A Father's blessing

I watched a father give a blessing to his baby today. It was very touching, in part, because three years ago the father was not a member; and he and his wife could not have children. He is now sealed to his wife in the temple and last month his wife gave birth to a healthy boy. The change I have seen in his life and the life of his family has been amazing and touching.

So today he--a special man in his own right--took that miracle infant in his arms and, as a new member and a new father, gave his precious son a name and a blessing.

In our church we do not baptize infants. We wait until they know the difference between right and wrong and can choose to follow the Savior. Usually young members choose to be baptized by immersion about the age of eight years old. However, when they are infants their full name is officially recorded and they are given a special a blessing in front of the congregation.

As this father, surrounded by family and close friends, held his infant in his arms and gave him a blessing I was also touched by this fact: We are the only church I know of that allows fathers the opportunity--and the eternal priesthood authority--to officiate in key spiritual ordinances during the life of their family members. What a wonderful, bonding blessing for the recipients and the givers. This opportunity and right falls to the fathers.

God does not expect or require paper diplomas, certificates or theological training to do His work. He doesn’t require status, wealth or education. Through the restoration of the priesthood God has given true authority to worthy fathers, worldwide, to bless the lives of their families. Why? Because He wants us, imperfect as we are, to experience a portion of the love for our children that He holds for us. He wants us to feel a small piece of what He feels. All things are in similitude of Him.

Therefore, in our church, fathers holding the priesthood are able to bless their infants. That sacred, special ordinance and bonding moment can belong to them. It is their privilege and their cherished memory forever. These special moments help unite the family forever and for right now.

If their children desire to be baptized unto the remission of sins and a new life following the Savior, again a family member holding the priesthood can take them down into the waters of baptism. How special!

The gift of the Holy Ghost can also be bestowed upon them by a family member. Blessings of comfort, guidance or healing can be given to them, all by those who love them and know them best.

It is the perfect way in an imperfect world. After all, who holds more right to preside over the lives of their family than a loving, righteous father?

Our Father in Heaven knows that perfectly.

Those tough questions

Ever have a really tough question in life? Ever want to see the Big Picture or maybe know the future...not just the physical future but the more important spiritual future? Have you ever wanted to understand, truly understand, how all things fit together eternally?

Most importantly, does God answer those really tough, really deep questions?

Maybe that's why I loved last week's lesson in Gospel Doctrine.

Moses tells Satan to go away because he has more things he wants to "inquire" of the Lord. Satan, disobedient from the beginning, doesn't leave. Moses really has to work to get him out of his life. (Don't we all?)

Once Satan is finally gone, Moses goes to the Lord and asks Him two really deep questions...questions far beyond what's going to happen tomorrow. After beholding the entire earth and every soul thereon, Moses asks the Lord, "Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so and by what thou madest them?" (Moses 1:30)

Now here is the part that really jumped out at me...the Lord answers him!!!

Here are two of the deepest, more profound questions regarding the creation of the world and all of mankind--and the Lord clearly answers him! He withholds nothing. No beating around the bush, no cryptic response. Just direct and clear answers to Moses' questions.

How did you make them? "By the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth" (Moses 1:32).

And why did you make them? "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"(Moses 1:39).

It struck me: the Lord really, truly stands ready to give us answers to our toughest, deepest questions. He is not a god of secrets or of leaving men in darkness. He is a God of light and intelligence who--as the scriptures proclaim--really wants to share all that He has with us. And that includes sharing His knowledge. All we need to do is be ready and worthy by truly getting Satan out of our lives and then humbly asking Him.

We truly can ask Him anything and He will answer.

The Prodigal Son is about pride...our pride

In recent years the tale of the prodigal son in the New Testament has become one of my favorite stories. I have fallen in love with it because of its layers of depth and meaning. Christ taught in parables for that very reason.

As a child I always thought the prodigal son was a story about the youngest son who wasted his inheritance. Later I discovered that the word prodigal means to waste or throw away; and that is certainly what the young son did with his money.

But the parable never uses the term prodigal. And it especially never identifies the young son the prodigal son. We do that. We hang the label and moral of the story on the youngest son.

