Mankind’s yearning for home is the “deepest, most common, hidden interest” that individuals possess, said Sister Tamara W. Runia — first counselor in the Young Women general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — as she delivered a keynote address during the church’s Utah Area conference for young single adults on Friday.
“For thousands of years,” she said, “humankind has looked to the skies for direction, and they weren’t just looking at maps. They were reaching for connection to heaven, for something Earth cannot supply. They looked up.”
In her address, Sister Runia focused on what she called “the big three” — three of the biggest questions individuals may face as they navigate their way back to their “heavenly home.”
These questions, according to Sister Runia, include:
- How can one know heaven is their home?
- How does one navigate their journey back home?
- How can one make a home on Earth?
“I don’t pretend to know how this works,” Sister Runia told listeners. But, she affirmed, Jesus Christ will help each individual return home.
“Every single one of us will make it back because of Christ,” she said. “We are going home.”
Q1: Knowing heaven is home
Sister Runia told young adults “heaven is real,” even if it is not visible.
“(It is) as real as me standing in front of you right now,” she said. “And if we could pierce that intangible veil that temporarily separates you from your heavenly home, what would you see? What would you feel?”
Through a series of personal and scriptural anecdotes, Sister Runia invited listeners to know “heaven is real” by first coming to know God, their “Heavenly Father.”
“We belong to a God who weeps,” Sister Runia said, recounting the first time she learned — through a scripture story — that God weeps out of love for his children.
Sister Runia explained this understanding “shifted” something inside her, helping her catch a “glimpse of the kind of God” she worships.
She invited listeners to ask God how he “really” feels about them, and then take the time to listen and record the thoughts that come to their mind.
“All of us have had a hard time, sometimes, feeling God’s love,” she said. “(And) there are lots of reasons — certain physical, mental and emotional struggles can dull, even mute that connection that we’re longing for.”
Still, she taught, God’s love for his children never fades, “it is simply always there.”
She added that an inability to feel God’s love does not signal punishment or that one has been forgotten by God.
“(God) remembers everything about you,” Sister Runia said, “and is watching over you, even leaning towards you right now, in love.”
Q2: Navigating back home
Sister Runia taught that prayer can help individuals navigate life’s “dark, lonely” places, and that it is what Jesus did both in mortality and as a resurrected being.
“(Prayer) made all the difference for him,” Sister Runia said, “and it can for you and me too.”
Sister Runia then said there is one — the “adversary” — who does not want individuals to connect with God through prayer and other worship practices.
“You need to know this,” she said. “Christ and the adversary both want us to become like them. The adversary wants you to be miserable like he is, but Christ invites you to be not afraid, to be of good cheer, to be like him.”
Still, Sister Runia explained that following Christ will not take away life’s challenges.
“Spoiler alert: the journey back home is complicated for everyone,” she said. “It is messy, but I submit to you that when things look like they’re falling apart on the outside, with the Savior’s help, our greatest growth can be taking place inside.”
Q3: Making a home on earth
Sister Runia told listeners they can strengthen their spirits, “chase away the darkness” and make a home on earth by doing “simple things” like studying the scriptures, praying and spending time in sacred spaces, such as Latter-day Saint temples.
In temples, “there’s a feeling of coming home after being away, because the temple is our home away from home,” Sister Runia taught.
She explained temples allow for an “exchange of love” between God and his children.
“Since none of us receives the amount of love we deserve in this world,” she said, “there in that holy environment, we can feel embraced by (God’s) love.”
Sister Runia also taught the temple can help individuals realize what is real and eternal.
“Much of what we experience every day is temporary, cardboard, plastic, but what we experience in the house of the Lord, that is what is real,” she said.
She then told listeners that Christ knows them and walks with them. “We are covenant travelers with him,” she said, adding that entering into a covenant relationship with God allows individuals to walk “tethered” to Christ.
“It is my sure testimony that Jesus Christ is close beside you, and because of his atonement, he has the right to turn any nightmare you are going through right now into a blessing,” Sister Runia concluded.
