The question arises: What must we do to qualify for God’s love?
Clearly that is an absurd question, since the scriptures tell us that God loves all of His children, and you and I are among His many children.
Because of His love for His children, His plan of Salvation included the opportunity of spiritual growth which is only possible with free choice coming through the blessing of agency. This in turn results in inevitable mistakes requiring payment. While we cannot make full payment, repentance is required to access our Father’s grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ. (John 3:16, 2Nephi 25:23)
The question, therefor, is not what can we do to earn His love, but rather: how can we think, feel, and behave to recognize His love for us?
Let me illustrate this with an example from music. Consider a piano. A piano has many strings. Each string is made to vibrate by a hammer which hits the string when the key, attached to that hammer, is hit by the hammer when the key is depressed. When the key is depressed, a damper is lifted from that string, so only that string vibrates. The lowest frequency with which that string can vibrate corresponds to vibrational motion which looks like one loop, since the string is tied down between two fixed points. This looks a lot like a jump rope. When you wiggle the jump rope twice as fast you end up with two loops, with a point in the middle, that point doesn’t seem to move. Thus, when one side moves up, the other side moves down. The same double loop picture applies to the piano string when hit by the hammer, the string vibrates with frequencies corresponding to multiple loops. So, for the A in the middle of the piano, A4, we have a frequency of 440 Hz (cycles per second) and the string actually vibrates with all whole number multiples of that frequency, that is A5 = 2x440m, E6 = 3x440, A6 = 4x440, C#7 = 5x440, E7 = 6x440. These notes are called harmonics, and a string hit by a hammer will vibrate only with those frequencies. On one end of the string the string is fixed on the bridge, which transfers the vibration to the sound board which amplifies the sound so we can hear it. The lowest frequency is the loudest, but all the other frequencies are present. If I depress the A5 string so gently that the hammer does not hit the string, and then play the A4 string and then release it, I will be able to hear the A5 note, because the soundboard vibrations will make the A5 string vibrate. The same will happen for all the other harmonic notes. Only the notes whose frequencies are in a harmonic relationship with the note struck will be heard.
So, it is with us. If we want to feel the love of our Heavenly Father, we need to be in harmony with Him. We feel the love of our Heavenly Father when we truly love Him. How do we show Him that we really love Him? There are many ways. The following comments are certainly not exclusive, nor are they listed in order of importance.
We need to be sincere in our prayers. While concerns occur repeatedly, they cannot be rote memory, they must come from the heart each time. Gratitude for the blessings of the gospel is always appropriate. Thanks for love by and to friends and family always helps us to understand and feel the love of our Heavenly Father. We need help in our repentance. Awareness of specific shortcomings, and a plea for assistance will help us to do better in the future. Any effort to relieve someone’s burden will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father, and we feel the warms of His love penetrate our souls.
As we experience that, we feel a calm peace fill our heart despite the turmoil of illness, injury, animosity, material loss, and all the ills the world can provide. He tells us that “. . . . in me ye might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
With my nearly 90 years of living I feel more joy associated with the love of my Heavenly Father, and the values of alternatives increasingly fade in significance.
