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Dear Gramps,

Can you really answer a question? I have search the lds.org’s etc. no place to ask a question that I can locate. Question: Does God sorrow and weep when we commit a sin, mistake, or mean act?   thank you. I will see if you answer. And does He rejoice when we have a sweet thought, do a kind deed, or smile at someone?

Lenice

Dear Lenice,

One of the great truths that Joseph Smith gave to the world was that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ are real and two distinct beings.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worships a God and Jesus Christ with bodies, with parts, and with passions.  Yes, the Lord is sorrowful when we don’t do the things He has commanded us to and has great joy when we do.

There are many scriptural evidences that Jesus expressed various passions while on this earth as a mortal being and also as an immortal being.  One of the shortest, if not the shortest verses in the Bible is found in John 11 and is simply:   35 “Jesus wept.”  When Jesus returns to Jersualam for the final time, in Luke 19 we are told:   41″ And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.”  Why did He weep over the city of Jerusalem?  He knew that His death was near, but that was not the reason.  He wept over Jersualem because the people would not accept Him and continued to persecute and ridicule Him.  Throughout his ministry Jesus continually showed compassion for those who were ill, deformed and those who were sinners.  He healed the sick, blessed the lame to walk, the blind to see and the deaf to hear.  He also showed compassion for the sinner and invited him to repent and follow Him.  Through these acts of compassion He showed His love for all of us.  In John 13, we are given a new commandment:  34″A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

When Jesus visited the Nephites on the American continent as a resurrected being, one of the most moving passages of scripture is recorded in 3 Nephi 17 when Jesus had the little children brought to Him:  20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.  21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.    22 And when he had done this he wept again.”

When Enoch lived on the earth there was much wickedness.  In Moses 7, he states that the righteous were caught up by the powers of Heaven and :  28 ” And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people(the sinners), and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it.”

Just as God wept over the sinners in Enoch’s day, He weeps when we don’t do as we should.  We are His children and just as we weep and are sad over some of the things our children do and have great joy when  they do that which they have been taught is right, the Lord feels the same way towards us.  In D&C 18 He tells us:   11 “For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.  12 And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.  13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!”

Gramps

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