“An Apostle Speaks to Children,” Friend, July 1973, 32
An Apostle Speaks to Children
There is something very important that I want to say to you children—something I hope you’ll always remember.
Did you know that you lived before you were born on earth? Before you were born to your father and mother, you lived in the spirit world.
Pretend, my little friends, that my hand represents your spirit. It is alive. It can move by itself.
A glove is like your body. It cannot move. But when your spirit entered into your body, then you could move and act and live. Now you are a person—a spirit with a body—living on the earth.
While you are alive, the spirit inside your body causes it to work and to act and to live. But it was not intended that we stay here on earth forever. Some day, because of old age or perhaps a disease or an accident, the spirit and the body will be separated. When this happens, we say that a person has died. Death is a separation—a separation of the body and the spirit.
When the glove, which is like your body, is taken away from your spirit, it cannot move anymore. It just falls down. It is dead. But the part of you that looks out through your eyes and allows you to think and to smile, to act and to know, and to be, that is your spirit and that is eternal. It cannot die.
When our Heavenly Father made it possible for us to come into this world, He also made it possible for us to return to Him, because He is our Father and He loves us. Do not think that because we are living on this earth away from Him and because we can’t see Him that He has forgotten us.
Little children, our Heavenly Father knew that we would need help. So in the plan He provided for someone to come into the world and help us so that we can some day return to Him.
This was Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is a spirit child as all of us are, but Jesus was also Heavenly Father’s Only Begotten Son on the earth. And it was Jesus who made it possible for us to overcome death. He made it possible for our spirits and bodies to be one again. Because of Him, we will be resurrected. That means our spirit and body will be put back together. That is a gift from Him. That is why He is called our Savior, our Redeemer.
Even when you are very young you should know about another kind of separation—a separation that is like a second death. This is a spiritual separation from our Heavenly Father.
We must learn to keep ourselves spiritually clean so that we will not be separated from our Heavenly Father and may return to be with Him when we leave this earth life. When Jesus was living on the earth, He taught that if we live the gospel, we will remain spiritually clean. Even when we make mistakes, there is a way to become clean again. That is what repentance is.
There will be times when you make mistakes. There will be times when you will wonder if you can live the way Jesus taught we should live. When you are tested, when you are disappointed or ashamed, or when you are sad, remember Him and pray to Heavenly Father in His name.
Remember that you are a child of our Heavenly Father. You lived with Him before you came to this earth. You came to earth to receive a mortal body and to be tested. Our Heavenly Father loves us, and we have a Lord and Savior. We can return and live with Him again.
I thank God for a church where you, our little children, are precious above all things. I thank God for our Savior, who suffered the little children to come unto Him. He is the Christ! He loves us! I pray for you, our little ones, and ask Him to bless you.