I'm Lexi Zendejas. I am from Omaha, Nebraska. Yes, Nebraska is the land of cows and corn but I am a city girl. I just graduated from BYU with a BA in American Studies. Yes, I loved it. If you've never heard of it join the club. If you don't know what it is, its ok neither do I. If your next internal question is "what do you do with that?" I didn't know the answer to that either until recently. That's why I'm going to law school at the University of Arizona starting this Fall. I am a returned missionary having served in the Argentina Buenos Aires North mission. I'm from a big Mexican-Italian-Native American-Polish family. I'm number 7 out of 8 kids. I am a daughter of God, a loving Heavenly Father.
Was that weird?...introducing myself as a daughter of God? Why? I am one. Is it weird because we already inherently know it, it doesn't need to be said because we just assume it? Did it alarm you because we forget? Or was it just too corny?
In this last April General Conference Elder Donald L. Holstrom said his about being a child of God, "This doctrine is so basic, so oft stated, and so instinctively simple that it can seem to be ordinary, when in reality it is among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain". But not all people know this extraordinary doctrine. I had the privilege to teach a sweet 20 something year old woman from China. She didn't know about Heavenly Father or Christ . It was amazing to see her knowledge and faith grow. Upon teaching her the Plan of Salvation we asked her what she thought and only 2 words were spoken, "Good father". God is indeed a good father. He is a perfectly loving father. The first principles missionaries teach is even, "God is our loving Heavenly Father".
Elder Holstrom states, "We live in a world that can cause us to forget who we really are. The more distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually, then ignore, and then forget our connection with God...In today's world, no matter what our circumstances are, it is essential that our preeminent identity is as a child of God."
What does it mean then, to be a child of God? After a lot of study I came up with 3 things that it means to me.
1. It means that we are family and are linked to Him through covenants. Therefore, we need to MAKE and KEEP sacred covenants like: baptism, confirmation, temple initiatory, endowments and sealing. We must keep the commandments and follow His teachings to be worthy of those covenants/blessings. It can seem like a lot especially with this seemingly looming commandment that Christ gave to the people of Nephi to "be ye therefore perfect even as I and your Father in Heaven are perfect." It can be a lot of pressure and we can get caught up in the expectations and perfection we can equate to being a child of God.
My dad is my hero. He has accomplished so much in his life and lived successfully through many trials. He is really well known in the Native community back home. My parents have also lived in the same ward for 25 years. People know who Ed Zendejas is. Growing up I would be introduces as such. I'm a Zendejas. I am "Ed's daughter" or when he was bishop I was introduced as "Bishop Zendejas' daughter". Immediately people knew things about my personality and behavior. I love my dad. I love being a Zendejas but I admit that sometimes it could get exhausting. I felt some pressure. Funny this is though I never felt it from my dad or mom. Ever. He of course wanted/s me to be happy and what is best for me. He wanted me to make good decisions and was disappointed and corrected me when I made stupid, prideful mistakes, but he never put pressure on me like I put pressure on myself. There is likewise a perceived pressure that we feel but its not from Heavenly Father. He knows how imperfect we are at keeping the commandments. That's why there is the Atonement of Christ. He knows and deals with it. Life is not about expectations its about exaltation. He wants us forever. Its hard but the return on investment is HIGH.
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| My wonderful dad and I after I graduated and I've got some serious hat hair. |
2. We are quite literally HIS children. In Acts 17:29 it reads, "...we are the offspring of God..." and in D&C 76:24 it states, "...that by him and though him and of him the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." Yes, because of the fall we are natural men and women, BUT let's not forget we have divine DNA. We are created in HIS image and have inherent characteristics and traits from our loving Heavenly Father. We can do hard things. Trials and a knowledge of our identity helps us to "...trust that He allows some earthly suffering because He knows it will bless us like a refiner's fire, to become like Him and fain our eternal inheritance."
Remembering that we have his DNA I irreverently thought, "God must be one good-looking, intelligent and hilarious guy", but seriously. There is no need to put ourselves down or to put others down. In the mission it was so easy to remember and see how each person on this planet is a child of God. Its been a year and a half now since I've been home and unfortunately its getting easier to forget that when I look at myself and others. Let's remember who we are and who others around us are. Straighten your crown and remember who's child you are.
3. We can have open communication with deity. We get to talk to someone who LOVES us and knows the bigger picture. Like I said, I recently graduated and have a beloved yet totally useless degree unless I get a graduate degree of some sort. I had applied to 6 schools but didn't know where I should go. I knew where I wanted to go but not where I should go. I prayed to know and have my decision confirmed but I got nothing. I was so frustrated. I was still confused. One of my biggest fears is that I'll make a dumb mistake and ruin God's plan for me because I was too prideful to see the answer. I'm a planner. This wasn't part of the plan. I also tend to over analyze and increase in dramatics when I plan. Have you seen that post on Facebook about someone losing a pencil and then winds up dead. Yep, that's how I think. Anyways, I kept praying and going to the temple. I wanted and answer dang-it!! I finally got an unexpected answer. I honestly still don't know that I like the answer or that I am all that excited about it. Seriously. What the heck is in Tucson?! I have no ties to the U of A, I applied there on a whim not thinking that I would actually go even if I was accepted. But here I am. I may not know why but I know that I'm supposed to go to the U of A. It's been hard but can I tell you its infinitely more easy trusting praying and answers to prayers when they come from a loving Heavenly Father rather than some random deity-ish thing. The line from Elder Holland keeps entering my mind of, "You can have what you want or you can have something better."
The Book of Mormon is riddled with stories of answers to prayers from a loving God. I'm weird and I LOVE the war chapters in the Alma. In this story, Teancum and his troops are running out of supplies and they are trying to keep their holdings on Manti but the troops are running out of supplies. This is what they do, it reads: "Therefore we did pour out or souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, or the support of our people. Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace unto our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him. And we did take courage with our small force which we had received, and were fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies..." As we communicate with our Heavenly Father He will lead and guide us, he will protect us, he will give us peace and strength and faith and determination to conquer whatever trials we don't know lie ahead of us.
There's a really cute video circulating on Facebook. Two kids are on a couch. One of them is from Ethiopia and the other from China. They are talking about how they were adopted and how they have a "really dad" now and how much he loves them. They go on to say that even if you don't have a dad or a good dad, you have a Heavenly Father. He isn't a fake dad but a "really dad" who loves you. All of this is incontrovertible, undeniable evidence that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. We sing the Primary song "I Am a Child of God" Its called that and not "God is Our Heavenly Father" because he already knows perfectly that He is our father. It is US who need to be reminded of this truth that is so essential to our exaltation. We are indeed children of God.
I know this Gospel is true. I know that God loves us and that is why He gave us commandments and covenants because he wants us to live with him again. He sent His son, Jesus Christ to atone for us. I know that he is our "really dad". He wants to hear from us and to help us.
In, the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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