Kingdom

Animalia.

Chordata.

Mammalia.

Primates.

Hominidae.

Homo.

Homo sapiens.

Humans.

That’s what we taxonomically are. First and foremost we are taxonomically classified as animals. Indeed, we are creatures. We are beautiful creatures—each one of the 7-or-so billion of us. And I’m here to tell you why we are, in all seriousness, the most interesting and incredible creatures that breathe upon the planet.

My philosophy is that we humans are the only earthly creatures that are capable of philosophizing, being religious, being literate, purposefully making art and calling it art, and falling into true and heartfelt love.

Some may argue that we are not the only ones capable of employing strategy and persuasion, for the rattlesnake shakes its rattle to strategically persuade predators to keep their distance. But we are the ones who have the real ability to influence people to change their minds and their hearts.

Some may argue that we are not the only ones capable of speaking languages, for elk speak elk and whales speak whale. But we are the ones who communicate in verbal, nonverbal, and written form, to influence the world’s citizens in ways that the rattlesnake cannot.

Some may argue that we are not the only ones capable of nurturing our children, for the mother bear and mother moose both aggressively protect their young from any perceived danger. But do the mother bear and mother moose have dreams for their babies; rather, do they have dreams of their babies growing up to become fine and respectable adults that do many worthwhile things in their lives? Who are we to say those mamas don’t? However, there’s also not enough evidence to say they do.

Keep Mama Moose and Mama Bear in the back of your mind as you focus your attention again on us humans. Do we members of humanity dream for our rising generations to evolve into top-quality people? Do we not hope for them to be bright spots for the future? Is not this why we teach them polite manners, encourage them to do their best in school, and support them as they pursue their own worthy dreams? The youth of the rising generations can’t brighten the future without our help and the help of each other. In fact, since none of us are ever really done growing up, and since we really never run out of opportunities to brighten the world around us, we all need each other’s positive influence to accomplish goodness. No darksome situations will ever experience betterment if we don’t provide our positivity.

One of my favorite quotes of all time was first given by Marjorie Pay Hinckley:

“We are all in this together. We need each other. Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young, and hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old… We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance. We need to renew our faith every day. We need to lock arms and help build the kingdom so that it will roll forth and fill the whole earth.”

(Marjorie is the wife of Gordon B. Hinckley, former President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

This wonderful woman mentioned a “kingdom” in her quote. Was she talking about the “animal kingdom”? Did she mean that Kingdom Animalia would “roll forth and fill the whole earth”? How could she mean that, when animals have been going endangered and extinct left-and-right since the dawn of time?

I’m going to tell you something now that you may or may not have ever heard before, and I’ll try to explain with as much accuracy as I can. The kingdom she referred to was a human kingdom. A kingdom that is ruled by a person—a remarkable person who is eternal, yet has flesh, bone, and blood like any other person. This person is a perfect person. This person is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present, everywhere in everywhen. Since you are a creature—a beautiful one—it must imply that you were created, right? Right. And there’s a person responsible for the beautiful creation of the miraculous being that you are. It’s the same person who is behind the creation of the glorious earth and majestic heavens.

Sounds like this person is basically the center of the universe, huh? Well, it’s true. He is. In case the description of this person has been coming across to you as a riddle, I just gave away the detail that this person is a “he.” This person is God. Our Heavenly Father. And when I say He is “Heavenly Father,” I mean it. I mean that we really are His children. I’ve already said He has flesh, bone, and blood like us. He also has a face and a body like we do. We were created in His image. We look like Him. My mortal eyes have never seen Him, but some of the biggest and most important beliefs I dearly hold onto are these:

- I resemble Him

- I am His daughter

- He loves me perfectly and forever

I believe these things for myself, and I believe them as they relate to all other people besides myself. Heavenly Father, who is God, loves each of us eternally and perfectly. And He knows us perfectly. He knows what is best for us. He has a plan of happiness for us—the best plan of happiness there is. The way we can make this plan of happiness our plan of happiness is by following His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. This is the same Jesus Christ who dwelled in Israel just shy of 2,000 years ago. This Jesus no longer physically lives on earth, but He still totally lives. He has the same heavenly parents that we do (who are also very much alive), which makes Him our brother.

Yes, we each belong to this heavenly family. The key point I want to drive home to you is that this heavenly family is an actual unit of actual people who love you way, way, way a lot. They are a divine royal family. The Royal Family. And since they’re your family, honest to goodness, there is divine royalty in your soul, meaning you have fantastic potential to be truly great as they are.

This Royal Family’s kingdom consists of the planet we live on. They want their kingdom to be filled with the kind of pure love that they offer us daily. In order for the filling of this love to come to pass, we children are responsible for making it happen. Since the task can be difficult at times, our benevolently generous Royal Family has provided us the means of prayerful communion with Heavenly Father. By staying in touch with Heavenly Father like this, in the name of Jesus Christ, we can access the awesome aid of the Holy Ghost as we try to fill the kingdom with love, and thus “build” it, as sweet Marjorie Hinckley said.

Remember the way this blog post began? Remember how it used to be discussing taxonomy and Animalia and whatnot? That may seem like a long time ago ;) Why do I say humans are the most interesting and incredible creatures? Well, what other creatures have this type of amazing familial connection with Deity?

If you regard yourself as a member of the “animal kingdom,” I hope I have just convinced you to more strongly deem yourself as a divinely royal member of God’s family and kingdom. It’s the greatest kingdom there is.

Since I highly doubt I even began to scratch the surface as I’ve attempted to describe all of the above, I sincerely invite you to learn more about the kingdom and how you can significantly help build it. Answers to your questions can be found through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is colloquially called the “Mormon Church.” If you have any Mormon friends, they’d probably be very glad to help teach you. Maybe you could go to church with them! That would probably be a pretty darn cool thing to do! You can also visit these websites:

www.mormon.org (this is my page: http://mormon.org/me/2RHQ/Alison)

www.lds.org

Have a super day, you super child of God you! :)