{the purpose of life}

***

I haven’t forgotten about continuing to explain the “Plan of Happiness”. I have been putting it off as the #3 in the chart is such a vast topic and to be honest, I’m not sure how to tackle this one. How do you explain shortly the purpose of life and why we’re here? Exactly. That’s been my dilemma. Two blogs I read have mentioned the topic of death and it gave me the push to keep going.

The part one was posted on September 28th if you missed it. Wow, time flies.

So, the purpose of life. Why are we here? Wish me luck.
***
One reason why we needed to come to earth is to get a body. Our Father in Heaven has a glorified, immortal body. Not a mortal one like we do. But gaining a mortal body prepares us to receive an immortal one. We get experience in what it’s like to have a body. I won’t go into more details about that. Just so you know getting our bodies is part of the whole mortal experience and very important to us.
***
Because of the mortal bodies we have, we can experience additional things to that experienced in pre-mortal life. We can experience both good and bad with our bodies. Because our bodies here are mortal (we all get sick, we all die), we will be able to appreciate the immortal bodies afterwards (no more sickness, no more death). Think about it, how else could you appreciate that amazing gift (immortality) if you first didn’t experience the opposite. There is no other way. We must have opposition in this life (health/sickness, death/life, success/failure…). All the misery in this life has a purpose. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the good things to come in the next state of our existence. Our trials and tribulations here guarantee our happiness in the next state. It’s mind blowing when you finally figure that out. Ponder about it and it’ll start to make more and more sense.
***
Experience. That is another reason why we’re here. We needed to come here to be on our own, without Heavenly Father’s presence. To try our own wings, so to speak. To live by faith, not by sight. Then we could really be free and to be able to choose what we wanted. Free agency is so important as I mentioned earlier. God will never force anyone to Heaven. He will let us choose what we want. This life is a school as well as a test. Once again, having good & bad here is essential. How else could we choose? So many people blame God when bad things happen in life. They say God doesn’t care what happens to people. Otherwise He would interfere. Well, He won’t because “all these things will be for our good and for our learning”. He does guide certain things in this life but mostly He is just allowing all of us to have this mortal experience “as is”. Bad people get to be bad in this life. Bad and good people get their “rewards” (“test results & grades”) in the next state (see Malachi 3: 13-18). Here’s an awesome quote by President Spencer W. Kimball: “If pain and sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil – all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency…” I could go on and on about this topic. It’s one of my favorite topics actually. I finally know why we go through so many heartaches and trials in this life. But suffice it say that in this life there will always be both good and bad. The test is which one will we choose.
***
I know there are other things to talk about too in this category but this posting would be miles long if I explained it all. Let’s just mention one more thing though. If there is to be a punishment for evil deeds and rewards for doing good, there has to be a law. God’s laws are eternal, they don’t change. All of us have been given the light of Christ (most people call it the conscience) that will lead people to do good and warns them when they are about to do what is bad. You can “kill your conscience”. The more you choose to go against it, the more you silence it and eventually “kill it”. If you follow your conscience, you are led towards more and more goodness and “light”.

***
I think I’m going to have to do a part “B” for this posting still. I do need to explain few more things before I move on to what happens after we die. So more to come. Stay tuned. Or not. :) Your choice.

Once again, feel free to comment or ask questions. Feel free to add your own thoughts on the topic (why we’re here). These of course are my own views and if I have explained them properly, then they'd be the views of the church I belong to as well.

***

I get sort of homesick sometimes

For the home I had before my birth

For my other Father and Mother

That I left to come to earth.

I miss all the heavenly peace

Of that place where no pain can be found.

Where there is no hurt and there is no hate

But only love around.

'Till it's time to go back home

There's one thing to do it's clear:

I'll try with my hands,

I'll try with my heart

To make a Heaven here.

(lyrics of a song I love)

***