Mothers and fathers

With the new hearing devices, I am starting to be able to hear sacrament meeting talks again. Today’s were just exceptional. Kristen Johnson, a fairly young mother in our ward, gave a very intense talk on the high priority that mothers should give to being at home and teaching and nurturing their children. I had the thought that this was Valerie transfigured, standing before us emoting and presenting the message of the prophets. It literally brought tears in my eyes.

Then Gordon Mills gave an equally powerful message about fathers and father’s blessings (he is a former stake and mission president, who by the way is married to Joan Toronto, a childhood acquaintance of JoAnn’s). He spoke of the power and influence for good deriving from the giving of father’s blessings by a righteous priesthood holder and family patriarch. He recommended giving blessings at every important “passage” time for children. These might perhaps include before going to school each fall, going away to college, leaving for a mission, getting married, moving away, starting a new job, and other special occasions.

Apparently, Brother Mills has had the practice of keeping notes about the content of various father’s blessing he gave to his children over the years, perhaps in his personal journal, and might on occasion refer back to these things in his dealings with individual children now grown. This reminded me of the counsel that had been given by various Church authorities to fathers to record and transcribe one blessing they give to each of their children verbatim, for the child to have. We tried to follow this particular practice with our kids. There are two who for some reason we missed, and I still say that I owe you such a blessing if or when your want it. I could also be available to assist in these kinds of blessings of grandchildren.

Tonight I am hoping that these kinds of father’s blessings are being used maximally in our families, and that our grandchildren are all privileged to have this kind of priesthood support and direction in their lives.