{"id":2222,"date":"2023-07-02T02:21:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T08:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/?p=2222"},"modified":"2023-07-03T00:35:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T06:35:13","slug":"fathers-day-the-lds-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/2023\/07\/fathers-day-the-lds-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Father’s Day The LDS Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Father\u2019s Day<\/a> is celebrated in every US congregation of the LDS church<\/a>. And like any holiday, each family has their own traditions they add to the celebration. Typically on Father\u2019s Day Sunday, there is a special service. Those giving talks discuss their view of the importance of fathers and father figures. And like every Sunday, we also remember our Heavenly Father, who is the ultimate example of a perfect father figure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Father\u2019s Day at church<\/h2>\n

After the Father\u2019s Day service, there is typically a treat of some kind for the fathers in the congregation. One year the gift was a small plaque with a poem on it. But most of the time I\u2019ve witnessed candy bars or plants being handed out. It\u2019s a tradition in our family to have a special dinner that evening. And I always include a special dessert.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Fatherhood is a gift<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Father\u2019s Day, we enjoy finding fun gifts for my husband, and both grandpas. And we make cards and send funny text messages to uncles and cousins who are far away. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never made my husband breakfast in bed, but I hear that is a thing for some families. And of course, we do BBQs and family gatherings as often as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really fun to show some appreciation. Fathers work so hard and are great influences for good in this world. Every child needs a good father figure. And every good man deserves recognition for his efforts. Without the support of a father or father figure families aren\u2019t balanced. I personally know I could not be the mother I am without my husband\u2019s support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father\u2019s gifts<\/h2>\n

That leads me to my thoughts on our Heavenly Father. He loves and supports us in ways we don\u2019t even know about. He gave us this Earth and all the wonderful bounty she provides. He is the father of our spirits and we lived with Him in Heaven before this Earth. We spent a lot of time learning and growing in His presence. He knew each of us personally. He still knows each of us personally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Heavenly Father gave us this Earth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our Heavenly Father has provided more than life and this wonderful Earth for us. He also provided us with the Plan of Salvation. This earthly existence is for experience and learning. And when it\u2019s over we all want to go back home to live with God again. <\/span><\/p>\n

So our Heavenly Father gathered all His children together and presented the Plan of Salvation<\/a>\u2013 a chance for us all to experience the fullness of joy that God knows. We were going to get to come to Earth and get bodies like our Father in Heaven has. We cheered when we heard the news.<\/span><\/p>\n

But He knew that we would make mistakes. It is part of the learning process and a necessary part of life. God explained that we would need a Savior- one who could atone for all our sins and mistakes so that we could come back to live with God when our journey was over. That is when Jesus stood up and offered himself to be a sacrifice for all the rest of us. Not only did Jesus offer to be the Savior, but He also wanted the glory for His sacrifice to go to Heavenly Father<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father provided a Savior<\/h2>\n

Then Lucifer stood up. He was also willing to be the Savior for mankind, but he had a slightly different plan. He wanted us all to go to Earth but to be unable to sin. Lucifer wanted to make it so that there was no free will, no choices to be made. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"God
We gathered to learn about the Plan of Salvation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this altered plan, he promised that every soul who came to Earth would be able to go back home to God as spotless as the day they were born. And Lucifer wanted the glory for that accomplishment to be his own, not giving any credit to God for all His work in making Earth life possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you know what happens when there is no free will, no ability to choose? There is no growth, only survival. Our experience on this Earth would have given us bodies, but we would not have learned anything. We are growing exponentially with the right to choose, make mistakes, and try again. If we had followed Lucifer this experience would have been a wasted opportunity. And it would have destroyed God\u2019s plan to eventually help each of His children grow to their fullest potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Choices matter<\/h2>\n

Those two options are what started \u201cthe War in Heaven<\/a>\u201c. It was a war of ideas, and choosing sides. Because you are here on earth today, you know you chose Jesus as your Savior even before you were born. Sadly a full one-third of all God\u2019s children chose to follow Lucifer and his plan. They refused to allow Jesus to be their Savior.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when Lucifer continued to rebel and refused to follow Heavenly Father\u2019s plan, Lucifer was cast out of Heaven and became Satan the father of all lies. All who followed Lucifer were also cast out and never got the chance to have bodies. Their progression stopped at that moment. I imagine it was a terrible time of grief and loss as we all had to say goodbye to those who were too afraid to trust themselves to choose the good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father is still watching out for us<\/h2>\n
\"Christus
Jesus is our Savior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today Heavenly Father is still doing all He can to ensure that we all get every chance to return to live with Him again. Jesus has already atoned for our sins. <\/span><\/p>\n

We are so blessed to know about this, to know it already happened, and not to have to only hope for it in the future; like many of our ancestors did. Thanks to the scriptures we know all about how hard our Heavenly Father works for us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What a gift to know who we are, why we are here, and where we are going when we die. My knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and my Heavenly Father gives me peace and comfort in hard times. And it gives me joy and a sense of purpose in my everyday life. I love knowing that everyone I meet once chose Jesus. I will keep choosing Jesus, and I pray you will too. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father\u2019s Day is celebrated in every US congregation of the LDS church. And like any holiday, each family has their own traditions they add to the celebration. Typically on Father\u2019s Day Sunday, there is a special service. Those giving talks discuss their view of the importance of fathers and father figures. And like every Sunday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3521,"featured_media":2231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[185,188,15],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-life","category-jesus-christ","tag-fathers","tag-heavenly-father","tag-jesus-christ"],"yoast_head":"\nFather's Day The LDS Way<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Father\u2019s Day is celebrated in every US congregation of the LDS church. 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I'm Abby Christianson, a transplanted Mormon living the dream. In my life, I've lived in seven different US states and visited other countries. And the thing that amazes me is that in every place I've been the LDS (Mormon) church is the same. The people have hearts of gold, and their love for the Savior is unchanging. But for some reason, people still think Mormons are weird, backward, and sometimes even Amish. I'm here to try to help clear up the misconceptions about Mormons by showing you that we are just like you. We love our families, eat junk food, love movies, and spend time with friends. And just like you, our faith and values go deep. So join me as I keep trying to scatter sunshine everywhere I go. And hopefully, you'll find your faith in Christ strengthened along the way. Autism and more I'm also here to talk about Autism, and being an Autism Mom. There were few resources online when my son was diagnosed. So I want to be a support to those parents who are trying to figure out their child, and how best to support them. My wonderful son stretches me and helps me grow every day. I love being his mother and the things that make him unique. In 2020, every autism service stopped. So I got trained to be an RBT (Low-level autism therapist) with BehaviorUniversity.com. It has made homeschooling and doing at-home ABA easier as I understand my son better. They have some courses for parents to help them understand autism better, and I highly recommend them if you are searching. We have been home-schooling off and on for 6 years now. And it's wonderful to see my son thriving. Education and background Although my degree is not in education, I do have degrees from BYU Idaho and Southern Utah University in public relations, interpersonal communication, and marketing. I was lucky enough to get to teach a couple of freshman classes at SUU as part of my senior project. I have the best memories of those times. And it showed me how much I love to teach. While at SUU I was on the debate team. I wasn\u2019t great, but I loved the team and the feeling of unity we had. As a member of the Lambda Delta Signa sorority, I spent a year as VP of my chapter. I served on Institute Council and in leadership with my choir. And I was a member of the Lambda Pi Eta honor society. Funny enough, I was nominated as SUU\u2019s personality of the year in my senior year because I was so involved When my son was small I was part of the PTA at bus school \u00a0I even served on the PTA board and taught art classes to the kids. \u00a0I also volunteered to help out in the cafeteria. And I was a \u2018recess duty\u2019 meaning I got to be outside as a responsible adult during recess I love to write and wrote for LDSblogs.com as Abby Christianson and as Patty Sampson for many years. I took over editing LDS Blogs when our beloved editor Terri Bittner passed away suddenly from brain cancer in 2017. Then in 2020, LDSblogs.com stopped publishing after the pandemic affected their funding. But they are still online and some great stories are there if you are interested. I'm a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've been married for 23 years, and a mother for 15 years. I love people and creating in any capacity I can. I hope you'll join me as we navigate this crazy world we live in.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/author\/achristianson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scatteringsunshine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}