The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
As Primary General President Camille N. Johnson has met with children worldwide in the last year, she has extended a heartfelt invitation to them.
Now, as she prepares to begin service as the Relief Society general president on Aug. 1, she extends the same invitation to her fellow Relief Society sisters: “Ask your Heavenly Father, do you love me? Do you need me? And tell me in a way I can understand.”
“I am confident that that sincere prayer will be heard and answered,” President Johnson said. “Our Savior Jesus Christ is merciful and loving and wants to help us.”
In a Church News podcast interview that will be released Tuesday, July 26, President Johnson said the messages she and her counselors have prayed for and taught Primary children are also important for Relief Society sisters.
“First and foremost that we are children of our loving Heavenly Father. We teach our children to sing ‘I Am a Child of God,’ and I think our sisters need to know that,” she said. “They need to remember that they are children of a loving Heavenly Father with a divine nature and a divine purpose. …
“When we have that as our core, then we can look outward, then we can recognize the needs of others, and keep the first and second great commandments: love the Lord and then love others as He would love them.”
Divine nature and purpose
President Russell M. Nelson recently taught young adults about who they are: a child of God, a child of the covenant and a disciple of Jesus Christ. His message is applicable to all, President Johnson said. “The sequence is key.”
“I’m a child of God” is acknowledging one’s divine nature. “I’m a child of the covenant” is one’s divine purpose — returning to God by keeping covenants made with Him. “Understanding the first two, I think, is critical to being that disciple of Jesus Christ,” she said. “Then we can reflect the light and love of our Savior Jesus Christ to all of those around us.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
