Born to Be a King (or Queen)

Each week in my New Testament class, we are supposed to share something we learned on social media. Here is my first entry for that assignment. I hope you enjoy! 

In Moses 1, after Moses converses with God and learns what his divine potential is as a son of God, Satan appears to him and tries to get Moses to worship him. I love Moses’ response. He simply looks at Satan and says, “Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?” (Moses 1:13) Moses knew who he was, a son of God, who would one day become like his Father and he wasn’t going to let Satan take that divine identity away from him. 
I recently read a story in a talk given by Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone in the November 1975 Ensign, which illustrates this principle. After King Louis XVI had been dethroned and imprisoned, his son was taken away. His captors wanted to make the prince lose his identity as heir to the throne by destroying him morally. They took him to a place and exposed him to “every filthy and vile thing that life could offer…they used vile language around him constantly. They exposed him to lewd and lusting women. They exposed him to dishonor and distrust. He was surrounded 24 hours a day by everything that could drag the soul of a man as low as one could slip. For over six months he had this treatment—but not once did the young lad buckle under pressure.” Finally, puzzled by the fact that this boy had not given into all the worldly temptations that were so easily his, they asked him why he had not succumbed. His response was simple, yet powerful. He responded, “I cannot do what you ask, for I was born to be a king.”
When we remember who we truly are, a son or daughter of God, it gives us the strength to resist the temptations of the world. Our divine potential is more than anything the world can offer; it is our potential to someday become like our Father in Heaven. Through His strength and the Atonement of Christ, we can live true to that divine potential that we each have in us.