Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Official Report 1034KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus.

The first item of business is time for reflection, and our leader today is Lee Mcleman, president of the Aberdeen Scotland stake, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for the invitation to participate in today’s proceedings.

Abraham Lincoln taught that

“The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people.”

Confucius also taught that

“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”

In 1995, “The Family: A Proclamation To The World” was published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Contained in that proclamation is a call to all

“officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

The proclamation declares one eternal truth that will, I believe, if understood and applied, bring peace to our families, homes, communities and nation. It states:

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Inherent in the truth that we are sons and daughters unto God lies the beauty that each of us are brothers and sisters. When we understand our true divine identity as sons and daughters of God and our relationship one to another as brothers and sisters, one another’s welfare, care and concern instinctively become our own, because we are all family, and our lives are a family matter.

In “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ”, an ancient prophet/historian called Nephi taught:

“I know that”

God

“loveth his children”.

The Bible also teaches that

“God so loved the world”—

his family—

“that he gave his only begotten son.”

Of the many titles that God would reserve, he invites us as his children to call him father. In the midst of our saviour’s atoning sacrifice in the garden called Gethsemane, he addressed his father and our father in the intimacy of the Hebrew word “Abba”, which has been interpreted as “Papa” or “Daddy”.

My brothers and sisters of this chamber, may God bless you, our children, our families and our homes, and may he bless each one of us to see one another in our true identities not only as children, sons and daughters of Scotland, but as sons and daughters of God and all members of his eternal family.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.