Devotionals are a remarkable feature of this
university. I have come to appreciate their
amazing value as they contribute to our learning, our spirituality, and our sense of community. It is an inspiring sight as we all make the
trek from our various places across campus to this location each week. Our attendance reflects the desire of students,
staff, and faculty alike to experience, during this brief interlude, thoughts and feelings
that provide uplift, strength, and joy for our individual and collective lives. It is an equally awesome and inspiring sight
as you flood into this building and take your places. I love to look into your faces and consider
the power you represent. Indeed, you are a mighty army. You are being prepared to go forth into the
world—even into its more remote corners—to perform a mighty work. You are not here by chance or by fortuitous
circumstance. I hope you recognize that you have been given
a very special opportunity, one that will bless you, your family, and your associates. I feel I have been so blessed. I am thankful that my dear companion, Belva,
is here with me. It is largely because of her that I stand
before you today. As a young woman, as a senior in high school,
she introduced me to the doctrines and the way of life of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. She exemplified in her conduct what she taught
with her speech. Her obedience, happiness, and righteousness
radiated truth and beauty. Thus she gave me reason to seek knowledge
and a testimony of the Church that gave obvious meaning and purpose to her life. Later these same virtues, so evident in her
life and so pleasing to my soul, also caused me to seek to be worthy to be her husband
and companion. In the 40-plus years of our acquaintance,
friendship, and marriage, I have never had occasion to doubt her love or her goodness. She is a true disciple of our Lord and Savior. It is impossible for me to pay adequate tribute
to her or to find words sufficient to express all she has brought and continues to bring
into my life. I have chosen to talk to you about patriarchal
blessings. I made this choice even though I am reasonably
certain that the majority of you have already received patriarchal blessings. Experience has taught me that there is much
that we can learn about these blessings that will cause us to treasure them and learn from
them even more than we might at present. As I consider the ways I have grown in appreciation
for the patriarchal blessing I received 45 years ago, I realize that the more we know
about them—about their source, nature, and purpose—the greater will be their value
in our lives. Perhaps my main reason for choosing this topic
has to do with my deeply positive feelings about these blessings. Just last Friday—as I shared a wonderful
hour with a young man, Karl, who came for a blessing—I reflected on how fortunate
I was to experience the love of the Lord as it has been manifest on such occasions. It has been a great privilege and blessing
to me to have served for 20 years as a patriarch. I know from countless experiences during those
years that patriarchal blessings are communications given to us as personal revelations from God. These few words, recorded on perhaps a page
or more, are remarkable. Their prophetic utterances have great power. They speak to our uncertainties, our abilities,
our gifts, our life’s experiences—all in the interest of assuring us of God’s
love and of His willingness to help us face the challenges and trials of our lives and
to sustain us safely through what we must face. Although I have been richly blessed through
my priesthood calling to know that these blessings are from God, I find that my own personal
patriarchal blessing is also a very significant source of testimony to me that the Lord’s
servants speak prophetic words of truth and love to His children. To this day I continue to marvel at the ways
in which the promises and statements in my blessing accurately foreshadow and give perspective
to the experiences of my life. When I consider the contents of my patriarchal
blessing, I am truly amazed at the manner in which the Lord has offered me such a tangible
and sure way of knowing that He loves me, of recognizing that He knows me personally,
and of trusting that He willingly leads me by the hand. There is a parallel to be drawn, I believe,
between an experience of Oliver Cowdery and the experience we may have with our blessings. In section 6 of the Doctrine and Covenants
we read the words spoken to Oliver Cowdery by Joseph on behalf of the Lord. Oliver was told that he had been given instruction
by the Holy Ghost that had led him to his present place. Further, he was reminded how he had inquired
of the Lord and received enlightenment. After being informed that “there is none
else save God that knowest [our] thoughts and the intents of [our] heart[s], Oliver
was told how he could gain a further testimony that the Lord was speaking to him. The Lord then said to him:
Cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know
concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning
the matter? What greater witness can you have than from
God? As Oliver later told David Whitmer, Oliver
