From the Mouth of Teenagers

Who is Heavenly Father (God)?  What is He?  How do you know if He is real or not?  These questions have troubled many great minds and the simple ones (such as mine).  Obviously, I know what my own answers would be to these questions and could write a novel about them.  But, to shake things up a tad, I asked the youth (ages 12-18) from home to answer them for me.
First question, who and what is Heavenly Father?

• Alex: "He is our Father in heaven, our spiritual father.  Our creator."
• Riley: "Heavenly Father is our creator.  He is our Father who loves us.  He is a physical being of flesh and bone."
• Josh N: "My Father, creator, and guide of my existence."
• Emily: "He is the person who answers our prayers."
• Jessica: "He is our God.  Our Father in Heaven.  Knows all.  Has a body of flesh and bones.  Creator."
• Collin: "A perfect example of a human being."
• Annika: "He is perfect.  God.  He loves us.  We are literally His spirit children."
• Samantha: "Heavenly Father is our creator and He watches over us.  He loves us and has a physical body."
• Abi: "He is everything good.  He is our creator.  He is loving and kind.  He is a comfort to me.  He is a resurrected being."

There is some consistency in these answers.  He is our Father!  Literally!  He loves us and is a living being.  I also know that these things are true.  Now, what proof do you have that He is real?  Well, the youth answered this one as well.

Name 5 things that testify that God is real and that He is active in blessing us His children:

• unknown name: "He gave us our body, family, prophets, His son, and the Plan of Salvation"
• unknown name #2: "Our existence, the scriptures, families, earth (nature, the sky, everything around us)."
• Austin: "Family, bodies, USA, Atonement, Holy Ghost."
• Miles: "Prayer, the Book of Mormon, Parents, Family, Scriptures."
• Jaycee: "We have the spirit, our mom's and dad's, nature, scriptures, our family members."
• Kaylee: "We can pray to Him, miracles happen every day, everything around us, temples, missionaries."
• Kalleth: "Us, the Book of Mormon, Earth, the Plan of Salvation, the testimony of others."
• Mckae: "Book of Mormon, Holy Ghost, Scriptures, Prayer, Repentance."
• Echo: "Scriptures, Parents, answered prayers, temples, the earth."

Beautiful isn't it.  Such simple yet profound reasons that God is there.  It doesn't take much to notice how many things there are around us that testify of His love for us and of His constant presence in our lives.

The last question I asked, that I want to share with you is this: How do we know when we really are feeling the Holy Ghost and it's not just being in a good mood?

• Taylor: "It's an inside warmth, not outside.  The difference from happiness instead of joy"
• Jordan: "It's an eternal feeling"
• unknown #3: "It will be like nothing you've ever felt before.  It comes from inside."
• unknown #4: "Something stronger than just a good mood.  When you do something good."
• Kelly: "I get a sincere feeling in my heart and feel the love for the Lord and spirit strong.  Feel a warmth.  It's a chill through my body.  Peace!"
• Amelia: "I think that you just know.  There is sincerely a different feeling.  You are happy for the right reasons.  You want to do good."
• Moroni: "It's both a physical and mental/spiritual state of peace and confirmation."
• Josh L: "Inside warmth."
• Alec: "Warmth in the bosom."

These are the feelings that they had, yours may be different.  But, I know that the spirit will witness to you of this divine truth if you truly want to know.  God is our Father.  He loves us.  This knowledge has given me more peace than I could ever describe.  You don't have to just take my word for it or the youth from home.  Pray and ask.  Seek out the truth and "you will find."