Honoring the Creator

We have an obligation, to be good stewards, to pass to future generations an earth better than we found it through the habits and values of wise stewardship. We have the power within us to not only maintain, but to be co-creators with God in beautifying and replenishing the earth. In doing so, we not only show our reverence and love for God, the Creator, but love for His greatest creation — each of us, humankind.

"When we truly learn to love God, we learn to love all things—others, ourselves, all creation, because God is in all, with all, and through all."

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,especially through my lord Brother Sun,who brings the day; and you give light through him.And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,and through the air, cloudy and serene,and every kind of weather through whichYou give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,through whom you light the night and he is beautifuland playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,who sustains us and governs us and who producesvaried fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

“For people of faith, protecting and preserving our planet is not just a matter of survival. It is our home, and we consider it a creation and a gift of God.”

"We should love the earth—we should love the works which God has made. This is correct; but we should love them in the Lord."

“Wisdom and virtue come from the animal and vegetable worlds which carries with it a spiritual as well as a material blessing. Nature helps us to see and understand God. To all His creations we owe an allegiance of service and profound admiration.”

"We have eyes and see not, for that which we cannot appreciate or admire we are largely blind to, no matter how beautiful or inspiring it may be. As children of God, it is our duty to appreciate and worship Him in His creations. If we would associate all that is truly good and beautiful in life with thoughts of Him, we would be able to trace His handiwork throughout all nature."

"My mother had taught me to pray and to thank Heavenly Father for all the things that I enjoyed. I often thanked Him for the beauty of the earth and for the wonderful times that I had at the ranch and by the river and with the Scouts."

“I thought … how important it is for every human soul to see and appreciate the glory and grandeur of God in everything about us . . . . [T]hose who feel no reverence for the creations and the divine attributes of God likely will have little appreciation for other sacred things. Such a lack of veneration for God’s creations may diminish until a person becomes totally insensitive to the feelings of others.”

"If Mormons are serious about ending inequality and they are serious about restoring dignity to the lives of the most poor and the most vulnerable in society, as the law of consecration demands, then they should be equally serious about respecting the creation as God's, understanding property as contingent, avoiding overconsumption in all of its forms, and honoring and protecting the sacred sources of physical life."

"Book of Mormon prophets invoked the Creation as a symbol of God's goodness and a touchstone of human stewardship: 'The Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it' (1 Ne. 17:36). Those who reject God's goodness, as symbolized by the Creation (and the Atonement), will inevitably be judged and punished (cf. 2 Ne. 1:10)."

"[LDS members] are generally able to affirm and dismiss [the reverence-for-nature tradition] in one doublethink. There is a poetic truth about it, but most people today let scientific truth guide their thinking, and science teaches us to regard the earth as a lifeless object. . . . This is not to say that Mormons are less environmentally responsible than other groups, only that their environmental consciousness no longer embraces some of the creative teachings of their early leaders."

"Brothers and sisters, if we truly love the Artist, let us not slash His painting. President David O. McKay taught that if we are to be great, we must reverence Deity and all things associated with Deity. To the degree that we believe the earth is associated with Deity, we must reverence the earth itself."

"Finally, perhaps the most widespread religious view is that protecting the environment is an essential part of showing respect for creation and reverence for its Creator."

"I have come to understand that I must love all things because He is in all things. If I love the Lord, then I cannot violate nature. If I love nature and respect it, then I will see God in it. If we look at the world through worldly eyes, we start to lose respect for our vicinity. It becomes common to us. But if all things were first created spiritually, and we can learn to look at things with spiritual sensitivity, then new vistas of understanding will open to our view, even when we study the tiniest objects in the most remote places. And if we can find the Prince of Peace in the least of his creations, what comfort there is in the thought that as we study his example and come to know him, we will discover that his light is in us as well."

"Paul says that people of many cultures believe the world is sacred. 'When they walk through the forest and look at the light filtering through that canopy, they see the face of God.' He believes that restoring this reverence in all cultures would do more to protect the world than anything else."

"He explains, 'I believe that we live in a beautiful painting, a masterpiece, and that if we love the artist we should not slash the painting.'"

"Brother Cox has a deeper motivation for saving forests than finding new types of medicine. He believes taking care of the earth shows respect for 'that . . . God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are' (Morm. 9:11)."

"Yet this glorious valley might well be called a church, for every lover of the great Creator who comes within the broad overwhelming influences of the place fails not to worship as they never did before. The glory of the Lord is upon all God’s works; it is written plainly upon all the fields of every clime, and upon every sky, but here in this place of surpassing glory the Lord has written in capitals."

"Every time you admire something in nature, it's a prayer to the Creator."

"Humanity as a whole is doing a poor job of caring for the earth. Individually, we can do better. We can, of course, not litter. In fact, we can help pick up after those who do. We can practice conservation of resources where possible. All of our actions can display respect for the creations of God."

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.

Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Q. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpets, mentioned in the 8th chapter of Revelation? A. We are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the dust of the earth, even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, and judge all things, and shall redeem all things, except that which he hath not put into his power, when he shall have sealed all things, unto the end of all things; and the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before the time of his coming.