“[T]he Father became the Father at some time before ‘the beginning’ as humans know it, by experiencing a mortality similar to that experienced on earth … Gods and humans are the same species of being, but at different stages of development in a divine continuum, and that the heavenly Father and Mother are the heavenly pattern, model, and example of what mortals can become through obedience to the gospel … Knowing that they are the literal offspring of Heavenly Parents and that they can become like those parents through the gospel of Jesus Christ is a wellspring of religious motivation.”

Stephen E. Robinson, in Daniel Ludlow’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism – Volume 2, “God the Father” (London, England: Macmillan Publishers, 1992), 549.