Homesick....?

If you think about it we are all strangers to this planet. This is simply not our home. We were created by our Heavenly Father in the pre-mortal existence and he is in very deed our Father. We all know or at least have felt that feeling of homesickness, at being away from that which is familiar, that which we call home.
As a teenager, each summer I had the opportunity to travel away from my home and family, on tours all over the United States as well as into Mexico and Canada with a community choir that I was in. I remember the very first tour that I went on; we went to Mexico the summer that I turned 12 years old. I traveled alone without the company of my parents, and being that I am the oldest in my family I had no older siblings to go with me.
At this point in my life I was too young and adventurous to really miss home while on this trip. I rarely gave home a second thought. But as time went on and I began to get older, I started to miss my home, my friends and my wonderful mother more and more. I began to realize my first feelings of homesickness, a new and unplanned emotion that began to entangle itself in the pit of my stomach. I was unsure how to deal with it. All I knew was that I wanted my mother and I wanted to be home where I felt loved, safe and secure.
I am willing to bet that everyone has felt this emotion at one time or another in their lives. I have felt it most recently coming up to BYU Idaho to begin my college career. We are all searching for a way to fit in, a place where we belong and that feeling of security.
Despite how much some may choose to believe otherwise, there is a reason we do not always feel at home on this strange planet. It's because it is not our home. We are just travelers passing through this frail existence seeking to find our way back to Heaven, our home. We are fighting waves of homesickness everyday as we long for the comfort of a loving Heavenly Parent, familiarity, and a sense that we finally belong somewhere.
An interesting point was brought up in Sacrament Meeting today. The speaker was talking about our reasons for going to Church, reading the scriptures and praying. Why do we do these things and why do we feel so good, so refreshed when we do these things? He said that a companion of his on his mission explained this to him by simply saying that it is because we miss our Father in Heaven. Simple as that sounds, it really struck me as I realized the reality of the statement. I did miss my father in Heaven.
We may be away from our homes for a little while, studying abroad or whatever you want to call it. But no matter how far away from our Father in Heaven we are, we still long to be with him, to talk to him and to feel and experience some familiarity while we are away from our home for a time. Church, the scriptures, prayer, these are just some of the ways in which we do this.
I remember talking to my mom a short time ago and telling her my reasons for going to church. I told her that with all the things I am dealing with in my life right now, I could not handle not going to church. I cannot afford to not go. It is one of the things in my life that keeps me going rather than letting my "homesickness" grief, despair or whatever overwhelm me and drag me down.
It was with great clarity that I realized, as the speaker talked about this, that I do miss my Heavenly Father and I miss home. I get homesick all the time, even when I don't realize that I do. But, when I do go to church I feel a sort of relief almost like when I go home to see my mortal, earthly family on a weekend. When I am at church with other people who are striving for and living similar standards as I am, with the same goals in mind, I feel at peace like I belong somewhere, and suddenly I don't feel so homesick anymore. I am home.