Are Our Families Pre-destined?


Bini
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Since this topic is speculation I placed it here but there may be a more appropriate forum..

It's been a discussion before but I wanted to take another look at it from a slightly different viewpoint. Are our families pre-destined? Meaning, in the pre-existence did the Lord know (did we know) who our family members would be? It seems that there are some of us that believe yes and others of us that believe no.

So here's the viewpoint that I wanted to pull in. In the pre-mortal life, we all had bodies. We were either male or female. We were all unique, being of different shapes and sizes. And the physical characteristics that we had then, are the same that we have now in this life. OK, we know that when procreation happens a child takes on the genetics of both parents. We may look a little more like dad than we do mum but in most cases there is some sort of family resemblence. If the earlier statement is true, then it seems that "yes" our families were pre-destined. The Lord knew (perhaps we knew) WHO we would develop a relationship with and procreate with. I guess we could go a step further and ask: are our lives pre-destined? After all, children may be born into second and third marriages after divorce.. Was it known to some degree in the pre-mortal life that the "first love" would not be the last love?

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Guest gopecon

That's a tough one to figure out. On one hand you have statements from GA's that there is generally no such thing as finding "the one". Any two people sufficiently living the Gospel could be happy together. On the other hand we are told that God knows the future and the past. Knowledge of the future would imply that He knew who my parents would be, along with my wife and my children. The next question is does his knowledge of these things mean that we really have no control over our lives - that everything was laid out by Him in the beginning? I believe that He did know who we would become and be with, but that we had to come to find out for ourselves and to gain experience. I'm sure that He knew who would and wouldn't be returning as we left His presence.

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So here's the viewpoint that I wanted to pull in. In the pre-mortal life, we all had bodies. We were either male or female. We were all unique, being of different shapes and sizes. And the physical characteristics that we had then, are the same that we have now in this life.

First of all I'm not sure I totally agree with this. We were spirits without bodies. That's why we came to earth to gain a physical body. Therefore physical characteristics we would have had then wouldn't apply as we didn't have a physical body.

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First of all I'm not sure I totally agree with this. We were spirits without bodies. That's why we came to earth to gain a physical body. Therefore physical characteristics we would have had then wouldn't apply as we didn't have a physical body.

Pam, thank you for correcting me on this!

But did we not have characteristics that defined us? I guess what I'm saying is.. Is the statement that I look as I did before I came to the earth, hold true?

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Ugh. What is the deal with my internet? Is it the northern Utah weather?

I don't think we could say that. What about those that are born with deformities? I certainly don't believe that is how they looked as spirits.

I need to clarify better. In the pre-mortal life, I don't believe we had deformities, that occured in our mortal state. I'm referring to the notion that we look now, as we did prior to coming to earth.

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Of course we are pre-destined with our families. Isn't this every parent's curse upon their children:

"One day, I hope you'll have a child JUST LIKE YOU!"

You're gonna jynx me, Skippy. You're gonna jynx me.

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It doesn't ring true to me that our families are pre-destined. I believe that our physical attributes here are a matter of DNA. I've never thought about what I looked like as a spirit, but that's an interesting topic to venture into.

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It doesn't ring true to me that our families are pre-destined.

Maybe not for your family. I believe that there are cases where we got to choose who we wanted to have a family with, but I also believe that our choices here on earth changes the choices made in the pre-mortal existence. For example, if a person is hoping to have you as a mother but then you decide not to ever have children, that person would then need to find someone else to be their mother.

I think some people wanted to choose as much as was possible in the pre-mortal existence, but that maybe others didn't really particularly care one way or the other as long as they got to come down here.

I believe that for the most part people have at least 5 people on earth that they can marry and be happy with, and that the whole idea of "the One" is extremely rare.

I know that it was my daughter who stopped me from attempting suicide long before she was born. I do not know if her father and I wanted to get married in the pre-mortal existence, in fact, as I type it, I very much doubt it. But I do know that my daughter wanted me to be her mother before we came to this world. And maybe, that's how it was. Maybe, for the most part, you could pick one parent, but not both.

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Absolutely noting is predestined. There is no such concept in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because we all have free will. But there are for-ordinations, meaning we may have been given the promise of children if we so choose, but nothing is ever set in stone. Even Jesus had a choice.

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I have often heard the analogy that our lives are like a river system. A river system has many different estuaries, forks, rapids, and still places. However, the river system always ends up going the same general direction.

In a sense, our lives could have been very much layed out for us before we were born. However, we choose how we travel. Some of what happens in our lives is determined by circumstances (despite what all the self help gurus say). We could have chosen some of our circumstances in the pre-mortal life and had a general framework of what our lives would be like.

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I believe families are pre chosen or at least mine is. In my PB it talks about how I knew my parents and kids before this life. And, how i choose them to be related to me.

I'm a firm believe that in heaven I knew I needed my parents, and they needed me.

I also believe to an extent our lives are foreordained. I don't often think about it though. God knows everything we're going to do but the choices are ultimatley ours.

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Guest Sachi001

Nah I can't accept pre-destiny. That would mean we have soul mates as spirits. All it would take for one to screw up the whole organizational plan. Such as divorce with siblings etc... everybody would be shifting roles all the time in pre-mortal life.

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Meaning, in the pre-existence did the Lord know (did we know) who our family members would be?

Yes He knew. (Not sure if we knew or not, but it was pre-veil, so I don't see the harm in having it revealed to us)

2 Nephi 9:20:

"O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it."

There are no exceptions to that truth.

"He knoweth all things! Except who our parents would be, the choices we would make in life, whether or not we would make it back to Him, and what kind of car we would drive."

It doesn't work like that. He knows EVERYTHING.

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