Editor’s note: To support personal and family gospel learning, the Church News is publishing articles on messages from April 2025 general conference. It is recommended to listen to or read the full address in addition to reviewing these resources.
About this talk
- “Receive His Gift”
- Elder Patrick Kearon | Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
- Sunday afternoon session of April 2025 general conference.
- Theme: Receive the knowledge that all are God’s children, and accept the gift of His Son.
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of Elder Kearon’s message here.
Outline
Gift giving
- Gift giving spans all cultures, civilizations and millennia. Giving gifts strengthens relationships, expresses love and gratitude, and marks important events. Even animals give gifts.
My father’s gift to me
- As a 7-year-old living in Arabia, Elder Kearon wanted a miniature toy car resembling the car from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” that was sold in England. He asked his father to buy him one while on a business trip there. Ten days after his father’s return, Elder Kearon received the toy as a present for his birthday and cried with happiness.
Giving, accepting and opening, and receiving
- Gift giving has three parts. The giving of the gift involves thoughtful intention by the giver. The accepting and opening of the gift often includes surprise, gratitude and excitement. The receiving of the gift is most important and includes valuing it, putting it to use and then remembering the giver with thankfulness. To truly receive strengthens the bonds between giver and receiver.
Our Heavenly Father’s gifts
- Heavenly Father has innumerable gifts of light and truth for His children. In their covenant bond with the Father, He is the Giver, and the covenant-keeper is the humble recipient.
The greatest of all the Father’s gifts, through which all others flow
- The greatest of all God’s gifts is His Son, Jesus Christ. All of the Father’s gifts are activated by the Savior’s Atonement.
One all-encompassing gift of eternal truth
- One vital gift of eternal truth is the knowledge that all are God’s children. When this gift is fully received, it contextualizes all of life’s joys, hardships and unanswered questions.
- This gift has already been bestowed; it is up to believers to truly accept it. When it’s received, one’s paradigm shifts, and one can feel His love, hear His voice and recognize His hand. All are invited to pray to understand if they are truly receiving this knowledge deep in their soul.
Receiving this gift of eternal truth
- To receive this gift, let it in. Though no one is deserving, all the Father’s gifts are received through the Holy Messiah. Scriptures, patriarchal blessings, temple worship, serving others, expressing gratitude and prayer help grow a greater understanding of this truth.
Come unto Christ and receive
- All can come unto Christ with confidence to receive all His gifts. Accept, open and receive the gift of knowledge and understanding that all are children of God.
Reflection questions
What does it mean to you that you are a child of God?
What gifts has God given you?
How can you more fully accept and be grateful for God’s gifts in your life?
What do you do to accept God’s gift of His Son?
How has knowing you’re a child of God transformed your life?
Speaker quotes
- “To receive is to appreciate and connect with both the gift and the heart of the giver in a way that strengthens the bonds between the giver and receiver.”
- “Our Heavenly Father has innumerable gifts of light and truth prepared to shower down on each of us, His treasured children. They flow from our Bounteous Giver like a wellspring in the wilderness from His benevolent heart.”
- “You can receive these gifts because you are secure and grounded in the knowledge that you are a beloved daughter of God, you are a cherished son of God, and He has gifted you His perfect, holy Son to redeem you, justify you and sanctify you.”
Reference scriptures
- “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
- “Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.”
- “And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them. ... And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.”
Invitations and promises
- “I invite you to receive, either for the first time or to a greater extent than ever before, the magnificent realization that you truly are God’s beloved child. You must undo the bow, tear off the wrapping paper, open the box and actively receive with grateful humility a true, pure understanding of this foundational truth. The Holy Spirit can bear witness to your heart that you are indeed a child of the Most High.”
- “When you welcome this majestic reality into your very soul and feel both the comfort and the thrill of it, your entire paradigm shifts. You can feel His love, hear His voice and recognize His hand, no matter what is happening, or not happening, in your life. You can redefine how you see yourself and others. Your covenant bond with your Savior becomes even stronger, and through the lens of this sweet gift, life takes on new brilliance, beauty and hope.”
- “You are a child of God. This is not just a nice song we sing. Will you please accept, open and receive this gift of knowledge and understanding from Him? Will you hold it close as the precious treasure it is? Re-receive this gift, or perhaps truly receive it for the very first time, and let it transform every aspect of your life.”
Stories
- Gift giving transcends cultures, civilizations, millennia and even the human race. Penguins give shiny pebbles to prospective mates, and bonobos give fruit to expand their circle of friendship.
- As a 7-year-old living in Arabia, Elder Kearon wanted a miniature toy car resembling the car in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” that was sold in England. He asked his father to buy him one while on a business trip there. When he returned and no car appeared, Elder Kearon was sad and thought his dad had forgotten. Ten days later was Elder Kearon’s birthday, and to his surprise, that car was in a beautifully wrapped gift. Elder Kearon cried with happiness when he received that gift.
Additional resources
- Related image: “Christ Teaching the Apostles”
- Related video: “Apostle of Jesus Christ Blesses Young Boy With Cerebral Palsy | Elder Neil L. Andersen”
- Related hymn: No. 301, “I Am a Child of God”
Recent conference talks on the gift of a Savior
- President Dallin H. Oaks: “Divine Helps for Mortality” (April 2025)
- Elder Gary E. Stevenson: “And We Talk of Christ” (April 2025)
- Sister Tamara W. Runia: “Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy” (April 2025)
Who is Elder Kearon?
- Elder Patrick Kearon was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Dec. 7, 2023. At the time of his call, he was serving as the senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy. Elder Kearon was born in Carlisle, England.
