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he Savior said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The Prophet at the head of the Church today, is a wonderful man by the name of Gordon
B. Hinckley. Even though he is in his 90's, he is a living wonder with what he accomplishes. When he speaks, I feel as if I'm hearing the wisdom of the
ages. He truly is a man of God. His counsel is not only priceless, but it is timeless. I have come to know that he is the Lord's chosen prophet for this
time, through personal prayer and through the Holy Ghost. If you read his words, you too can come to know that as well. I would invite you to ask your LDS
friends to give you a copy of the 2002, May edition of the Ensign Magazine. In it, you will find four or five talks that he gave to us at the last occasion
of our General Conference. Or you can find it on the Internet at www.lds.org. When you read his words, the spirit of the Holy Ghost will touch your heart,
you will feel good, and calm and peaceful about the thin!
gs which you read. That great, peaceful feeling will, in fact, be the Holy Ghost testifying to you that the things which you are reading are true and that
Gordon B. Hinckley, in fact, is a Prophet.
Regarding why we don't pray directly to Jesus Christ, there are several answers to that question in the scriptures. The first one is found in Matthew 6:9,
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Our Father which art in Heaven . . . " Then the Savior goes on to school us on what we should pray for and how
thankful we should be. In another place in the New Testament, it says, "There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Consequently,
when we pray to our Heavenly Father, we always conclude those prayers "In the name of Jesus Chest. Amen."
We pray to our Heavenly Father because it is He who created us
spiritually in the beginning, long before we came to this earth. It is His plan of salvation which was given through the prophets and apostles through all
the generations of time and which Christ amplified and magnified when He came to the earth for his mortal ministry. It was under our Heavenly Father's
direction that all things were created, and
because we revere Him and love Him so much, all of our prayers are directed to Him, but at the conclusion of those prayers, we recognize our dependence
upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as well, and therefore, the prayer is concluded in the manner spoken above.
You also asked, "Could you tell me what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has to say about abusive parents and
keeping the commandment of 'honoring thy father and thy mother.' Do children that are emotionally and physically abused by their parents receive special
grace from God, forgiveness for struggling with this commandment?"
The Church is very outspoken in its objections against the physical and emotional abuse of children and all people. It is true that we teach all members
of the Church to honor their father and their mother, but we do not do that when the mother and the father are leading lives that are not honorable. The
Prophet Abraham, as a young man, left the house of
his own father and moved far away because not only was his father an idol worshipper, but he was threatening to kill Abraham because he would not believe
what his father believed. The same thing applies today. We can all honor our parents for providing us with the opportunity to come into this world, but
in no way are we obligated to honor them if they are not honorable themselves. The Church does not ask its members to "blindly" stand by while children are
being abused by their parents. In fact, President Hinckley has warned that anyone abusing children in the Church would find their membership in jeopardy.
Thank you for your questions. I hope I answered them to your satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Donny Osmond
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