Yet, what about the older son? As I’ve grown older I have discovered more deep, relative truths in the older son’s life than the younger son.

In truth, the older son is also a prodigal or wasteful son. In fact, he may be the prodigal son. He wastes something infinitely more precious and eternal than money. He stands ready to waste or throw away his relationship with his family.

Like the older son I have lived a relatively steady life. I have tried to do what is right throughout my life. So how do I feel when I see someone else, who has scoffed at the commandments of God, getting the fatted calves and best robes in life—not to mention all the symbolism that goes with getting a ring on their finger and shoes on their feet?

But the story is deeper than even that. The father is, so clearly, our Heavenly Father. He has welcomed into heaven one of his own children who has made the effort to return home. He does not care where the youngest son was. He cares where he is...and that is right where he should be, back in heaven.

Entrance in to Heaven is by choice…our choice. We have to want to be there. God stands watching and waiting, ready to embrace all who truly desire to come to Him. He will run to help us return home.

The young son chose to return and enter home. The elder son chose not to enter but stood outside sulking—nursing a grudge, grumbling over a perceived wrong, wasting time and damaging relationships with his grumblings and grudges, even when no one else was around to hear it.

Finally the father comes to the elder son and ‘intreated him’. That means he begged and implored the son to join them—to let go of those feelings and enter into the feast.

We never find out what the elder son did.

Maybe that is because the story isn’t about what the younger son did so much as the elder son is going to do. That answer cannot be given, for it is up to us to decide by searching our own personal thoughts and feelings. The story of the prodigal son is our story. We are supposed to write the ending.

So how will our story end? Are we nursing a grudge against someone? If we are, then we have placed ourselves outside of Heaven, unwilling to join the feast. That makes us the wasteful son. Relationships--and Heaven--should never be thrown away.

Mouth of Babes

Thanks to a scene from Madagascar II my children were discussing abdominal muscles. They were talking about six-pack abs and eight-pack abs. My youngest son looked at me...a woman approaching 50 who has given birth to six children...and he innocently said, "Mommy has family-pack abs."

I laughed out loud! What a great name for it! I can honestly say I am proud to call them family-pack abs!

However, for the New Year I think I will start doing sit-ups again.

The worth of man

In Sunday Schools worldwide the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are going to be studying the Old Testament this year. A lot of people find the Old Testament difficult to study. I find it exciting and deep, like visiting with a wise old neighbor and hearing their view on life. It is timeless wisdom and refreshing in its wordage.

I also find it compelling that before we begin our study of the Old Testament we are to spend two weeks reviewing the life of Moses and the Lord’s plan for our salvation.

The Book of Moses, found in the Pearl of Great Price, contains “the words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high mountain, and he saw God face to face, and he talked with him and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence.”

As I studied the lesson for the coming week I, as always, was impressed with the differences between God and Satan. God called Moses “my son” and told Moses he was “in the similitude of mine Only Begotten.”

Satan, on the other hand, degrades Moses and calls him a “son of man.”

Our Heavenly Father wants so much to lift and edify us, to tell us of our worth and potential.

Satan wants to make us feel that we have nothing divine within us, that we are fallen and only have an earthly heritage ahead of us.

God lovingly takes the time to show Moses a vision of “the world and the ends thereof.” After this grand vision “it came to pass that…(Moses) said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.”

So here is Moses, saying because of his vision he knows, absolutely knows that man is nothing. Hmmm. Isn’t that what Satan wants man to believe, that he is nothing and has no divine worth? What gives?

Moses had been raised in Pharaoh’s court. The Pharaoh was considered god incarnate. Moses was a prince in Egypt, trained to inherit the throne. Moses had the entire world before him in terms of wealth, power and respect. He commanded palaces and armies yet God came to him and tenderly showed him things from His viewpoint. Moses gets, for the first time, the Big Picture; and it is then he realizes his earthly wealth and power and respect play no significant role in the eternities. He finally, truly, understands that no matter how much worldly glory he could achieve, it does not compare to God’s glory—the glory He has waiting to share with him and with us.

Later, when Satan appears to Moses and tries to twist his new understanding into something degrading by telling Moses he is a son of man, Moses is able to resist Satan by recalling his divine worth.

How important it is to know that we truly are sons and daughters of God, the King of Heaven. We are created in His image and we are of divine worth. Yes, we are imperfect—but that does not change our heritage. That just explains why He sent His son to the world atone for our sins. He wouldn’t make such a great sacrifice for something of little or no value.

Thanksgiving: children without knives

It's Thanksgiving. I love the holiday and have had two full days enjoying my children already. We went Christmas shopping yesterday and picked up some last minute dinner items for today. Then we came home, baked pies and wrapped Christmas presents. Yesterday it was enjoyable watching each child attempt more complex cooking preparations than they had the year before.

This morning my three youngest were back in the kitchen again, voluntarily helping me make a banana cream pie and a cheese cake pie. What happened next had me laughing out loud. First the banana wouldn't peel.

I reached for a knife.

My son turned the banana upside down, pinched the black nub on the end and the peel split right open.

Then the cream cheese wouldn't open.

I reached for a knife.

My youngest daughter snatched up the cheese, separated the foil, found a tiny red arrow and pulled. The package opened right up.

Then we needed to open the whipped cream...the kind with the plastic seal around the lid.

I reached for a knife.

And my other daughter...yup, you guessed it...knew how to open the container with just her fingers.

I got the biggest laugh out of that...you could tell I've restricted their knife usage and so they've learned to open up things the way they were designed to be opened.

I was also amazed the packages COULD be opened without a knife! So many years I've been dependent on forged steel and my children could handle it with their bare fingers. I wonder how many other things I've overdone in my life when all I needed to do was step back and watch a child handle it.

You have updates coming....A Mormon looks at living prophets and the Bible

“Adam’s revelation did not instruct Noah to build his ark; nor did Noah’s revelation tell Lot to forsake Sodom. These all had revelations for themselves…and so must we, or we shall make a shipwreck.” (Harold B. Lee)

To most of the “modern” world the prophets are dead and they “stone” those who proclaim otherwise, calling them deceived and their prophets false.

Yet the Bible boldly proclaims that the Savior of our world is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

He has not changed. What he did yesterday he still does today. That means the comforting promise given in Amos 3:7 is still valid: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Since Hebrews is true, then Amos 3:7 is also still in force. If God worked through prophets yesterday, then he must still work through prophets today.

That also means the leadership organization which Christ put in place during the meridian of time is still His one and true organization. His church then was built on a “foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.”

For Him to be the same, unchanging God, that organization must remain today.

In fact Paul declared why. “He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers: For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…”

And here is the part that we must not overlook…

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God…That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

That church organization, with prophets and apostles, was established by Christ and must continue until we all come in the unity of the faith.

Are we there yet?

Goodness, no. The world is still shattered by the different winds of doctrine, the ‘ability’ of men and women to wrest the scriptures to their own interpretation.

According to the Bible we still need a prophet and apostles to lead us. A prophet, called of God, guides us in the proper interpretation of the scriptures and doctrine. He leads us in an undeviating course through a changing world. He knows there is only "One Lord, one faith, one baptism."

A living prophet is like the computer program that tells us we have updates coming. He can give us counsel and guidance that applies to our lives; but we must agree to accept those downloads and apply them or they do us no good.

Likewise, we must accept the words of a living prophet and blend them with the words of all of God's prophets to truly have a strong foundation beneath us that will carry us through our specific times.

Noah’s revelations did not warn Lot to flee Sodom. Moses’ revelation did not prepare the apostles for the crucifixion or the modern saints to face pornography, greed, or immorality. Though their lessons are applicable to all of us, each prophet is called to guide his people through very specific trials.

I testify the Bible is true. God has not left us alone today. He has not changed. He still calls prophets to guide His children through today’s specific trials. He knows our heart-felt needs and has provided a living prophet and twelve apostles on the earth today.

For more information on the current living prophet and the Lord’s apostles, go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints