit everything Jesus does. But so many people seem to have a problem with that thought. They are too caught up in thinking about worldly things, such as money and land and can't understand how if God or Jesus share what they have with us, how they will have any left over for themselves. I can promise you that God and Jesus don't think that way and it will all make sense one day. For now we need only to believe that it is true.

The other concept that most people, and I include Latter-day Saints, seem to have trouble realizing, is that we are children of our Heavenly Father. Now, when I say people have trouble with it, I mean that we do not treat each other like we are brothers and sisters. And I include Latter-day Saints in this just as much as anybody. Truly the scriptures were correct in prophesying that in the last days the love of men shall wax cold. Everyone seems to be trying to take advantage of his neighbor and get something for nothing. Now, I am lucky in that I have a very good relationship with my siblings and love them very much and would do just about anything for them. I do realize though that not every family has such a loving relationship with their brothers and sisters and that is sad to me.

It would be wonderful if we could all live in a world where we treated each other well and nicely. Where we didn't have to lock our doors because there was no fear of anyone doing anything wrong. I suppose the millennium will be like that. I have no idea if I will live to see it or not, but it sure would be nice to live in a world and know that everyone you meet will treat you nicely and treat you how they would want to be treated. There are a lot of people who do that and they should be recognized for it, because it is wonderful that they are trying to make the world a better place. But all too many people are trying to make a fast buck and they don't care how.

If we want a better world, we need to start making it better ourselves. We need to make sure that we treat others as we would want to be treated. Change starts with just one person. Jesus was the literal Son of God, but remember that He was just one man, and look at what He has accomplished! We can make a difference if we try. And who wouldn't want to live in a better world? Until tomorrow.