Christ sitting on the ground teaching a group of people
The Savior testified that we can better come to know Heavenly Father by studying the example of His Son. All that Jesus Christ said and did followed the example of His Father and was intended to bring us more fully to the Father. This lesson can help you better understand what Heavenly Father is like and how He feels about you.
Helping students learn. Students are edified when they search the scriptures for understanding and discover gospel truths for themselves. They should be given opportunities to explain the gospel in their own words and to share and testify of what they know and feel. This helps bring the gospel from their heads into their hearts.
Student preparation: Invite students to think about their relationship with Heavenly Father and how they can strengthen it.
Possible Learning Activities
This lesson addresses content that will be addressed in Come, Follow Me when individuals and families study Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6, as well as when they will study John 7–10. This lesson is located here to make space for other lessons during these later weeks. It may be taught during the current week or relocated to one of these later weeks.
Knowing about Heavenly Father
Consider the following scenario:
In a recent sacrament meeting talk, Claudio heard a member of his ward declare, “I know that Heavenly Father knows and loves me. He is aware of my needs and seeks to help me.” Claudio was surprised and wondered how she knew all of this about Heavenly Father. As he reflected on what he knew about Heavenly Father personally, he felt like it wasn’t very much. He even tried looking in the scriptures and didn’t have much success there either.
In what ways might we sometimes feel like Claudio?
How can feeling like we don’t know Heavenly Father or even know about Him be challenging for us?
Provide students a way to self-assess what they know and understand about Heavenly Father. The following activity is one way to do this.
An additional idea is located in the “Supplemental Learning Activities” section.
Consider what you have learned about Heavenly Father and how that knowledge has influenced you. On a piece of paper or in your study journal, write the words “Heavenly Father” in the middle. Around these words, write what you know about Heavenly Father.
How might more fully coming to know Heavenly Father influence someone’s life?
As you study this lesson, look for truths about Heavenly Father and His Son that can help you better understand what They are like and how They feel about you. Consider adding what you learn to the paper about Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ regularly spoke of His Father and did so with an important purpose. Read the following passages, looking for what Jesus wanted His followers to know about Himself and Heavenly Father:
Write these references on the board. Consider inviting students to study these verses individually. Then they could share what they find in small groups or with the class.
Matthew 11:27 (including the Joseph Smith Translation change in footnote c)
How would you summarize what the Savior taught from what you read?
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained one important way we can come to know Heavenly Father. You may want to watch “The Grandeur of God,” available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, from time code 0:00 to 1:07 or read the following text.
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Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.
(Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2003, 70)
What do you learn from Elder Holland’s statement?
One principle we can learn is that Jesus Christ’s words and actions show us Heavenly Father’s character.
Consider writing this truth on the board.
How do you see this truth taught in the Savior’s words that you just read?
Elder Holland explained more about this truth. You may want to watch “The Grandeur of God” from time code 11:25 to 12:49 or read the following statement.
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Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness.” In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, “This is God’s compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own.” In the perfect Son’s manifestation of the perfect Father’s care, in Their mutual suffering and shared sorrow for the sins and heartaches of the rest of us, we see ultimate meaning in the declaration: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” [John 3:16–17].
(Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2003, 72)
Help students practice applying this principle (looking at the words and actions of the Savior) to learn more about Heavenly Father. One example of how to do this is included below.
Select your favorite account about Jesus Christ in the scriptures. Write down the scripture reference and summarize the passage. Then answer the following questions:
What do you learn about Heavenly Father and how He feels about you from what Jesus Christ says or does in this account?
How does knowing this about Heavenly Father affect your relationship with Him?
How will having a better relationship with Heavenly Father help you?
Consider writing the words “Heavenly Father” in the center of the board. Invite students to share what they learned. Depending on the size of the class and the amount of available time, each student could read or summarize their account. They could write what they learned about Heavenly Father around His name on the board. Alternatively, students could share a Bible or Book of Mormon video of the account, if available.
Seek inspiration from the Holy Ghost as you create a brief plan of how you can strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father, and write it in your study journal.
Commentary and Background Information
How can coming to know Heavenly Father influence me?
The Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) taught:
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the Prophet Joseph Smith
If a [person] learns nothing more than to eat, drink and sleep, and does not comprehend any of the designs of God, the beast comprehends the same things. It eats, drinks, sleeps, and knows nothing more about God; yet it knows as much as we, unless we are able to comprehend by the inspiration of Almighty God. If [people] do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.
(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 40)
Consider watching Relationship with God—Patrick” (0:59) and “Relationship with God—Anipha” (0:55) to see examples of how coming to know Heavenly Father can influence someone’s life.
Supplemental Learning Activities
Alternative activity for beginning the lesson
Consider sharing a personal experience of coming to know your parents, grandparents, or another parent-like figure better and how doing so was influential. Invite students to think of and share one as well. Consider watching “Courage: I Think I Get It from Him“ (1:38), found on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, to see how a young woman developed courage through learning about her grandfather. Invite students to consider what they know and are learning about their Heavenly Father.
A possible self-assessment
Help students assess their current efforts to know more about Heavenly Father by asking them to complete the following survey: