Eternal Destiny Driven by Desires and Empowered by God's Love

Elder Tad R. Callister taught in 2012 in a devotional given at Education Week:

"The difference between man and God is significant--but it is one of degree, not kind.  It is the difference between an acorn and an oak tree, a rosebud and a rose, a son and a father.  Every man is a potential god in embryo."

"It is critical to have a correct vision of this divine destiny of godliness because with increased vision comes increased motivation."

"There is no problem, no obstacle to our divine destiny,  for which the Savior's atonement does not have a remedy of superior healing and lifting power."

What Elder Callister is reminding us of is that each one of us is a child of God and thus each one of us has the potential to become a god with the healing and lifting power of the Savior.


Elder Oaks talk in General Conference of April 2011 addressed the necessity of having an intense desire to attain qualities required to become an eternal being.

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices and choices determine our actions."

Enos 1:12 "I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."

"Readjusting our desires to give highest priority to the things of eternity is not easy."

"If our righteous desires are sufficiently intense, they will motivate us to cut and carve ourselves free from addictions and other ...pressures and priorities that prevent our eternal progress."

"We should remember that righteous desires cannot be superficial impulsive, or temporary.  They must be heartfelt, unwavering and permanent.  So motivated, we will seek for that condition described by the Prophet Joseph Smith, where we have "overcome the evils of (our lives) and lost every desire for sin."

"Therefore, what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity."

President Eyring stated in October Conference of 2013:

"Heavenly Father has perfect foresight, knows each of us, and knows our future.  He knows what difficulties we will pass through.  He sent His Son to suffer so that He would know how to succor us all in our trials."

He quotes President George Q. Cannon: "There is not one of us but what God's love has been expended upon.  There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed.  There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save.  There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning.  We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels--invisible beings of power and might--charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping."