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Intellect

If God is our father, how does He parent us?

Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Brent Nelson discussed Heavenly Father's love at Tuesday's devotional

When he thinks about God as his literal spiritual father, Brent Nelson, professor of electrical and computer engineering said he learns some important insights.  

In his Tuesday devotional address, Nelson noted how his role as a father helps him better understand God's nature, and how God, as our Heavenly Father, provides individual-specific blessings, guidance and sometimes even challenges. 

On Nelson's unexpected reaction to a wayward child: “At that moment I just wanted to take my child into my arms and tell him how much I loved him and how badly I felt that he had not lived up to his potential and had fallen short. Then it hit me – could this possibly be how my Father in Heaven feels about me when I make mistakes?”

On tender mercies from God: "They confirm our faith that God lives, that He loves us . . . and out of the billions of people on the earth He knows each of us and is interested enough to step in and help us in specific and personal ways."

On why we face obstacles: "I believe that absolutely everything Heavenly Father asks us to do is because it will be for our own good."  

If you missed Nelson’s address, it can be streamed on demand at BYUtv.org and will be available on speeches.byu.edu

Next devotional address
There will be no devotional next Tuesday. On Tuesday, June 24, Alexander Baugh, professor of Church history, will deliver the devotional address at 11:05 am in the de Jong Concert Hall. Professor Baugh will discuss the many roles of Joseph Smith. In the decade of the 1830s and early 40s, many who knew or associated with Joseph Smith, but who were not affiliated with the Church, considered him to be a religious innovator at best, and an imposter at worst. And while some of his contemporaries respected both him and the church he organized, larger numbers opposed Mormonism. But to believing Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith was a modern day seer, translator, revelator, and prophet. 

Writer: Paige Montgomery

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