had never told anyone, not even Joseph, of this occasion to which the Lord referred. So when the Lord reminded him of this private
moment, shared by and known only to Oliver and the Lord, Oliver knew the revelation was
true. Thus he also knew that Joseph was who he claimed
to be. Within our patriarchal blessings are comparable
statements given to us by our loving Father in Heaven. As the whisperings of the Holy Spirit enable
us to see the promised blessings fulfilled in our lives, we, like Oliver, can know that
such insight is God’s gift and His witness to us: a personal way of knowing the truth
of the blessing, of the priesthood, and of the message of the Restoration. In March 1980 Elder James E. Faust spoke from
this same platform to a BYU fireside audience on the subject of patriarchal blessings. He indicated that his “chief reason for
speaking upon this subject [was] that patriarchal blessings verify the divinity of Christ and
the truthfulness of the Church”. I hope that the treatment of this same subject
today will help lead us to consider “the divinity of Christ and the truthfulness of
the Church.” As we think about our patriarchal blessing
and about the Lord who has given it, I hope we will recognize and value our blessing as
a gift from God. The perspective of a blessing as a gift enables
us to more fully appreciate what has been given to us. We have all had experience receiving gifts. Perhaps you can recall times when you were
given a gift that was exactly what you wanted. You may have retained and prized such a gift
for many years. Maybe there have been times when you have
received a gift that was not what you had hinted or pleaded for. Perhaps you overcame your initial disappointment
and eventually realized that the giver knew the value of the gift or understood your needs
and interests better than you knew yourself. I encourage you to recall your experience
with such gifts to understand more fully how you may regard your own patriarchal blessing. In doing so you may consider scriptural references
pertaining to spiritual gifts. Especially helpful is the instruction in Moroni
10 in which Moroni instructs us to avoid denying the power of God. Then he admonishes us to avoid denying the
gifts of God. As we reflect on these directives, we need
to think seriously how it is that we may be denying God and His gifts in the way we regard
and use our blessings. One clue—one closely related to Elder Faust’s
purpose in speaking about patriarchal blessings—is found in the next part of Moroni’s message. He tells us that there are many gifts and
that “they come from the same God”. Especially pertinent is this following observation:
“They are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them”. Our challenge, then, as the recipient of a
gift of God, is to acknowledge Him as the source, having faith that He knows the gift
that will be of the greatest value or benefit to us. Two experiences come to my mind that illustrate
contrasting attitudes on this matter of “deny[ing] not the gifts of God.” The first occurred nearly 15 years ago in
our home in Edmonton. A young woman—about 20 years of age and
already a single parent—came for a blessing accompanied by her mother. This young woman had made some mistakes, but
through the help of a loving family and a caring bishop, she had reoriented and changed
her life, thereby reestablishing her worthiness before the Lord. As I began voicing her blessing, I found myself
focusing on the welfare program of the Church, speaking to her of the importance of incorporating
the principles of frugality, payment of tithes and offerings, preparedness, industriousness,
and avoidance of debt more fully into her life. So dominant was this theme in her blessing
and so different from prior blessings I had voiced that I tried to direct my mind and
speech to other topics. Still the blessing continued in the same vein. When the blessing concluded I was somewhat
apprehensive. I worried as to how this girl and her mother
might react, and I wondered whether or not they would be disappointed. Welcome was the response. To my grateful surprise, both were elated. Both were emotionally overcome and obviously
thrilled with the blessing. As though she sensed my thoughts and feelings,
the mother of the young woman proceeded to explain their response. Many years earlier the mother, then a young
woman living in the house of her mother, had been taught the message of the restored gospel
by the missionaries. These two women—the mother and grandmother
of the young woman who had just received her blessing—did not immediately gain testimonies
of the truth of the missionaries’ message. They liked what they heard, but conviction
and testimony were absent. They asked the missionaries to continue teaching
them about the Church, which, as you can imagine, the missionaries happily agreed to do. Several weeks later, during one of their lessons,
the missionaries described the welfare program of the Church, highlighting the importance
of self-reliance, preparedness, and care of the poor and needy. Immediately upon hearing the lesson the two
women asked to be baptized. They knew they had found the truth. That message so resonated with their personal
beliefs and behaviors that they knew the gospel was true. As the daughter who had heard that message
came to be a mother herself, raising her daughter, she, like her mother before her, had made
these teachings a significant part of their lives. She concluded, “There is no other subject
that as the dominant theme of my daughter’s blessing could have given her and me greater
personal assurance that this blessing came from God. Only He could have known its dear and special
meaning in our lives.” A contrasting experience occurred while I
was serving as a patriarch here on BYU campus, when a young woman came for a blessing accompanied
by her parents. During the time we shared that day, this young
woman received a wonderful blessing assuring her of abundant and powerful gifts she would
enjoy at the hand of the Lord. Unknown to me, this young woman and her parents
were anxiously hoping for one particular blessing. An older daughter in this family had died
before marriage and childbearing, and the parents had noted that there had been no mention
of marriage or children in that daughter’s blessing. They therefore had reached the conclusion
that the absence of these subjects in her blessing foreshadowed her death before marriage. Thus they anxiously waited to hear the words
eternal marriage in this second daughter’s blessing, but these words were not spoken. The family said nothing at the time but agonized
all the way home that the blessing had not included the promise of marriage. No sooner did they arrive home than they telephoned
me. So focused were they on the hope for a promise
of marriage, so eager to hear the exact words, they were unable to appreciate the loving
and generous promises contained in the blessing the girl had received. I tried to reassure them in a number of ways. First, I cited statements of the Brethren
that the absence of reference to a specific blessing does not mean the blessing will not
be given. Second, I pointed out that even if a specific
promise of eternal marriage had been stated, there was no assurance that it would be fulfilled
in mortality. Third, I noted that the wonderful promises
of her blessing, so rich and so plentiful, should afford them great joy and strong personal
assurance that their daughter would live to receive all the blessings they desired for
her. Despite my best efforts to help them see that
the blessing was a beautiful gift from the Lord, their hearts were so set on hearing
a particular promise that they remained somewhat disappointed. Because of the goodness of this family, I
am sure that by now they have come to see God’s hand in the gift to their daughter. Their initial reaction, however, in sharp
contrast to that of the young woman I first mentioned, denied the gifts of God and made
it difficult for them to see this blessing as a manifestation of God’s love for her,
reducing her opportunity to profit from the blessing, as Moroni has counseled us to do. These two experiences illustrate other observations
made by Elder Faust about patriarchal blessings. He counseled:
A patriarchal blessing is a sacred guideline of counsel, promises, and information from
the Lord. However, a person should not expect that the
blessing will detail all that will happen to him or her, or be an answer to all questions. The omission of the blessing of a great event
in life such as a mission or marriage does not mean it will not happen. He added this reassuring thought: “My own
blessing is short and is limited to perhaps three quarters of one page on one side, yet
it has been completely adequate and perfect for me”. Often when people come for a patriarchal blessing
I ask them to share with me their knowledge about and understanding of the blessing they
are about to receive. Once I have heard their response, I try to
enrich and clarify what is usually a fairly sketchy understanding. Besides affirming the source of the blessing
and expressing the hope that they will value the Lord’s gift, I usually try to teach
them three additional points: 1. Patriarchal blessings help us understand our
identity. 2. They
provide prophetic promises that help us recognize God’s hand in our lives. 3. They convey to us the love and goodness of
the Lord, assuring us of His ready and constant availability in our lives. An essential component of each patriarchal
blessing is a statement of lineage that generally connects us to God by designating for us a
place in the family of Israel, commonly of the tribe of Ephraim or Manassah. Scriptural statements help us understand why
these two tribes—those of the sons of Joseph—dominate the lineal inheritances of modern Israel. But rather than elaborating on these matters,
I wish to speak on why this statement of lineage is such a vital part of our patriarchal blessing. In the priesthood manual The Kingdom of God,
the comment is made that the statement of lineage “is the most important element of
[a] patriarchal blessing”. Would you in thinking about your blessing
have arrived at a similar conclusion? Why is this claim made about the importance
of our lineage? In appreciating this select status given to
the statement of lineage, I have found it useful to draw from an experience presented
in the book and movie entitledRoots. For those unfamiliar with either the book
or the subsequent movie version of the story, I should explain that the author, Alex Haley,
