1130. 7 Ways to Grow Closer to Heavenly Mother and Include Her in Your Worship, from LDS Living
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I saw this beautiful article in LDS Living, and thought it was so appropriate for Mother's Day!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU DEAR MOTHERS, OR WOULD BE MOTHERS!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU DEAR MOTHERS, OR WOULD BE MOTHERS!
7 Ways to Grow Closer to Heavenly Mother and Include Her in Your Worship
For many Latter-day Saints, there’s a desire, a yearning, to learn more about our Heavenly Mother—to feel Her presence and connect with Her on a deeper level. And that’s natural. We have Her divine DNA embedded in our souls. But sometimes myths regarding Heavenly Mother or uncertainty can cause us to be hesitant in incorporating Her more in our worship.
“For some, I think it is cultural habits are hard to break,” says Martin Pulido, co-author of the BYU Studies essay "A Mother There” and editor of Dove Song. “It’s still an entrenched view of having this ‘sacred silence’ about her, so I think time will just have to heal that wound.” While the fact that Heavenly Mother is not often mentioned over the pulpit has caused some to speculate about reasons we should not speak of Her, Pulido notes that there are many significant and sacred topics that are not readily hashed out in church every week—such as the revelation our Heavenly Parents have bodies of flesh and bone, that They did not create the world out of nothing, that our spirits are intelligence with the possibility of becoming co-equals with our divine Parents, and much more.
“My point is to question whether we can draw an inference between the importance of a topic and the frequency with which it is mentioned over the pulpit,” Pulido says. In fact, mentions of our Heavenly Mother in general conference and Church publications have been increasing significantly, with many Church leaders now using the term Heavenly Parents.
Still, there can be discomfort or awkwardness when we delve into these profound but sometimes misunderstood doctrines.
“I think we need to remember how young our religion is,” Pulido says. “We are still uncomfortable with coming to grips with our theology. We are still creating vocabulary around it, trying to understand it. We are still conscious about talking about these matters seen by our fellow Christians as heresy, and we are trying to find ways to talk about them intelligently and persuasively. Early Christianity took centuries to codify its sects and theological symbols and art. They seem second nature to many now, but they once weren’t. They were once met with persecution and scorn. The ideas have been proliferated long enough that they have lost some of their strangeness.”
While it can be daunting to incorporate or explain beliefs that we are still trying to fully understand ourselves, it is important for us to begin speaking about those truths we do know. “We need to be comfortable with our peculiar doctrines like our belief in Heavenly Mother. We’ll get better at explaining and articulating ourselves, even if it takes a while for us to master our mother tongue—that’s a pun intended,” Pulido says. “But we can get there.”
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The Dangers of Forgetting Heavenly Mother
Being able to communicate our belief and love for our Heavenly Mother is not only important to provide understanding for those outside our faith but also for those within our own faith. Without Her presence in our regular worship, we run the risk of envisioning the divine in only male terms. We know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have resurrected male bodies. People often use male pronouns when referencing the Spirit. Pulido adds, “Our artwork often reflects angels—Michael, the angel Gabriel, Rafael, the angel Moroni—as male resurrected prophets. Heaven feels male-centered.”
While our doctrine and Church leaders stress the central importance of women in the plan of salvation, Church history, temples, and daily lives, that significance does not always translate culturally into our daily interactions, conversations, or artwork.
This can be problematic, as Pulido explains, because “when Latter-day Saints restrict the divinity that they talk to [and about] to an interaction with the male, women are bound to feel left out and marginalized. They are bound to ask questions like: Where do I belong? Am I somehow left out of heaven? How do I find divinity?”
In addition, ignoring or forgetting our Heavenly Mother will leave Latter-day Saints with limited experience of God—our Heavenly Parents working under a united purpose—and the divine. We can more fully feel a connection with heaven and the love of our Heavenly Parents when we understand who They are and how They work together as equals in power and glory. Heavenly Mother also helps us understand the inclusive and all-encompassing nature of eternal families, a truth that can help those who might experience difficult family situations in this life. An understanding of Heavenly Mother can shape how we view ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters in this life; it can calm anxieties and bring peace; it can heal broken hearts and replace isolation and hopelessness with abiding love.
As Elder John A. Widtsoe wrote: “The glorious vision of life hereafter . . . is given radiant warmth by the thought that . . . [we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood.”
But how do we include Heavenly Mother more in our conversations, our worship, and our daily lives? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Incorporate Her in your prayers.
While the Church’s gospel topics essay “Mother in Heaven” specifies that we follow the example of our Savior in directing our prayers to Heavenly Father, President Gordon B. Hinckley clarified, “The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her.” Our Heavenly Parents work in unity to watch over and care for Their children. And while we address Heavenly Father in our prayers, there is no reason we cannot mention Heavenly Mother in our prayers. President Russell M. Nelson encouraged members of the Church to “Ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, how He feels about you.” You can similarly ask in your prayers to know how your Heavenly Mother feels about you. Ask to feel Her near and to feel Her presence more in your life. Ask in sincerity and faith to have Her nature revealed to you. Ask questions that will broaden your understanding of the gospel. Act diligently to search out and receive answers. Express your gratitude for the knowledge you do have of Her and Her influence in your life. As with all revealed truths in the gospel, those we wrestle to know and make a part of our lives will become the most cherished and soul-shaping.
2. Incorporate Her more in artwork or daily reminders.
In recent years, poetry, books, and artwork have increasingly depicted or focused on our Heavenly Mother. Hang an image that reminds you of our Heavenly Mother in a prominent place in your home, set a book about Her on your bedside table to read in your spare time, print off a quote about Her and place it on your mirror, make an effort to mention her in your journal on a regular basis, change the screensaver on your phone to an image or quote of Her, sing or write your own songs that reflect our Heavenly Mother’s impact, and be more conscientious in your day-to-day language to use inclusive terms like Heavenly Parents. Since She is a co-creator of this world, we can also see our Heavenly Mother’s influence in nature and the creations that surround us, the innovation that inspires us, and the people who shape our lives for the better.
3. Incorporate Her more in your worship.
Heavenly Mother is a part of our sacred doctrine. We do not need to be afraid of speaking of this divine member of the Godhead when our Church leaders have taught powerfully and poetically about Her. We, too, can bear testimony of Her, can share our experiences of feeling Her influence in our classes, and can share our knowledge of Her. We can also make small language shifts to emphasize our Heavenly Parents as well as expand our view of God to include Their unified purpose and works. We can think of Her during the sacrament, in the temple, during lessons, at home, while singing hymns, and in everyday circumstances.
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Another important way to incorporate Heavenly Mother in our worship is through character emulation, Pulido notes. “That is probably the most important form of worship you can have. We can all strive for the same virtues that our Heavenly Mother possesses to the maximal degree, which I believe were shown to us through the ministry and life of Her Son, who can be viewed as the image of both Father and Mother. He is the way. Being Christ focused is being Mother focused. We should strive for the virtues shining through in both Their natures.”
4. Reflect on Her regularly in the Temple.
Elder John A. Widtsoe told Latter-day Saints that the promises made in the temple “will help us understand the nearness of our Heavenly Parents.” We are never closer to our Heavenly Mother than when we are in the temple. There, we can learn about Her nature and Her role in the plan of salvation. While we might not see literal depictions of our Heavenly Mother, when we know She has worked in tandem and equality with our Heavenly Father from the creation of our spirits to the creation of the earth to our lives today, we can visualize and see Her influence in every aspect of the temple. As we stand in holy places and catch a glimpse beyond the veil, we can realize in this life what Elder Glenn L. Pace described the next life: “I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and you look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.”
5. Learn more about Her.
As you ask regularly in prayer to come to better know our Heavenly Mother, you can act on that desire by learning and studying more about her. A great place to start is the Church’s gospel topics essay “Mother in Heaven” as well as the BYU Studies article “A Mother There.” From these articles, you can look up citations and references to get a deeper understanding of what Church leaders have taught about this member of the Godhead. In addition, study the current words of Church leaders and look for mentions of our Heavenly Parents or reflections of the values and truths They embody.
Since our Heavenly Mother stands as a partner with our Heavenly Father—equal in His power, glory, omniscience, mercy, love, compassion, etc.—much of what we know about our Father can illuminate our understanding of our Mother. As the BYU Encyclopedia of Mormonism states, “A Heavenly Mother shares parenthood with the Heavenly Father. This concept leads Latter-day Saints to believe that she is like him in glory, perfection, compassion, wisdom, and holiness.” Her unending love, Her glory, Her majesty, the sacrifice of Her Son, Her patient and constant arms reaching out for us, comforting us—many of these eternal truths are equally applicable to our Heavenly Mother and Father.
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And the ultimate embodiment of both of our Heavenly Parents’ attributes can be found through Their divine Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Study His life, His attributes, His actions, and through Him you will come to know His, and your, divine Mother in Heaven.
6. Search for Her in scriptures.
Based on these understandings, it becomes easier to begin seeing our Heavenly Mother’s presence in the scriptures. From the Creation as described in the Book of Abraham, the word "Gods" illustrates the collaborative work of salvation from the beginning. “And the Gods took counsel among themselves . . . So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them,” Abraham 4:26-27 says. We know the divine feminine was included in the process of creation because both male and female are formed in the image of the Gods. Since the preexistence to our creation to exaltation, our Heavenly Mother is present and an active part of this process. She is reflected on every page of the scriptures. One translation of the word “Elohim,” often written as Lord or God in the scriptures, particularly changed how I understand these words and my relationship to my Heavenly Parents. (You can read more about that here.) Now, whenever I read these words or titles in the scriptures, I think of my Heavenly Parents together and how they are intricately a part of our lives.
7. Show Her gratitude in how we live our lives.
Our Heavenly Parents give us breath from moment to moment. They fill our lives with beauty, meaning, and purpose. We demonstrate our gratitude to Them when we remember the blessings that fill our lives, when we serve and love Their children, when we strive to be close to Them, and when we try to emulate Their divine natures. In an unfathomable sacrifice, our Heavenly Father and Mother gave Their Son out of love for us, to provide a way for us to return to Them. When we daily access our Savior’s Atonement, moving along our path of eternal progression no matter how haltingly, chaotically, or slowly, we witness to our Heavenly Parents how much we appreciate Their sacrifice and love, giving Them our love in turn.
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