traces the history of his African-American family back seven generations to the ancestor
who was torn from his home on the African continent and brought to America as a slave
to be bought and sold as human merchandise, to be denied fundamental human rights, and,
most significant to him, to be denied his family and tribal identity. This noble and proud man, Kunte Kinte, fiercely
maintained an allegiance to both his biological and cultural roots. Armed with a strong sense of his own identity
that was firmly established prior to his rude induction into slavery, this brave and defiant
man offered to his posterity a way of seeing themselves that was in sharp contrast to their
slavery. On the night his daughter was born, this wise
father held the infant aloft under the beautiful starlit sky and declared, “Thou art Kizzie,
daughter of Kunte Kinte, son of the great Mandinka warrior.” Thus he established the identity so significant
to him that he wanted her to share. As this child grew she was taught the meaning
embedded in her father’s blessing. He wanted her to know about her people in
Africa, to know that “she was not born to be a slave in the white folk’s land.” Her image of her “self,” in significant
contrast to the demeaning, degrading image associated with her status as a slave, enabled
her to overcome great adversity and to, in turn, offer to her descendants a similar gift. The statement of lineage contained within
our patriarchal blessings offers us a comparable treasure. By declaring our place in the family of Israel,
our Heavenly Father informs us who we are. We need not consider ourselves subject to
the ephemeral, material, and superficial images promoted by the world. Through a simple statement of lineage, we
are given a message of profound significance. Our sights are elevated, our vision is expanded,
and our understanding is deepened. We are helped to see ourselves in noble and
powerful terms. Those who enjoy the status of membership in
Israel should know that they have distinguished themselves in the premortal existence. This eternal vision of self should stir our
imaginations and give power and majesty to our hopes and aspirations. What does it matter how we measure up according
to the worldly metrics of wealth, power, intelligence, or beauty? By confirming our status as children of Israel,
God has declared our entitlement to the potential to become even like our Savior through His
great redeeming gift. Worldly images pale in comparison. The more we study and understand about the
nature and gifts of Israel, the greater will be our appreciation of the statement in our
blessings that acknowledges our place in this blessed family. I hope we will all, my brothers and sisters,
give serious study to the nature and blessings of Israel. Seek to perceive yourself among this select
group who gained distinction in the premortal existence, who are sought after and gathered
by God as He has promised, and who are offered a gift of incomparable value, even the gift
of eternal life. Last, but by no means least, these blessings
are a testament of God’s love for each of His children. This was taught to me rather forcefully shortly
after I commenced voicing patriarchal blessings. It is repeated and reinforced each time I
voice a blessing now after 20 years. The occasion I refer to happened on an evening
when a young man in our stake came for a blessing accompanied by his parents. When I greeted him and shook his hand, I sensed
before me a young man who was unsure of himself and hesitant to make eye contact, to converse,
or to be engaging in any fashion. To complete this somewhat inauspicious first
impression, he had forgotten his recommend. I truly wondered what he would hear that evening. Eventually we were able to proceed with the
blessing. The blessing was remarkable in the way it
contrasted with what I had seen in the young man. I learned that I had inappropriately and unwisely
judged him. He was soon to leave on a mission. In the blessing he was told of gifts he would
develop and of leadership he would offer to fellow missionaries, to Church members, and
to those he would teach. They would seek him out—even those many
years his senior—for his wise counsel. Much was said of his abilities, his spiritual
gifts, and his capacity to bless others. Two years later, as I walked through a wedding
reception line, I encountered him again, freshly returned from his mission. He was a different young man. Already the promised blessings were evident. The story does not end there. Just recently I learned of his appointment
to the faculty here at BYU. The news reminded me of that evening and of
the powerful lesson I learned through him. Truly the Lord saw what was not readily apparent
to me at the moment. I am grateful that this man’s life, through
his obedience to and love for the Lord, has enabled him to experience fulfillment of his
promise. I know these things to be true. I know that God lives and that He desires
to bless His children. Patriarchal blessings are one of the many
ways we may know this in a very powerful and personal way. I am thankful to serve as a patriarch here
at BYU among you students. I know you are a royal generation, one being
prepared for a noble and great work. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ,
our Savior, amen.
